Swimming at the 2012 Summer Olympics – Men's 1500 metre freestyle

The men's 1,500 metre freestyle event at the 2012 Summer Olympics took place on 3–4 August at the London Aquatics Centre in London, United Kingdom.[1]

Men's 1,500 metre freestyle
at the Games of the XXX Olympiad
Aquatics centre during the British Championships in March 2012
VenueLondon Aquatics Centre
DatesAugust 3, 2012 (heats)
August 4, 2012 (final)
Competitors31 from 25 nations
Winning time14:31.02 WR
Medalists
1st place, gold medalist(s) Sun Yang  China
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Ryan Cochrane  Canada
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Oussama Mellouli  Tunisia
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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 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.[2][3] 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 for the silver in an American record of 14:39.63.[4][5] Meanwhile, Mellouli faded down the stretch to pick up a bronze in 14:40.31, edging out of South Korea's Park Tae-hwan (14:50.61) by a wide margin of 10.3 seconds.[6]

Italian teenager Gregorio Paltrinieri finished fifth in 14:51.92, while U.S. swimmer Connor Jaeger posted a sixth-place time of 14:52.99.[7] Poland's Mateusz Sawrymowicz (14:54.32) and Great Britain's Daniel Fogg (15:00.76) rounded out a historic finale.[6][8]

Notable swimmers missed the final including Jaeger's teammate Andrew Gemmell, Ukraine's Sergiy Frolov, Hungary's Gergő Kis, and British home favorite David Davies, bronze medalist in Athens eight years earlier.[9][10]

Records

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At the start of this event, the existing World and Olympic records were as follows.

World record   Sun Yang (CHN) 14:34.14 Shanghai, China 31 July 2011 [11][12]
Olympic record   Grant Hackett (AUS) 14:38.92 Beijing, China 15 August 2008 [13]

The following records were established during the competition:

Date Event Name Nationality Time Record
August 4 Final Sun Yang   China 14:31.02 WR

Results

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Heats

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[14]

Rank Heat Lane Name Nationality Time Notes
1 4 4 Sun Yang   China 14:43.25 Q
2 4 7 Oussama Mellouli   Tunisia 14:46.23 Q
3 3 4 Ryan Cochrane   Canada 14:49.31 Q
4 2 5 Gregorio Paltrinieri   Italy 14:50.11 Q
5 2 3 Daniel Fogg   Great Britain 14:56.12 Q
6 3 5 Park Tae-hwan   South Korea 14:56.89 Q
7 3 3 Connor Jaeger   United States 14:57.56 Q
8 2 6 Mateusz Sawrymowicz   Poland 14:57.59 Q
9 4 3 Andrew Gemmell   United States 14:59.05
10 4 1 Sergiy Frolov   Ukraine 14:59.19 NR
11 4 6 Job Kienhuis   Netherlands 15:03.16
12 3 7 Gergely Gyurta   Hungary 15:04.22
13 2 2 Gabriele Detti   Italy 15:06.22
14 3 2 Damien Joly   France 15:08.50
15 3 1 Dai Jun   China 15:13.90
16 3 6 David Davies   Great Britain 15:14.77
17 4 5 Pál Joensen   Denmark 15:18.42
18 4 8 Jarrod Poort   Australia 15:20.82
19 2 4 Gergő Kis   Hungary 15:21.74
20 4 2 Anthony Pannier   France 15:24.08
21 2 7 Heerden Herman   South Africa 15:25.71
22 1 4 Arturo Pérez Vertti Ferrer   Mexico 15:25.91
23 2 8 Alejandro Gómez   Venezuela 15:27.38
24 1 7 Jan Micka   Czech Republic 15:29.34
25 1 6 Anton Sveinn McKee   Iceland 15:29.40 NR
26 1 5 Ediz Yıldırımer   Turkey 15:29.97
27 2 1 Matias Koski   Finland 15:34.80
28 1 3 Ventsislav Aydarski   Bulgaria 15:34.86
29 3 8 Juan Martín Pereyra   Argentina 15:36.72
30 1 2 Uladzimir Zhyharau   Belarus 15:48.67
31 1 1 Ullalmath Gagan   India 16:31.14

Final

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Rank Lane Name Nationality Time Notes
  4 Sun Yang   China 14:31.02 WR
  3 Ryan Cochrane   Canada 14:39.63 AM
  5 Oussama Mellouli   Tunisia 14:40.31
4 7 Park Tae-hwan   South Korea 14:50.61
5 6 Gregorio Paltrinieri   Italy 14:51.92
6 1 Connor Jaeger   United States 14:52.99
7 8 Mateusz Sawrymowicz   Poland 14:54.32
8 2 Daniel Fogg   Great Britain 15:00.76

References

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  1. ^ "Swimming: Results & Schedules". London 2012. NBC Olympics. 29 July 2012. Archived from the original on 3 July 2013. Retrieved 7 July 2013.
  2. ^ Tucker, Jim (5 August 2012). "Sun Yang smashes 1500m freestyle world record at London Olympics". The Daily Telegraph (Sydney). Retrieved 12 July 2013.
  3. ^ Auerbach, Nicole (4 August 2012). "China's Sun crushes world record by 3 seconds in 1,500". USA Today. Retrieved 12 July 2013.
  4. ^ Maki, Allan (4 August 2012). "Canada's Ryan Cochrane captures silver in men's 1,500 freestyle". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 12 July 2013.
  5. ^ Mackin, Bob (4 August 2012). "Canada's Ryan Cochrane swims to silver in 1,500m freestyle". Toronto Sun. Retrieved 12 July 2013.
  6. ^ a b "2012 London Olympics: Sun Yang Averts Potential False Start Disaster for Relentless World Record in 1500 Free; Ryan Cochrane Second, Ous Mellouli Third; USA's Connor Jaeger Takes Sixth". Swimming World Magazine. 4 August 2012. Archived from the original on 28 January 2013. Retrieved 12 July 2013.
  7. ^ "London Olympics: Connor Jaeger, Fair Haven native, finishes sixth in 1,500 freestyle final". The Star-Ledger. 4 August 2012. Retrieved 12 July 2013.
  8. ^ "Olympics swimming: Sun Yang wins 1500m freestyle gold". BBC Sport. 4 August 2012. Archived from the original on 5 August 2012. Retrieved 12 July 2013.
  9. ^ "2012 London Olympics: World-Record Holder Sun Yang Dominates Morning Session of 1500 Free; Defending Champion Ous Mellouli Second; Ryan Cochrane, Tae Hwan Park, Connor Jaeger Among Finalists; Andrew Gemmell Misses". Swimming World Magazine. 3 August 2012. Archived from the original on 2013-01-28. Retrieved 12 July 2013.
  10. ^ "Halsall off to a flier". Sky Sports. 3 August 2012. Retrieved 12 July 2013.
  11. ^ "Cochrane nabs silver in Yang's world record swim". CBC Sports. 31 July 2011. Retrieved 12 July 2013.
  12. ^ "FINA World Championships, Swimming: Sun Yang Downs Grant Hackett's 1500 Free World Record". Swimming World Magazine. 31 July 2011. Archived from the original on 16 February 2013. Retrieved 12 July 2013.
  13. ^ Lohn, John (15 August 2008). "Olympics, Swimming: Grant Hackett Leads 1500 Free Qualifying With Olympic Standard". Swimming World Magazine. Archived from the original on 2 May 2012. Retrieved 16 May 2013.
  14. ^ "Men's 1500m Freestyle – Heats". London2012.com. London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Archived from the original on 9 December 2012. Retrieved 3 August 2012.
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