Swimming at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Men's 1500 metre freestyle

Men's 1500 metre freestyle
at the Games of the XXIX Olympiad
Competitors 37
Medalists
    Tunisia
    Australia
    Canada
«2004 2012»
Swimming events at the
2008 Summer Olympics
Freestyle
50 m   men   women
100 m men women
200 m men women
400 m men women
800 m women
1500 m men
Backstroke
100 m men women
200 m men women
Breaststroke
100 m men women
200 m men women
Butterfly
100 m men women
200 m men women
Individual medley
200 m men women
400 m men women
Freestyle relay
4×100 m men women
4×200 m men women
Medley relay
4×100 m men women
Marathon
10 km men women

The men's 1500 metre freestyle event at the 2008 Olympic Games took place between August 15 and 17, at the Beijing National Aquatics Center. This swimming event used freestyle swimming, which means that the method of the stroke is not regulated (unlike backstroke, breaststroke, and butterfly events). Nearly all swimmers use the front crawl or a variant of that stroke. Because an Olympic size swimming pool is 50 metres long, this race consists of 30 lengths of the pool.

Five heats were held, with most containing the maximum number of swimmers (eight). The heat in which a swimmer competed did not formally matter for advancement, as the swimmers with the top eight times from the entire field qualified for the finals; there, they all competed in a single final heat to earn final placements.

The qualifying norms for the 2008 event were 15:13.16 (A norm) and 15:45.12 (B norm). NOCs with two or more swimmers meeting the A standard could enter any two such swimmers; otherwise, they could enter a single swimmer meeting the B standard.

The men's 1500 metre event was unusual on the 2008 Olympic swimming programme in that there was no direct equivalent for women. Instead, the women's longest freestyle event was at 800 metres and women did not swim a 1500 metre freestyle event. For all other swimming events in 2008, the men's and women's programmes were identical.

Contents

Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.

World record  Grant Hackett (AUS) 14:34.56 Fukuoka, Japan 29 July 2001 [1]
Olympic record  Grant Hackett (AUS) 14:43.40 Athens, Greece 21 August 2004 -

The following new world and Olympic records were set during this competition.

Date Event Name Nationality Time OR WR
August 15 Heat 3 Ryan Cochrane Canada 14:40.84 OR
August 15 Heat 5 Grant Hackett Australia 14:38.92 OR

Heats

Heat 1

Rank Lane Name Nationality Time Notes
1 5 Florian Janistyn Austria 15:12.46 NR
2 3 Petar Stoychev Bulgaria 15:28.84
3 6 Ryan Paolo Arabejo Philippines 15:42.77
4 4 Juan Martin Pereyra Argentina 15:49.57
5 2 Ediz Yildirimer Turkey 16:28.79

Heat 2

Rank Lane Name Nationality Time Notes
1 3 Nicolas Rostoucher France 15:00.58
2 5 Mads Glæsner Denmark 15:03.33
3 2 Tom Vangeneugden Belgium 15:11.04
4 4 Maciej Hreniak Poland 15:16.16
5 1 Dragoş Coman Romania 15:24.05
6 7 Fernando Costa Portugal 15:26.21
7 8 Ricardo Monasterio Venezuela 15:45.98
- 6 Christian Kubusch Germany DNS

Heat 3

Rank Lane Name Nationality Time Notes
1 5 Ryan Cochrane Canada 14:40.84 Q, OR, AM
2 4 Yuriy Prilukov Russia 14:41.13 Q, ER
3 3 David Davies Great Britain 14:46.11 Q
4 6 Park Tae-Hwan South Korea 15:05.55
5 7 Takeshi Matsuda Japan 15:09.17
6 1 Sergiy Fesenko Ukraine 15:13.03
7 8 Richard Charlesworth Great Britain 15:17.27
8 2 Sébastien Rouault France 15:21.14

Heat 4

Rank Lane Name Nationality Time Notes
1 6 Oussama Mellouli Tunisia 14:47.76 Q
2 2 Sun Yang China 14:48.39 Q
3 4 Mateusz Sawrymowicz Poland 14:50.30
4 5 Federico Colbertaldo Italy 14:51.44
5 3 Craig Stevens Australia 15:04.82
6 7 Samuel Pizzetti Italy 15:07.02
7 8 Marco Rivera Spain 15:18.98
- 1 Luka Turk Slovenia DNS

Heat 5

Rank Lane Name Nationality Time Notes
1 5 Grant Hackett Australia 14:38.92 Q, OR
2 6 Zhang Lin China 14:45.84 Q, AS
3 3 Larsen Jensen United States 14:49.53 Q
4 4 Peter Vanderkaay United States 14:52.11
5 1 Spyridon Gianniotis Greece 14:53.32
6 8 Gergő Kis Hungary 15:09.67
7 7 Troy Prinsloo South Africa 15:12.64
8 2 Nikita Lobintsev Russia 15:35.47

Legend: OR=Olympic Record; AM=Americas Record; ER=European Record; AS=Asian Record

Final

Rank Lane Name Nationality Time Notes
7 Oussama Mellouli Tunisia 14:40.84 AF
4 Grant Hackett Australia 14:41.53
5 Ryan Cochrane Canada 14:42.69
4 3 Yuriy Prilukov Russia 14:43.21
5 8 Larsen Jensen United States 14:48.16
6 2 David Davies Great Britain 14:52.11
7 6 Zhang Lin China 14:55.20
8 1 Sun Yang China 15:05.12

Legend: AF=African Record

References