Ben Proud ends wait for Olympic medal with men’s 50 metres freestyle silver

Proud was fourth at Rio 2016 and fifth at Tokyo 2020.

Ben Proud ended a long wait for an Olympic medal (Zac Goodwin/PA) (PA Wire)

Ben Proud claimed the one medal missing from his collection as he bagged Olympic silver in the men’s 50 metres freestyle final.

Proud has won world, European and Commonwealth titles in his decorated career but he has had a couple of near misses for a podium spot at the Olympics – fourth at Rio 2016 and joint fifth at Tokyo 2020.

He ended his wait on Friday night but missed out on gold by five hundredths of a second as Australia’s Cameron McEvoy took top spot in a time of 21.25 seconds, with France’s Florent Manaudou third.

Proud claimed Britain’s fourth swimming medal of Paris 2024 and third silver, joining Adam Peaty in the men’s 100m breaststroke and Matt Richards in the men’s 200m freestyle to miss out on gold by a fine margin.

Team GB had to wait mere minutes for another silver thanks to Duncan Scott although he was powerless to stop French sensation Leon Marchand from storming to victory in the men’s 200 metres individual medley.

Scott picked up his eighth Olympic medal – moving him level with Sir Bradley Wiggins and only Sir Jason Kenny has more among British athletes – but this was all about Marchand.

With President Emmanuel Macron among those cheering on, Marchand powered to his fourth individual gold of these Games, pipping Scott by 1.25 secs.