The men's 1500 metre freestyle event at the

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

took place on 3–4 August at the

London Aquatics Centre The London Aquatics Centre is an indoor facility with two swimming pools and a diving pool in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford, London. The centre, designed by architect Zaha Hadid as one of the main venues of the 2012 Summer Olymp ...

London, United Kingdom London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. Shaking off a potential false start due to fan noise, China's Sun Yang put together a marvelous swim with a relentless attack on his world record to strike a long-distance freestyle double at the Olympic Games for the first time, since the Soviet Union's

Vladimir Salnikov Vladimir Valeryevich Salnikov (russian: Владимир Валерьевич Сальников; born 21 May 1960) is a Russian former freestyle swimmer who competed for the Soviet Union and set 12 world records in the 400, 800 and 1,500 meter ...

did so in 1980. Leading from the start, Sun quickly dropped two seconds under a world-record pace, as he pulled away further from the rest of the field to smash his own standard with a stunning gold-medal time in 14:31.02. Trailing behind the leader by 8.61 seconds on a dominant fashion, Canada's Ryan Cochrane held off a close battle from Tunisia's defending champion

Oussama Mellouli Oussama "Ous" Mellouli ( ar, أسامة الملولي; born 16 February 1984) is a Tunisian swimmer who competes in the freestyle and medley events. He is a three-time Olympic medalist, is an African record holder, and trains with the USC Tr ...

for the silver in an American record of 14:39.63. Meanwhile, Mellouli faded down the stretch to pick up a bronze in 14:40.31, edging out of South Korea's

Park Tae-hwan Park Tae-hwan (, ; born September 27, 1989) is a South Korean competitive Swimming (sport), swimmer who is an Olympic gold medalist and world champion. He has four Olympic medals, five world titles, and 20 Asian Games medals. He won a gold me ...

(14:50.61) by a wide margin of 10.3 seconds. Italian teenager

Gregorio Paltrinieri Gregorio Paltrinieri (born 5 September 1994) is an Italian competitive Swimming (sport), swimmer. He is a former List of world records in swimming, world record holder in the short course World record progression 1500 metres freestyle, 1500 metr ...

finished fifth in 14:51.92, while U.S. swimmer Connor Jaeger posted a sixth-place time of 14:52.99. Poland's

Mateusz Sawrymowicz Mateusz Sawrymowicz (born 22 April 1987 in Lublin) is a Polish swimmer who specializes in the 1500 m freestyle. Having won in Melbourne in 2007 he became the first person to beat Grant Hackett Grant George Hackett OAM (born 9 May 1980) is a ...

(14:54.32) and Great Britain's

Daniel Fogg Daniel Lee Fogg (born 24 August 1987) is an English competitive swimmer who has represented Great Britain in the Olympics, World and European Championships as well as England in the Commonwealth Games. Daniel Fogg specialises in the 1500-metre f ...

(15:00.76) rounded out a historic finale. Notable swimmers missed the final including Jaeger's teammate

Andrew Gemmell Andrew Douglas Gemmell (born February 20, 1991) is an American competition swimmer who specialized in long-distance freestyle events. He swam for the University of Georgia, helping then to place 5th in the NCAA in 2014, and was a member of the ...

, Ukraine's Sergiy Frolov, Hungary's

Gergő Kis Gergő Szabolcs Kis (born 19 January 1988, in Tapolca) is a Hungarian freestyle swimmer. Kis participated in the 2004 Summer Olympics in the men's 1500 m freestyle, ranking 23rd in the heats. In the 2006 European Junior Swimming Champi ...

, and British home favorite David Davies, bronze medalist in Athens eight years earlier.

Records

At the start of this event, the existing World and Olympic records were as follows. The following records were established during the competition:

Results

Heats

Final

References

External links

NBC Olympics Coverage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Swimming at the 2012 Summer Olympics - Men's 1500 metre freestyle Men's 01500 metre freestyle Men's events at the 2012 Summer Olympics