The 9th Lane

For the first time in the history of the Olympic games, the final of the 50 metres freestyle brought together nine participants — eight Olympic swimmers and one French Paralympic swimmer, Laurent Chardard. On 1 August at 3.30am, Chardard competed against the world's best swimmers, whose real-time progress was recreated using beams of light in a specially designed pool. To cover this world premiere, a live broadcast of this unique event was streamed on Lacoste's Facebook and Instagram accounts.