Shooting at the 2016 Summer Olympics – Men's 50 metre pistol

This was the 24th—and final—appearance of the ISSF 50 meter pistol event. The event was held at every Summer Olympics from 1896 to 1920 (except 1904, when no shooting events were held) and from 1936 to 2016; it was open to women from 1968 to 1980. 1896 and 1908 were the only Games in which the distance was not 50 metres; the former used 30 metres and the latter 50 yards.[2][1] The event, which had no women's equivalent, was dropped after 2016 to make room for a mixed team air pistol event as the sport moved toward gender equality.

Four of the eight finalists from the 2012 Games returned: two-time gold medalist (and 2004 silver medalist) Jin Jong-oh of South Korea, bronze medalist Wang Zhiwei of China, fourth-place finisher Hoàng Xuân Vinh of Vietnam, and fifth-place finisher Giuseppe Giordano of Italy. The 2014 world championship podium had been Jin Jong-oh, Jitu Rai of India, and Pang Wei of Wei; all three competed in Rio de Janeiro.

Georgia, Myanmar, and Panama each made their debut in the event. The United States made its 22nd appearance, most of any nation, having missed only the 1900 event and the boycotted 1980 Games.

Jin used a Morini CM84E.

Each National Olympic Committee (NOC) could enter up to two shooters if the NOC earned enough quota sports or had enough crossover-qualified shooters. To compete, a shooter needed a quota spot and to achieve a Minimum Qualification Score (MQS). Once a shooter was using a quota spot in any shooting event, they could enter any other shooting event for which they had achieved the MQS as well (a crossover qualification). There were 22 quota spots available for the free pistol: 4 at the 2014 World Championship, 8 at the 2015 World Cup events (2 spots at each of 4 events), 9 for continental events (3 for Europe, 2 each for Asia and Americas, and 1 each for Africa and Oceania), and a Tripartite Commission invitation. One place was added through the exchange system. There were 19 double-starters from other events, primarily the 10 metre air pistol event.

The competition featured two rounds, qualifying and final. The 2016 competition introduced fundamental changes to the final format.

The qualifying round was the same as the previous competitions: each shooter fired 60 shots, in 6 series of 10 shots each, at a distance of 50 metres. The target was round, 50 centimetres in diameter, with 10 scoring rings. Scoring for each shot was up to 10 points, in increments of 1 point. The maximum score possible was 600 points. The top 8 shooters advanced to a final.

In prior Games, the final had been an additional series of 10 shots, with the score added to their qualifying round score to give a 70-shot total. For 2016, the final instead wiped the qualifying scores and started anew. The shooters would each fire up to 20 shots in the final. However, beginning after the 8th shot and continuing every 2 shots thereafter, the shooter with the lowest total in the final was eliminated. Thus, all 8 shooters fired 8 shots, 7 shooters fired 10 shots, 6 shooters fired 8 shots, and so on until only 2 shooters fired the 19th and 20th shots. Decimal scoring applied in the final; shots could score up to 10.9. The total maximum was therefore 818.0. Any pistol was permitted.[1]

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.

Qualifying (60 shots)
World record	Jin Jong-oh (KOR)	583	Granada, Spain	9 September 2014
Olympic record	Alexsander Melentiev (URS)	581	Moscow, Soviet Union	20 July 1980

Final (80 shots)
World record	Jin Jong-oh (KOR)	200.7	Granada, Spain	7 July 2013
Olympic record	New format	-	-	-

Jin Jong-oh set the new format's initial Olympic record at 193.7; with the event discontinued, that record will never be beaten.

• Rio de Janeiro 2016 Official Homepage - 50m Pistol Men Results