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Swimming at the 2012 Summer Olympics – Men's 50 metre freestyle

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Men's 50 metre freestyle
at the Games of the XXX Olympiad
London Aquatics Centre (2012)
VenueLondon Aquatics Centre
DatesAugust 2, 2012 (heats &
semifinals)
August 3, 2012 (final)
Competitors58 from 51 nations
Winning time21.34
Medalists
1st place, gold medalist(s) Florent Manaudou  France
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Cullen Jones  United States
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) César Cielo  Brazil
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2016 →

The men's 50 metre freestyle event at the 2012 Summer Olympics took place on 2–3 August at the London Aquatics Centre in London, United Kingdom.[1]

France's Florent Manaudou stunned the entire field to join his sister Laure Manaudou on top of the podium for the Olympic sprint freestyle title. Swimming in lane seven, the dark horse threw down a scorching time and a textile best of 21.34 to hold off U.S. swimmer Cullen Jones and the event's Brazilian world record holder and defending Olympic champion César Cielo by two-tenths of a second, a sizable chunk in the Olympic swimming's shortest race.[2][3] Jones took home the silver in 21.54 to match his semifinal time in the process, while Cielo missed his chance to defend the title with a bronze medal in 21.59.[4][5][6]

Cielo's teammate Bruno Fratus finished outside the podium by almost a fingertip with a fourth-place time in 21.61. After twelve years of absence as a 31-year-old, U.S. swimmer Anthony Ervin, who previously tied with Gary Hall, Jr. for the gold in 2000, managed to pull off a fifth-place finish in 21.78.[7] Ervin was followed in sixth and seventh by four-time Olympians Roland Mark Schoeman of South Africa (21.80) and George Bovell of Trinidad and Tobago (21.82).[8][9] Plagued by injury, Australia's Eamon Sullivan struggled to mount a sprint challenge in a high-calibre race as he finished eighth in 21.98.[6][10]

Earlier in the semifinals, Australia's top sprinter James Magnussen missed the star-studded roster with an eleventh-place time in 22.00.[11][12] Other notable swimmers featured Swedish veteran Stefan Nystrand (22.32) and France's Amaury Leveaux (22.35), the defending silver medalist, both of whom fell short of the semifinal field by a small fraction of a second on the morning prelims.[13]

Records

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Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.

World record  César Cielo (BRA) 20.91 São Paulo, Brazil 18 December 2009 [14][15]
Olympic record  César Cielo (BRA) 21.30 Beijing, China 16 August 2008 [16]

Qualification

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The Olympic Qualifying Time for the event was 22.11 seconds. Up to two swimmers per National Olympic Committee (NOC) could automatically qualify by swimming that time at an approved qualification event. The Olympic Selection Time was 22.88 seconds. Up to one swimmer per NOC meeting that time was eligible for selection, allocated by world ranking until the maximum quota for all swimming events was reached. NOCs without a male swimmer qualified in any event could also use their universality place.[17]

Competition format

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The competition consists of three rounds: heats, semifinals, and a final. The swimmers with the best 16 times in the heats advance to the semifinals. The swimmers with the best 8 times in the semifinals advance to the final. Swim-offs are used as necessary to break ties for advancement to the next round.

Results

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Heats

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The swimmers with the top 16 times, regardless of heat, advanced to the semifinals.[18]

Rank Heat Lane Name Nation Time Notes
1 6 3 George Bovell  Trinidad and Tobago 21.77 Q
2 8 4 César Cielo  Brazil 21.80 Q
3 8 5 Bruno Fratus  Brazil 21.82 Q
4 6 4 Anthony Ervin  United States 21.83 Q
5 7 1 Roland Schoeman  South Africa 21.92 Q
6 7 4 Cullen Jones  United States 21.95 Q
7 6 5 Andrey Grechin  Russia 22.09 Q
7 7 Andriy Govorov  Ukraine Q
8 3 Florent Manaudou  France Q
10 7 5 James Magnussen  Australia 22.11 Q
11 8 6 Luca Dotto  Italy 22.12 Q
8 7 Gideon Louw  South Africa Q
13 8 8 Brent Hayden  Canada 22.15 Q
14 6 6 Krisztián Takács  Hungary 22.19 Q
15 6 8 Norbert Trandafir  Romania 22.22 Q, NR
16 7 3 Eamon Sullivan  Australia 22.27 Q
17 6 2 Stefan Nystrand  Sweden 22.32
18 7 6 Amaury Leveaux  France 22.35
19 7 2 Marco Orsi  Italy 22.36
20 6 7 Adam Brown  Great Britain 22.39
21 8 2 Sergey Fesikov  Russia 22.42
22 5 3 Jasper Aerents  Belgium 22.43
23 6 1 Hanser García  Cuba 22.45
24 4 4 Roy-Allan Burch  Bermuda 22.47 NR
25 7 8 Ari-Pekka Liukkonen  Finland 22.57
26 5 1 Shi Yang  China 22.64
27 5 4 David Dunford  Kenya 22.72
28 5 7 Mario Todorović  Croatia 22.75
29 4 5 Barry Murphy  Ireland 22.76
30 8 1 Ioannis Kalargaris  Greece 22.80
31 5 8 Árni Már Árnason  Iceland 22.81 NR
32 5 5 Brett Fraser  Cayman Islands 22.91
33 5 6 Kacper Majchrzak  Poland 23.00
34 4 3 Shehab Younis  Egypt 23.16
35 5 2 Federico Grabich  Argentina 23.30
36 4 6 Luke Hall  Swaziland 23.48 NR
37 4 2 Kareem Ennab  Jordan 24.09
38 4 7 Chakyl Camal  Mozambique 24.43
39 4 1 Mahfizur Rahman Sagor  Bangladesh 24.64
40 3 6 Kerson Hadley  Federated States of Micronesia 24.82
41 3 4 Adama Ouedraogo  Burkina Faso 25.26 NR
42 4 8 Zachary Payne  Cook Islands 25.26
43 3 5 Emile Bakale  Republic of the Congo 25.64
44 3 2 Kouassi Brou  Ivory Coast 25.82
45 3 3 Tolga Akcayli  Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 26.27
46 3 1 Giordan Harris  Marshall Islands 26.88
47 3 8 Prasiddha Jung Shah  Nepal 26.93
48 3 7 Hemthon Ponloeu  Cambodia 27.03
49 2 2 Abdourahman Osman  Djibouti 27.25
50 2 6 Mohamed Elkhedr  Sudan 27.26
51 2 3 Ching Maou Wei  American Samoa 27.30
52 2 7 Jackson Niyomugabo  Rwanda 27.38
53 2 5 Ganzi Mugula  Uganda 27.58
54 2 4 Paul Edingue Ekane  Cameroon 27.87
55 1 5 Christian Nassif  Central African Republic 28.04
56 1 4 Phathana Inthavong  Laos 28.17
57 2 1 Mulualem Girma Teshale  Ethiopia 28.99
58 1 3 Wilfried Tevoedjre  Benin 29.77

Semifinals

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The swimmers with the top 8 times, regardless of heat, advanced to the final.

Rank Heat Lane Name Nation Time Notes
1 1 3 Cullen Jones  United States 21.54 Q
1 4 César Cielo  Brazil Q
3 1 5 Anthony Ervin  United States 21.62 Q
4 2 5 Bruno Fratus  Brazil 21.63 Q
5 2 4 George Bovell  Trinidad and Tobago 21.77 Q
6 2 2 Florent Manaudou  France 21.80 Q
7 1 8 Eamon Sullivan  Australia 21.88 Q
8 2 3 Roland Schoeman  South Africa 21.88 Q
9 1 7 Gideon Louw  South Africa 21.92
10 2 6 Andrey Grechin  Russia 21.98
11 1 2 James Magnussen  Australia 22.00
12 1 1 Krisztián Takács  Hungary 22.01
13 2 7 Luca Dotto  Italy 22.09
14 1 6 Andriy Govorov  Ukraine 22.12
15 2 1 Brent Hayden  Canada 22.12
16 2 8 Norbert Trandafir  Romania 22.30

Final

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Rank Lane Name Nation Time Notes
1st place, gold medalist(s) 7 Florent Manaudou  France 21.34
2nd place, silver medalist(s) 5 Cullen Jones  United States 21.54
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) 4 César Cielo  Brazil 21.59
4 6 Bruno Fratus  Brazil 21.61
5 3 Anthony Ervin  United States 21.78
6 8 Roland Mark Schoeman  South Africa 21.80
7 2 George Bovell  Trinidad and Tobago 21.82
8 1 Eamon Sullivan  Australia 21.98

References

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  1. ^ "Swimming: Results & Schedules". London 2012. NBC Olympics. 29 July 2012. Archived from the original on 3 July 2013. Retrieved 7 July 2013.
  2. ^ "French swimmer Manaudou follows sister's lead by taking gold". France24. 3 August 2012. Retrieved 10 July 2013.
  3. ^ "Olympics swimming: Florent Manaudou wins shock gold". BBC Sport. 3 August 2012. Archived from the original on 6 August 2012. Retrieved 10 July 2013.
  4. ^ Brady, Erik (4 August 2012). "USA's Cullen Jones gets oh so close to Olympic dream". USA Today. Retrieved 10 July 2013.
  5. ^ "Cullen Jones claims silver in men's 50 freestyle". Boston Globe. 3 August 2012. Retrieved 10 July 2013.
  6. ^ a b "2012 London Olympics: Unheralded Florent Manaudou Shocks Field With 50 Free Victory; Cullen Jones, Cesar Cielo Complete Podium; Anthony Ervin Fifth". Swimming World Magazine. 3 August 2012. Retrieved 10 July 2013.
  7. ^ Ostler, Scott (4 August 2012). "Anthony Ervin finds redemption in pool". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 10 July 2013.
  8. ^ "Heartbreak for Schoeman". Sport24. 3 August 2012. Retrieved 10 July 2013.
  9. ^ "Bovell considers retirement". Guardian Media Limited. 3 August 2012. Retrieved 10 July 2013.
  10. ^ "Sullivan reveals injury". The Australian. 4 August 2012. Retrieved 10 July 2013.
  11. ^ "2012 London Olympics: Cesar Cielo, Cullen Jones Deadheat for 50 Free Top Seed; Anthony Ervin Qualifies Third". Swimming World Magazine. 2 August 2012. Archived from the original on 2013-11-05. Retrieved 10 July 2013.
  12. ^ "Missile bows out of 50 free, Sullivan advances". ABC News Australia. 4 August 2012. Retrieved 10 July 2013.
  13. ^ "2012 London Olympics: George Bovell Posts Olympic Textile Best to Lead 50 Free Qualifying; Cesar Cielo, Anthony Ervin, Cullen Jones Among Semifinalists". Swimming World Magazine. 2 August 2012. Archived from the original on 2013-01-28. Retrieved 10 July 2013.
  14. ^ "Brazil's Cesar Cielo breaks 50m freestyle world record". France24. 18 December 2009. Retrieved 10 July 2013.
  15. ^ "Brazil Long Course Championships: Cesar Cielo Sets World Record". Swimming World Magazine. 18 December 2009. Archived from the original on 23 February 2013. Retrieved 16 November 2011.
  16. ^ "'Big Cesar' races to first Brazilian swim gold". ESPN. 16 August 2008. Retrieved 13 May 2013.
  17. ^ "Qualifying Standards" (PDF). FINA. Retrieved 6 June 2011.
  18. ^ "Men's 50m Freestyle – Heats". London2012.com. London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Archived from the original on 10 December 2012. Retrieved 27 July 2012.
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