Updated

France's Florent Manaudou won the 50-meter freestyle Friday night, the first swimmer from his country to capture gold in the shortest Olympic sprint event.

Manaudou touched in 21.34 seconds -- .20 seconds ahead of American Cullen Jones.

World record holder and 2008 Olympic champion Cesar Cielo, who beat Frenchmen Amaury Leveaux and Alain Bernard in Beijing, came in third for the bronze.

Former Olympic champion Anthony Ervin of the U.S. finished fifth in his return to the Olympics. Ervin won the race at Sydney in 2000, then later sold his gold medal to aid victims of the Indian Ocean Tsunami. He came out of retirement after nine years to give the Olympics another try.