# Swimming at the 2004 Summer Olympics – Men's 1500 metre freestyle

The men's 1500 metre freestyle event at the 2004 Olympic Games was contested at the Olympic Aquatic Centre of the Athens Olympic Sports Complex in Athens, Greece on August 20 and 21.
Australian swimmer and world record holder Grant Hackett became the third swimmer in history to defend the title in this event, breaking an Olympic record time of 14:43.40. U.S. swimmer Larsen Jensen set an American record time of 14:45.29 to take the silver. Great Britain's David Davies, on the other hand, fought off a challenge from Russia's Yuri Prilukov in the final lap to earn a bronze medal by a 7-second margin, with a national record of 14:45.95.

## Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows:
| World record | Grant Hackett (AUS) | 14:34.56 | Fukuoka, Japan | 29 July 2001 |
| Olympic record | Kieren Perkins (AUS) | 14:43.48 | Barcelona, Spain | 31 July 1992 |
The following records were established during the competition:
| Date | Event | Name | Nationality | Time | Record |
| 21 August | Final | Grant Hackett | Australia | 14:43.40 | OR |

## Results
### Heats

| Rank | Heat | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 3 | 4 | David Davies | Great Britain | 14:57.03 | Q |
| 2 | 5 | 5 | Yuri Prilukov | Russia | 15:01.02 | Q |
| 3 | 5 | 4 | Grant Hackett | Australia | 15:01.89 | Q |
| 4 | 4 | 4 | Larsen Jensen | United States | 15:03.75 | Q |
| 5 | 5 | 2 | Spyridon Gianniotis | Greece | 15:03.87 | Q |
| 6 | 3 | 7 | Dragoș Coman | Romania | 15:06.33 | Q, NR |
| 7 | 3 | 2 | Graeme Smith | Great Britain | 15:07.45 | Q |
| 8 | 5 | 3 | Craig Stevens | Australia | 15:09.54 | Q |
| 9 | 5 | 7 | Paweł Korzeniowski | Poland | 15:11.62 | |
| 10 | 4 | 5 | Igor Chervynskiy | Ukraine | 15:12.58 | |
| 11 | 4 | 3 | Nicolas Rostoucher | France | 15:13.56 | |
| 12 | 5 | 6 | Christian Hein | Germany | 15:15.42 | |
| 13 | 3 | 6 | Takeshi Matsuda | Japan | 15:16.42 | |
| 14 | 2 | 4 | Oussama Mellouli | Tunisia | 15:18.98 | |
| 15 | 5 | 1 | Ricardo Monasterio | Venezuela | 15:20.89 | |
| 16 | 3 | 5 | Erik Vendt | United States | 15:22.00 | |
| 17 | 2 | 5 | Petar Stoychev | Bulgaria | 15:28.32 | |
| 18 | 3 | 8 | Andrew Hurd | Canada | 15:28.71 | |
| 19 | 3 | 3 | Alexei Filipets | Russia | 15:30.05 | |
| 20 | 4 | 8 | Bojan Zdešar | Slovenia | 15:31.57 | |
| 21 | 5 | 8 | Fernando Costa | Portugal | 15:32.55 | |
| 22 | 4 | 2 | Thomas Lurz | Germany | 15:33.81 | |
| 23 | 4 | 1 | Gergő Kis | Hungary | 15:38.06 | |
| 24 | 4 | 7 | Christian Minotti | Italy | 15:39.31 | |
| 25 | 3 | 1 | Cho Sung-mo | South Korea | 15:43.43 | |
| 26 | 2 | 6 | Juan Martín Pereyra | Argentina | 15:53.29 | |
| 27 | 1 | 5 | Charnvudth Saengsri | Thailand | 15:54.46 | |
| 28 | 2 | 2 | Moss Burmester | New Zealand | 15:56.42 | |
| 29 | 2 | 3 | Nenad Buljan | Croatia | 15:56.54 | |
| 30 | 1 | 4 | Giancarlo Zolezzi | Chile | 16:00.52 | |
| 31 | 4 | 6 | Georgios Diamantidis | Greece | 16:06.31 | |
| 32 | 1 | 3 | Saw Yi Khy | Malaysia | 16:06.38 | |
| 33 | 2 | 7 | Xin Tong | China | 16:10.43 | |
| 34 | 2 | 1 | Miguel Mendoza | Philippines | 16:26.52 | |

### Final

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| | 3 | Grant Hackett | Australia | 14:43.40 | OR |
| | 6 | Larsen Jensen | United States | 14:45.29 | NR |
| | 4 | David Davies | Great Britain | 14:45.95 | NR |
| 4 | 5 | Yuri Prilukov | Russia | 14:52.48 | NR |
| 5 | 2 | Spyridon Gianniotis | Greece | 15:03.69 | |
| 6 | 1 | Graeme Smith | Great Britain | 15:09.71 | |
| 7 | 7 | Dragoș Coman | Romania | 15:10.21 | |
| 8 | 8 | Craig Stevens | Australia | 15:13.66 | |