updated 10:55 a.m. ET Aug. 21, 2004

ATHENS, Greece - Gary Hall Jr. of the United States successfully defended his Olympic title in the 50-meter freestyle Friday night.

It was an especially sweet victory for the irreverent Hall, who was upset about being left off a couple of U.S. relay teams.

Swimming as though he had something to prove, he recovered from a slow start to touch in 21.93 — beating Croatia’s Duje Draganja by one-hundredth of a second.

Hall ripped off his cap, threw up his arms in a defiant pose and climbed out of the pool to take a bow. He plans to be back in 2008.

“Why not?” he said, savoring the 10th medal of his career. “Defiance. It’s fun.”

Roland Schoeman of South Africa, a close friend of Hall’s, took the bronze in 22.02. Another American, Jason Lezak, was fifth in 22.11.

Hall shared the gold at the Sydney Games with countryman Anthony Ervin when they tied in 21.98. The 29-year-old from Phoenix was the silver medalist at the 1996 Atlanta Games.

Hall earned a bronze medal in Athens by swimming the preliminaries of the 400 freestyle relay, but won’t match his four-medal haul from Sydney and Atlanta. U.S. men’s coach Eddie Reese has said he doesn’t plan to use Hall in the 400 medley relay Saturday, the last day of swimming.

Hall joined Alexander Popov of Russia as the only men to win consecutive 50 free titles. Popov didn’t make it out of the preliminaries in Athens.

Swimming - Men's 50-meter Freestyle (medals: Aug. 20th) Medal Athlete Country Result Gold Gary Hall Jr. United States 21.93 Silver Duje Draganja Croatia 21.94 Bronze Roland Mark Schoeman South Africa 22.02 NBCO: Schedules, preliminary result and complete final results

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