Dates July 21–25 Start date 1908 Venue White City Stadium | Competitors 19 from 8 nations Location White City Stadium | |
The men's 1500 metre freestyle was one of 6 swimming events on the swimming at the 1908 Summer Olympics programme. Its distance was the longest of the 3 individual freestyle event distances. The competition was held from Tuesday July 21, 1908, to Saturday July 25, 1908.
Contents
Nineteen swimmers from eight nations competed.
Records
These were the standing world and Olympic records (in minutes) prior to the 1908 Summer Olympics.
(*) one mile (1609.34 m)
In the final Henry Taylor set the first official world record for this distance in 22:48.4.
First round
Tuesday July 21, 1908: The fastest swimmer in each heat and the fastest loser advanced, qualifying eight swimmers for the semifinals.
Heat 1
Heat 2
Heat 3
Moist had no competition in the third heat.
Heat 4
Heat 5
Heat 6
Heat 7
Foster had no competition in the seventh heat.
Semifinals
Thursday July 23, 1908: The fastest two swimmers from each semifinal advanced to the final.
Semifinal 1
Semifinal 2
Final
The final was held on Saturday July 25, 1908.
Taylor stopped after the finish, but Battersby swam an extra 109.344 metres after the finish to complete the mile. His time over the mile was 24:33.0, beating the standing record of 24:42.6 set by David Billington in 1905.