Men's 50 Meter Freestyle

The two-time defending Olympic champ Gary Hall Jr. failed to make the team; he chose to only compete in the 50, and not the 100, and he ended up taking 4th. This is another one of those times that I'm upset that we can't take 3 swimmers in each event. Cullen Jones had the American Record prior to finals at trials when Garrett Weber-Gale broke it winning with a time of 21.47. Weber-Gale, on his first Olympic team, really showed his speed by winning the two sprints, and can claim he's the fastest American in the pool. Ben Wildman-Tobriner was the favorite to win this event at trials, and took second place with a time of 21.65. Had Cullen Jones matched his then AR of 21.59, he'd be on the team. Instead he appeared to take an extra stroke into the wall, a costly mistake in any tight race and absolutely fatal in the 50.

I can't find a picture of Garrett Weber-Gale, the food enthusiast, so just visit his website: http://garrettweber-gale.com/

Eamon Sullivan of Australia holds the World Record in the 50 Free at 21.28, he has been consistently dropping it since first breaking it about a year ago. This has to make him the favorite. This record was owned by Alexander Popov of Russia for 8 years, which just goes to show you how far ahead of his time he was.


Eamon Sullivan

France has two strong contenders in this race. Alain Bernard will also be competing in the 100, where he holds the world record. In the 50 his best time is 21.50, putting him squarely in the hunt for gold in Beijing. He managed to hold the world record for a short time, it only took Eamon Sullivan 4 days to reclaim it. At the French Trials Amaury Leveaux put up a 21.38, the second fastest time in 2008. France actually also has Fred Bousquet who put up the 6th fastest time this year, but only 2 go to the games in swimming.


I dare you to make fun of this dude for being named Alain

Roland Schoeman of South Africa will be returning to defend his bronze medal from Athens. He's been around the block a few times, he's now 27 years old; but as evidenced by the likes of Jenny Thomspon, Gary Hall and most obviously Dara Torres, older athletes can still compete in the sprints. Duje Draganja has the 11th fastest time this year (21.94), and will be competing for his native Croatia.


Duje Draganja

Medal Predictions:

Video:

Watch Garrett Weber-Gale set the American Record at Trials

Watch Eamon Sullivan break his own WR at Aussie Trials

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