# Swimming at the 1952 Summer Olympics – Men's 1500 metre freestyle

The men's 1500 metre freestyle event at the 1952 Olympic Games took place between 31 July and 2 August, at the Swimming Stadium. 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.
Even though the top three swimmers were from different countries, all of them were of Japanese origin. Ford Konno was Japanese American and Tetsuo Okamoto was Japanese Brazilian.

## Medalists

| Gold | Ford Konno United States |
| Silver | Shiro Hashizume Japan |
| Bronze | Tetsuo Okamoto Brazil |

## Results
### Heats

Swimmers was starting in six heats. Eight of them with best times qualified to final round. Shiro Hashizume in first heat established new olympic record.

#### Heat 1

| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Notes |
| 1 | Shiro Hashizume | Japan | 18:34.0 | Q OR |
| 2 | Gotfryd Gremlowski | Poland | 19:17.5 | |
| 3 | Tonatiuh Gutiérrez | Mexico | 19:18.9 | |
| 4 | Sylvio dos Santos | Brazil | 19:26.8 | |
| 5 | Graham Johnston | South Africa | 19:27.1 | |
| 6 | Gerry McNamee | Canada | 20:02.5 | |
| 7 | Sambiao Basanung | Philippines | 20:58.6 | |

#### Heat 2

| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Notes |
| 1 | Jimmy McLane | United States | 19:09.3 | Q |
| 2 | Heinz-Günther Lehmann | Germany | 19:17.9 | |
| 3 | Efrén Fierro | Mexico | 19:55.8 | |
| 4 | Garrick Agnew | Australia | 20:03.8 | |
| 5 | Walter Schneider | Switzerland | 21:36.2 | |
| 6 | Muhammad Ramzan | Pakistan | 23:44.3 | |

#### Heat 3

| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Notes |
| 1 | Tetsuo Okamoto | Brazil | 19:05.6 | Q |
| 2 | György Csordás | Hungary | 19:26.2 | |
| 3 | Yukiyoshi Aoki | Japan | 19:27.0 | |
| 4 | Endel Press | Soviet Union | 20:11.7 | |
| 5 | Walter Bardgett | Bermuda | 21:42.4 | |
| 6 | Sonny Monteiro | Hong Kong | 22:26.7 | |

#### Heat 4

| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time |
| 1 | Jean Boiteux | France | 19:12.3 |
| 2 | Bill Woolsey | United States | 19:24.6 |
| 3 | César Borja | Mexico | 19:43.3 |
| 4 | Bob Sreenan | Great Britain | 19:59.2 |
| 5 | Vladimir Lavrienko | Soviet Union | 20:07.8 |
| 6 | Cheung Kin Man | Hong Kong | 20:50.2 |
| 7 | Eduardo Priggione | Uruguay | 21:11.9 |

#### Heat 5

| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Notes |
| 1 | Ford Konno | United States | 18:53.7 | Q |
| 2 | Jo Bernardo | France | 19:06.5 | Q |
| 3 | Dennis Ford | South Africa | 19:27.6 | |
| 4 | Allen Gilchrist | Canada | 20:08.3 | |

#### Heat 6

| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Notes |
| 1 | Peter Duncan | South Africa | 19:03.5 | Q |
| 2 | John Marshall | Australia | 19:09.2 | Q |
| 3 | Yasuo Kitamura | Japan | 19:10.3 | Q |
| 4 | Enrique Granados | Spain | 19:45.9 | |
| 5 | Geoffrey Marks | Ceylon | 20:59.4 | |
| 6 | Robert Cook | Bermuda | 20:59.6 | |
| 7 | Roar Woldum | Norway | 21:19.5 | |

### Final

| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Notes |
| | Ford Konno | United States | 18:30.3 | OR |
| | Shiro Hashizume | Japan | 18:41.4 | |
| | Tetsuo Okamoto | Brazil | 18:51.3 | |
| 4 | Jimmy McLane | United States | 18:51.5 | |
| 5 | Jo Bernardo | France | 18:59.1 | |
| 6 | Yasuo Kitamura | Japan | 19:00.4 | |
| 7 | Peter Duncan | South Africa | 19:12.1 | |
| 8 | John Marshall | Australia | 19:53.4 | |
Key: OR = Olympic record