Men's 50 metre rifle prone (then known as free rifle) was one of the fifteen shooting events at the 1996 Summer Olympics. Christian Klees shot a perfect 600 in the qualification round and set a new World record after 104.8 points (of maximum 109.0) in the final. With an even better final round, Sergey Belyayev surpassed Jozef Gönci to win the silver medal.