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

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.

Medalists

Heat 2

Heat 5

OR=Olympic Record; ER=European Record; AS=Asian Record

Final

AR=African Record

References