Swimming at the 1996 Summer Olympics – Men's 100 metre freestyle
The men's 100 metre freestyle event at the 1996 Summer Olympics took place on 22 July at the Georgia Tech Aquatic Center in Atlanta, United States.
Records
Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.Competition format
The competition used the A/B final format instituted in 1984. The competition consisted of two rounds: heats and finals. The swimmers with the best 8 times in the semifinals advanced to the A final, competing for medals through 8th place. The swimmers with the next 8 times in the semifinals competed in the B final for 9th through 16th place. Swim-offs were used as necessary to determine advancement.Results
Heats
Rule: The eight fastest swimmers advance to final A, while the next eight to final B.| Rank | Heat | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 8 | 4 | Alexander Popov | 48.74 | Q, NR | |
| 2 | 6 | 4 | Gary Hall, Jr. | 48.90 | Q | |
| 3 | 8 | 3 | Gustavo Borges | 49.17 | Q | |
| 4 | 6 | 3 | Francisco Sánchez | 49.59 | Q | |
| 5 | 5 | 8 | Ricardo Busquets | 49.61 | Q, NR | |
| 6 | 6 | 5 | Pavlo Khnykin | 49.69 | Q | |
| 7 | 6 | 2 | Pieter van den Hoogenband | 49.73 | Q | |
| 8 | 8 | 5 | Fernando Scherer | 49.79 | Q | |
| 9 | 8 | 6 | Lars Frölander | 49.91 | q, | |
| 10 | 6 | 7 | Christian Tröger | 50.06 | q | |
| 11 | 7 | 1 | Stephen Clarke | 50.14 | q | |
| 12 | 7 | 4 | Jon Olsen | 50.17 | q | |
| 13 | 5 | 1 | Bartosz Kizierowski | 50.18 | q, NR | |
| 14 | 7 | 5 | Chris Fydler | 50.27 | q | |
| 14 | 2 | 1 | Raimundas Mažuolis | 50.27 | q, | |
| 16 | 8 | 2 | Rostyslav Svanidze | 50.31 | q | |
| 17 | 4 | 4 | Sion Brinn | 50.38 | q, NR | |
| 17 | 7 | 6 | Björn Zikarsky | 50.38 | q | |
| 19 | 5 | 5 | Aleh Rukhlevich | 50.42 | ||
| 20 | 6 | 6 | Attila Zubor | 50.43 | ||
| 21 | 5 | 4 | Aleksey Yegorov | 50.49 | ||
| 22 | 7 | 8 | Yoav Bruck | 50.61 | ||
| 23 | 5 | 3 | Nicolas Gruson | 50.71 | ||
| 24 | 8 | 1 | Vladimir Predkin | 50.75 | ||
| 25 | 8 | 8 | Salim Iles | 50.87 | ||
| 26 | 5 | 2 | Brendon Dedekind | 50.95 | ||
| 27 | 5 | 6 | Earl McCarthy | 50.99 | ||
| 28 | 8 | 7 | Nicholas Shackell | 51.03 | ||
| 29 | 3 | 1 | Sergey Ashihmin | 51.07 | NR | |
| 30 | 7 | 2 | Nicolae Ivan | 51.14 | ||
| 31 | 6 | 1 | Trent Bray | 51.18 | ||
| 32 | 4 | 1 | Indrek Sei | 51.19 | NR | |
| 33 | 4 | 7 | Juan Benavides | 51.20 | ||
| 34 | 6 | 8 | Richard Sam Bera | 51.25 | ||
| 35 | 7 | 7 | Béla Szabados | 51.26 | ||
| 36 | 2 | 3 | Janko Gojković | 51.28 | NR | |
| 37 | 5 | 7 | Shunsuke Ito | 51.29 | ||
| 38 | 4 | 5 | Felipe Delgado | 51.38 | ||
| 39 | 4 | 3 | Zhao Lifeng | 51.70 | ||
| 40 | 4 | 6 | Marijan Kanjer | 51.76 | ||
| 41 | 3 | 6 | Giovanni Linscheer | 51.82 | ||
| 42 | 3 | 8 | Arthur Li Kai Yien | 51.84 | ||
| 43 | 3 | 4 | José Isaza | 51.86 | ||
| 44 | 4 | 8 | Kalle Varonen | 52.00 | ||
| 45 | 7 | 3 | José Meolans | 52.02 | ||
| 46 | 2 | 2 | Georgios Giziotis | 52.04 | ||
| 47 | 4 | 2 | Tamer Hamed | 52.16 | ||
| 48 | 3 | 3 | Oleg Tsvetkovskiy | 52.39 | ||
| 49 | 2 | 7 | Koh Yun-ho | 52.56 | ||
| 50 | 3 | 2 | Stavros Michaelides | 52.65 | ||
| 51 | 1 | 4 | Darrick Bollinger | 52.68 | ||
| 52 | 1 | 5 | Kenny Roberts | 52.89 | ||
| 53 | 2 | 4 | Nikola Kalabić | 52.98 | ||
| 54 | 2 | 6 | Diego Perdomo | 53.01 | ||
| 55 | 3 | 5 | Maxim Cazmirciuc | 53.18 | ||
| 56 | 3 | 7 | Huang Chih-yung | 53.47 | ||
| 57 | 2 | 8 | Sng Ju Wei | 53.50 | ||
| 58 | 2 | 5 | Juan Luis Bocanegra | 54.05 | ||
| 59 | 1 | 6 | Diego Mularoni | 57.11 | ||
| 60 | 1 | 3 | Khuwaiter Al-Dhaheri | 57.70 | ||
| 1 | 2 | Ali Al-Gazali |