Swimming at the 2024 Summer Olympics – Men's 50-metre freestyle

Although Dressel was the defending champion in the event, he had missed a period of competition from 2022 to 2023. During this time, Great Britain's Ben Proud and Australia's Cameron McEvoy won the event at the 2022 and 2023 World Championships, respectively. Prior to the event, the world record was 20.91, set by César Cielo of the Brazil in 2009. The Olympic record was 21.07, set by the United States' Caeleb Dressel at the 2020 games. == 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 21.96 seconds. World Aquatics then filled the rest of the event places with 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. In total, 40 athletes qualified through achieving the OQT, while 35 athletes qualified through universality places. China's Pan Zhanle qualified but dropped the event. == Heats ==

Ten heats (preliminary rounds) took place on 1 August 2024, starting at 11:18. McEvoy swam 21.32 seconds to claim the fastest swim of the heats. Thomas Fannon of Ireland claimed a new national record of 21.79 seconds, which bettered Shane Ryan's mark set a month earlier at the European Championships by 0.03 seconds. Crooks also set a national record, beating his own time by 0.22 seconds. The final national record of the heats came from David Young, who set Fiji's record at 22.71, beating his previous national record of 22.87. == Semifinals ==

Two semifinals took place on 1 August, starting at 20:46. France's Maxime Grousset also originally qualified with the sixth fastest time, but he withdrew which allowed Josh Liendo of Canada to qualify. Fannon of Ireland set another national record of 21.74 seconds, beating his national record set in the heats by 0.05 seconds to finish tenth. == Final ==

|alt=Race animation based on the split data released by the French Swimming Federation The final took place at 20:30 on 2 August. At 25 metres, the order of the top three was the same, but by 45 metres McEvoy had elevated himself from fourth to first. Proud retained his second place position, and was 0.26 seconds ahead of Crooks in third. Over the last five metres, McEvoy and Proud retained their positions to win gold and silver, while Manaudou overtook Crooks to claim the bronze and Crooks dropped to eighth. Liendo finished fourth, missing out on a medal by 0.02 seconds. The gold was McEvoy's first Olympic medal in an individual event, and it was Proud's first Olympic medal in any event. The average age of the medalists was 30 years old. == Notes ==