The men's 50 metre freestyle competition of the swimming events at the 2015 World Aquatics Championships was held on 7 August with the heats and the semifinals and 8 August with the final. Despite losing lane four to American Nathan Adrian, France's Florent Manaudou threw down a personal and textile best of 21.19 to win his first World Championship in the event, holding off Adrian and Brazilian Bruno Fratus by over three-tenths of a second, an enormous margin in swimming's shortest race. Adrian grabbed the silver in 21.52, following up a new American Record of 21.37 achieved earlier in the semifinals. Fratus took home the bronze, his first World Championship medal ever, in 21.55. Vladimir Morozov, the defending silver medalist from Barcelona, missed the podium in fourth place by a fingerti