Australia's McEvoy pips Proud to Olympic 50m freestyle gold

Australia's Cameron McEvoy pipped Britain's Ben Proud to gold in the men's 50m freestyle at the Paris Olympics on Friday.

McEvoy won with a time of 21.25sec with Proud 0.05 seconds behind to take silver and France's Florent Manaudou collecting bronze.

For Manaudou it was the fourth straight Games in which he has earned a medal in the shortest of the freestyle events.

The 30-year-old McEvoy wins his first Olympic gold after picking up two bronze medals in relays in Rio and a third in Tokyo.

Cameron McEvoy wins his first gold medal at any Olympics for Team Australia 🇦🇺🔥

📺 Stream #Paris2024 live: https://t.co/rM90YyR504#CloserToYourChampions pic.twitter.com/601n1341Mw

— SuperSport 🏆 (@SuperSportTV) August 2, 2024

The Queenslander opted to switch his focus purely to the 50m freestyle after Tokyo, radically changing his training routine to best suit the explosive race.

Proud was a finalist at Tokyo 2020, finishing in a tie for fifth, and has featured on the podium at four world championships in this event, including gold in 2022.

Manaudou, who had fired up the crowd before the start of the race, had won gold in 50m free at London in 2012, silver in Rio and again in Tokyo.