Swimming at the 2024 Summer Olympics – Men's 100-metre freestyle

In 2022, 17-year-old David Popovici of Romania had broken the world record in the event, lowering it to 46.86. Popovici also swam a 46.88 at the 2024 European Championships which was the second fastest qualifying time for the Olympics. == Qualification ==

Each National Olympic Committee (NOC) was permitted to enter a maximum of two qualified athletes in each individual event, but only if both of them had attained the Olympic Qualifying Time (OQT). For this event, the OQT was 48.34 seconds. World Aquatics then considered athletes qualifying through universality; NOCs were given one event entry for each gender, which could be used by any athlete regardless of qualification time, providing the spaces had not already been taken by athletes from that nation who had achieved the OQT. Finally, the rest of the spaces were filled by athletes who had met the Olympic Consideration Time (OCT), which was 48.58 for this event. In total, 32 athletes qualified through achieving the OQT, 46 athletes qualified through universality places and one athlete qualified through achieving the OCT. == Heats ==

The event was held at Paris La Défense Arena, which was converted to a swimming pool for the swimming events. Ten heats took place on 30 July 2024, starting at 11:17. Alexy won the eighth heat with the fastest qualifying time of 47.57, while Grousset qualified with the second fastest time of 47.70. Popovici, Németh, Chalmers, Miressi and Pan all qualified. Pan Zhanle qualified with the joint thirteenth fastest qualifying time of 48.40, which SwimSwam commented "wasn’t a great swim" for him. Between the heats and semifinals of this event, Pan broke the event's Olympic record with his split of the 4 × 100 metre freestyle relay. South Korean Hwang Sun-woo, who qualified with the sixteenth fastest qualifying time, withdrew from the semifinals in favour of resting for the 4 × 200 metre freestyle relay. This allowed Australian William Yang to compete in the semifinals instead. Nepal's Alexander Shah lowered his country's national record to 51.91, while Johnathan Silas lowered Vanuatu's national record to 59.38, however neither of them were fast enough to qualify. == Semifinals ==

Two semifinals took place on 30 July, starting at 20:30. while Pan won the second heat to qualify with the fastest time of 47.21. The remaining finalists were: Németh, Grousset, Popovici, Alexy, the US' Chris Guiliano and Germany's Josha Salchow. == Final ==

Race The final took place at 22:39 on 31 July. which broke his previous world record of 46.80 set at the 2024 World Championships. He swam both the fastest opening half split of 22.28 and the fastest closing half split of 24.12. Chalmers was last at the halfway turn, but he swam the second fastest closing 50 metres to win silver with 47.48—his third Olympic medal in the event. It was the biggest margin of victory in the event since the 1928 Olympics, and it was China's first medal in the event. After the race, Pan, through a translator, called the race a "perfect performance". == Further reading ==