Swimming at the 1908 Summer Olympics – Men's 1500 metre freestyle

Men's 1500 metre freestyle at the Games of the IV Olympiad
Venue	White City Stadium
Dates	July 21–25
Competitors	19 from 8 nations
Medalists
Henry Taylor  Great Britain Thomas Battersby  Great Britain Frank Beaurepaire  Australasia

Swimming at the 1908 Summer Olympics
Freestyle
100 m		men
400 m		men
1500 m		men
Backstroke
100 m		men
Breaststroke
200 m		men
Freestyle relay
4×200 m		men

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.

Nineteen swimmers from eight nations competed.

Records

These were the standing world and Olympic records (in minutes) prior to the 1908 Summer Olympics.

World Record	?	?
Olympic Record	27:18.2(*)	Emil Rausch	St. Louis (USA)	September 6, 1904

(*) one mile (1609.34 m)

In the final Henry Taylor set the first official world record for this distance in 22:48.4.

Results

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

Place	Swimmer	Time	Qual.
1	Paul Radmilovic (GBR)	25:02.4	QS OR
2	Gunnar Wennerström (SWE)	27:15.4
3	Oreste Muzzi (ITA)	28:52.6

Heat 2

Place	Swimmer	Time	Qual.
1	Frank Beaurepaire (ANZ)	23:45.8	QS OR
2	Sam Blatherwick (GBR)	25:15.4
3	Piet Ooms (NED)	27:24.4
4	Vilhelm Andersson (SWE)	27:34.4

Heat 3

Moist had no competition in the third heat.

Place	Swimmer	Time	Qual.
1	Lewis Moist (GBR)	26:52.0	QS

Heat 4

Place	Swimmer	Time	Qual.
1	Thomas Battersby (GBR)	23:42.8	QS OR
2	Frank Springfield (ANZ)	24:52.4
3	André Theuriet (FRA)	32:37.0

Heat 5

Place	Swimmer	Time	Qual.
1	John Jarvis (GBR)	25:51.6	QS
2	James Green (USA)	28:09.0
3	Richard Hassell (GBR)	28:14.8

Heat 6

Place	Swimmer	Time	Qual.
1	Henry Taylor (GBR)	23:24.4	QS OR
2	Otto Scheff (AUT)	24:15.8	qs
3	Gustaf Wretman (SWE)	28:40.8
—	Eduard Meijer (NED)	DNF

Heat 7

Foster had no competition in the seventh heat.

Place	Swimmer	Time	Qual.
1	William Foster (GBR)	24:33.0	QS

Semifinals

Thursday July 23, 1908: The fastest two swimmers from each semifinal advanced to the final.

Semifinal 1

Place	Swimmer	Time	Qual.
1	Henry Taylor (GBR)	22:54.0	QF OR
2	Frank Beaurepaire (ANZ)	23:25.4	QF
3	William Foster (GBR)	Unknown
4	Lewis Moist (GBR)	Unknown

Semifinal 2

Place	Swimmer	Time	Qual.
1	Thomas Battersby (GBR)	23:23.0	QF
2	Otto Scheff (AUT)	24:25.0	QF
—	John Jarvis (GBR)	DNF
	Paul Radmilovic (GBR)	DNF

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.

Place	Swimmer	Time
1	Henry Taylor (GBR)	22:48.4 WR
2	Thomas Battersby (GBR)	22:51.2
3	Frank Beaurepaire (ANZ)	22:56.2
4	Otto Scheff (AUT)	Unknown