The men's 50 metre freestyle event at the 2025 World Aquatics Championships was held from 1 to 2 August 2025 at the World Aquatics Championships Arena at the Singapore Sports Hub in Kallang, Singapore.

Cameron McEvoy of Australia was the favourite to win the event, while Great Britain's Ben Proud and the United States' Jack Alexy were also in contention. In the final, McEvoy led the race from beginning to end, to win with a time of 21.14. Proud finished second with 21.26, and Alexy came third with 21.46. McEvoy's win made him Australia's oldest world swimming champion, at 31 years old.

Background Cameron McEvoy of Australia, the reigning Olympic champion and world leader with a time of 21.30 in 2025, was regarded by SwimSwam as the favourite to win the event, while Great Britain's Ben Proud, a consistent podium finisher since 2022, was anticipated to contend for gold. The United States' Jack Alexy, second in world rankings with 21.36, was aiming to return to form after missing the U.S. Olympic team for this event in 2024. Brazil's Gui Caribé and Russia's Egor Kornev, who was competing for the Neutral Athletes B team, were also chasing podium finishes. The defending world champion was Vladyslav Bukhov of Ukraine, though his recent results had been inconsistent. The event was held at the World Aquatics Championships Arena at the Singapore Sports Hub in Kallang, Singapore.

Qualification Each National Federation was permitted to enter a maximum of two qualified athletes in each individual event, but only if both of them had attained the "A" standard qualification time at approved qualifying events. For this event, the "A" standard qualification time was 22.05 seconds. Federations could enter one athlete into the event if they met the "B" standard qualification time. For this event, the "B" standard qualification time was 22.82. Athletes could also enter the event if they had met an "A" or "B" standard in a different event and their Federation had not entered anyone else. Additional considerations applied to Federations who had few swimmers enter through the standard qualification times. Federations in this category could at least enter two men and two women into the competition, all of whom could enter into up to two events. +Top 10 fastest qualification timesSwimmerCountryTimeCompetitionCameron McEvoy21.252024 Summer OlympicsBenjamin Proud21.252024 British ChampionshipsJack Alexy21.362025 United States ChampionshipsEgor Kornev   Neutral Athletes B21.432025 Russian ChampionshipsGuilherme Caribé21.462025 Brazilian ChampionshipsJosh Liendo21.482024 Canadian TrialsLeonardo Deplano21.502024 Summer OlympicsMeiron Cheruti21.602025 Israeli TrialsMaxime Grousset21.602024 Summer OlympicsLorenzo Zazzeri21.642024 Summer Olympics

Heats The heats took place on 1 August 2025 at 10:51 in the morning. The swimmers with the best 16 times in the heats advanced to the semifinals. Serbia's Andrej Barna swam the fastest qualifying time of 21.44, which broke his country's national record in the event. Alexy and Kornev tied with the second fastest qualification time of 21.52. The top 16 swimmers all finished with times within less than half a second of one another.

Since Martin Kartavi of Israel and Santo Condorelli of the United States tied for the sixteenth fastest time of 21.91, they were scheduled to compete in a swim-off later in the day, to determine who would qualify for the semifinals.

+ Results Rank Heat Lane Swimmer Nation Time Notes 1 12 7 Andrej Barna 21.44 , NR 2 11 4 Jack Alexy 21.52 2 13 5 Egor Kornev Neutral Athletes B 21.52 4 12 4 Cameron McEvoy 21.53 5 13 3 Leonardo Deplano 21.62 6 12 3 Meiron Cheruti 21.64 7 12 5 Guilherme Caribé 21.67 8 13 4 Ben Proud 21.71 9 10 1 Ji Yu-chan 21.80 10 12 1 Ian Ho 21.82 , NR 11 11 0 Szebasztián Szabó 21.83 11 12 6 Vladyslav Bukhov 21.83 13 13 0 Jere Hribar 21.86 14 13 6 Lorenzo Zazzeri 21.87 14 13 7 Thomas Fannon 21.87 16 10 5 Martin Kartavi 21.91 16 13 2 Santo Condorelli 21.91 18 11 1 Kliment Kolesnikov Neutral Athletes B 21.95 19 10 9 Mikel Schreuders 22.02 20 10 7 Lamar Taylor 22.05 =NR 20 11 6 Kyle Chalmers 22.05 22 10 8 Sergio de Celis 22.06 22 11 2 Stergios Bilas 22.06 22 12 0 Renzo Tjon-A-Joe 22.06 22 12 2 Nikita Baez 22.06 26 12 8 Diogo Ribeiro 22.08 27 10 0 Heiko Gigler 22.12 28 13 9 Jacob Mills 22.15 29 10 4 Mikkel Lee 22.18 30 9 6 Matej Duša 22.22 30 11 5 Josh Liendo 22.22 32 9 0 Jānis Dzirkalis 22.27 NR 32 9 5 Elias Persson 22.27 34 10 3 Božo Puhalović 22.28 35 9 2 David Young 22.32 36 11 8 Abdelrahman Sameh 22.35 37 11 7 Victor Alcará 22.37 38 8 4 Samyar Abdoli 22.41 NR 38 10 6 Akira Namba 22.41 40 9 4 Remi Fabiani 22.42 41 9 3 Bjørnar Laskerud 22.48 41 10 2 Kaloyan Bratanov 22.48 43 12 9 Dylan Carter 22.51 44 13 8 Piotr Ludwiczak 22.52 45 8 7 Leo Nolles 22.60 46 9 1 Daniel Zaitsev 22.64 47 9 8 Ali Sayed 22.72 48 8 6 Marwane Sebbata 22.73 NR 49 8 5 Frederik Lentz 22.76 50 8 3 Jakub Krischke 22.79 51 8 2 Javier Núñez 22.82 52 9 9 Adilbek Mussin 22.84 53 9 7 Tajus Juška 22.88 54 8 8 Gabriel Martinez 23.02 55 8 0 Harry Stacey 23.05 56 2 8 William Birkett 23.17 57 8 9 Stefano Mitchell 23.18 58 6 4 Damien Shamambo 23.42 NR 59 7 6 Constantin Malachi 23.44 60 7 4 Grisi Koxhaku 23.47 61 7 2 Julio Rodríguez 23.48 62 2 6 Erick Blandón 23.57 63 6 5 Musa Zhalayev 23.71 64 7 5 Yousuf Al-Matrooshi 23.77 65 1 7 Clinton Opute 23.79 65 7 7 Johann Stickland 23.79 67 6 7 Mohamed Aan Hussain 23.81 NR 68 6 6 Aryaan Din 23.87 69 7 8 Adam Moncherry 23.88 NR 70 7 0 Tendo Mukalazi 23.92 71 1 2 Alexandre Grand'Pierre 23.97 72 7 9 Belly-Cresus Ganira 23.99 73 6 1 Aaron Ghebre Owusu 24.17 74 6 3 Joash McKonie 24.21 75 6 2 Christien Kelly 24.27 76 5 5 Levon Kocharyan 24.42 77 3 7 Jeno Heyns 24.44 77 4 3 Joel Ling 24.44 79 5 4 Janel Yondu Tati 24.52 80 3 0 Mahmoud Abu Gharbieh 24.55 81 5 3 Ardasher Gadoev 24.63 82 6 8 Josh Tarere 24.73 83 6 0 Ando Francky Ramiakatrarivo 24.80 84 5 6 Kazuumi Nestor 24.88 NR 85 5 2 Nigel Fontenelle 25.00 86 4 2 Jose Tati 25.09 87 2 5 Ajal Kaji Tamrakar 25.16 88 3 8 Michael Miller 25.28 89 1 3 Pieter Sok Kha Vanoosten 25.52 90 2 7 Ahmed Al-Mutairy 25.56 90 5 7 Ethan Gardiner 25.56 92 5 1 Camil Doua 25.76 NR 93 5 0 Yousif Ibrahim 25.87 94 5 8 Asher Banda 25.92 95 5 9 Sangay Tenzin 26.11 96 4 5 Elhadj N'Gnane Diallo 26.13 NR 97 4 4 Leo Nzimbi 26.23 NR 98 4 7 Ousman Jobe 26.72 NR 99 2 9 Lassina Bel Traore 26.84 100 3 9 Ryuto Saysanavongphet 26.99 101 2 3 Michael Mponezya Joseph 27.06 102 2 0 Yann Emmanuel Douma 27.49 103 4 8 Charly Ndjoume 27.80 104 4 6 Magnim Jordano Daou 27.88 105 4 1 Phillip Kinono 27.90 106 3 1 Kevin Kaiga 27.92 107 2 2 Yusuf Marwan Abdullah Nasser 28.00 108 2 1 Temkin Getachew 28.14 108 4 9 Pedro Rogery 28.14 NR 110 1 6 Jehu Matondo Bosange Zozo 28.15 NR 111 1 4 Brenton Naka 28.35 112 3 5 Sekou Alioune Badara Traore 28.57 113 3 6 Marouane Mamane Hamissou Abba 29.40 114 3 3 Jolanio Guterres 30.01 115 3 2 Thabo Motsopa 31.98 116 2 4 Jonathan Irizarry 37.68 1 5 Fabio Barros dos Santos 3 4 Higinio Ndong Obama 4 0 Moses Yongai 6 9 Kyle Abeysinghe 7 1 Alaa Maso 7 3 Oussama Sahnoune 8 1 Alexander Santiago 11 3 Maxime Grousset 11 9 Sean Niewold 13 1 David Popovici

Swim-off The swim-off was started on 1 August at 12:44. Condorelli won, which qualified him for the semifinals.

+ Results Rank Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 1 5 Santo Condorelli 21.83 2 4 Martin Kartavi 21.94

Semifinals The semifinals took place on 1 August at 19:34. The swimmers with the best eight times in the semifinals advanced to the final. McEvoy qualified with the fastest time of 21.30, followed by Alexy, Barna, Kornev, Italy's Leonardo Deplano, Proud, and then Condorelli.

Israel's Meiron Cheruti and South Korea's Ji Yu-chan tied for the eighth fastest time of 21.77, meaning they were scheduled to compete in a swim-off later in the evening.

+ Results Rank Heat Lane Swimmer Nation Time Notes 1 1 5 Cameron McEvoy 21.30 2 1 4 Jack Alexy 21.32 3 2 4 Andrej Barna 21.45 4 2 5 Egor Kornev Neutral Athletes B 21.51 5 2 3 Leonardo Deplano 21.59 6 1 6 Ben Proud 21.61 7 1 8 Santo Condorelli 21.68 8 1 3 Meiron Cheruti 21.77 8 2 2 Ji Yu-chan 21.77 10 2 6 Guilherme Caribé 21.78 11 2 1 Jere Hribar 21.79 12 2 8 Thomas Fannon 21.81 13 1 7 Vladyslav Bukhov 21.82 14 2 7 Szebasztián Szabó 21.84 15 1 1 Lorenzo Zazzeri 21.87 16 1 2 Ian Ho 22.15

Swim-off The swim-off was started on 1 August at 20:58. Ji won with a new Asian record of 21.66, qualifying for the final.

+ Results Rank Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 1 5 Ji Yu-chan 21.66 , AS 2 4 Meiron Cheruti 21.74

Final The final took place on 2 August at 19:09. McEvoy had the fastest reaction time and led to the end of the race to win gold with a time of 21.14. Proud won silver with 21.26, and Alexy took bronze with 21.46.

McEvoy and Proud finished in the same positions they did at the Paris Olympics the year prior, but both of them swam faster times. The podium also contained the same three swimmers as it did in 2023, with Proud and Alexy swapped in second and third. McEvoy's time was the 11th fastest ever in this event, and his win made him Australia's oldest world swimming champion, at 31 years old.

+ Results Rank Lane Name Nationality Time 4 Cameron McEvoy 21.14 7 Ben Proud 21.26 5 Jack Alexy 21.46 4 2 Leonardo Deplano 21.52 5 6 Egor Kornev Neutral Athletes B 21.53 6 3 Andrej Barna 21.60 7 8 Ji Yu-chan 21.71 8 1 Santo Condorelli 21.73

Notes

Further information – Photos from the event

References

Sources