# Swimming at the 2024 Summer Olympics – Men's 1500 metre freestyle

The men's 1500 metre freestyle event at the 2024 Summer Olympics was held from 3 to 4 August 2024 at Paris La Défense Arena, which was converted to a swimming pool for the swimming events. Since an Olympic size swimming pool is 50 metres long, each competitor had to swim 30 lengths of the pool.
The USA's Bobby Finke was the favourite going into the event, with other contenders including Ireland's Daniel Wiffen, Italy's Gregorio Paltrinieri, Australia's Samuel Short, Ukraine's Mykhailo Romanchuk and Germany's Florian Wellbrock. Romanchuk withdrew from the event due to illness, and Wellbrock was eliminated in the heats.
In the finals, Finke led from beginning to end to win with a new world record of 14:30.67. Paltrinieri swam 14:34.55 for silver, and Wiffen swam 14:39.63 for bronze. Also in the final, Dávid Betlehem lowered Hungary's national record from the 14:45.59 he achieved in the heats to 14:40.91, Turkey's Kuzey Tunçelli swam 14:41.22 to break the world junior record and his country's national record, and David Aubry lowered France's national record to 14:44.66.

## Background

The USA's defending Olympic champion Bobby Finke won silver at the 2023 World Championships and had the fastest qualification time of 14:31.59. Tunisian Ahmed Hafnaoui, the 2023 Championships winner, withdrew from the Olympics due to an undisclosed injury.
Ireland's Daniel Wiffen won the event at the 2024 World Championships in Finke's absence with the second fastest qualifying time of 14:34:07. Italy's Gregorio Paltrinieri won the event at the 2022 World Championships, but withdrew from it at the 2023 Championships due to what SwimSwam called "physical problems". Other contenders included Australia's 2023 World Championships bronze medallist Samuel Short, defending Olympic silver medallist Mykhailo Romanchuk from Ukraine, and defending Olympic silver medallist Florian Wellbrock from Germany.
Both SwimSwam and Swimming World predicted Finke would take gold and Wiffen would take silver. Swimming World predicted Short would win bronze, while SwimSwam predicted Paltrinieri would take it.

## Qualification

Each National Olympic Committee (NOC) was permitted to enter a maximum of two qualified athletes in each individual event, but only if both of them had attained the Olympic Qualifying Time (OQT). For this event, the OQT was 15:00.99. World Aquatics then considered athletes qualifying through universality; NOCs were given one event entry for each gender, which could be used by any athlete regardless of qualification time, providing the spaces had not already been taken by athletes from that nation who had achieved the OQT. Finally, the rest of the spaces were filled by athletes who had met the Olympic Consideration Time (OCT), which was 15:05.49 for this event. In total, 24 athletes qualified through achieving the OQT, two athletes qualified through universality places and two athletes qualified through achieving the OCT.
Top 10 fastest qualification times :
| Swimmer | Country | Time | Competition |
| Bobby Finke | United States | 14:31:59 | 2023 World Aquatics Championships |
| Daniel Wiffen | Ireland | 14:34:07 | 2024 World Aquatics Championships |
| Florian Wellbrock | Germany | 14:34:89 | 2023 Berlin Open |
| Samuel Short | Australia | 14:37:28 | 2023 World Aquatics Championships |
| Mykhailo Romanchuk | Ukraine | 14:40:21 | 2023 Stockholm Open |
| Gregorio Paltrinieri | Italy | 14:41:38 | 2023 Italian Championships |
| Sven Schwarz | Germany | 14:43:53 | 2023 European U-23 Championships |
| David Aubry | France | 14:44:85 | 2024 World Aquatics Championships |
| Dávid Betlehem | Hungary | 14:46:44 | 2024 World Aquatics Championships |
| Daniel Jervis | Great Britain | 14:46:95 | 2023 British Swimming Championships |

## Heats

Four heats took place on 4 August 2024, starting at 18:37. The swimmers with the best eight times in the heats advanced to the final. Wiffen qualified with the fastest time of 14:40.34, which was two seconds faster than the rest of the field, while Paltrinieri qualified with the second fastest time of 14:42.56. Hungary's Dávid Betlehem broke his country's national record with a time of 14:45.59. Tunisia's Ahmed Jaouadi, France's David Aubry, Turkey's Kuzey Tunçelli, France's Damien Joly, Dávid Betlehem of Hungary, and Finke also qualified. Romanchuk withdrew from the race due to illness.
Results :
| Rank | Heat | Lane | Swimmer | Nation | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 3 | 4 | Daniel Wiffen | Ireland | 14:40.34 | Q |
| 2 | 3 | 3 | Gregorio Paltrinieri | Italy | 14:42.56 | Q |
| 3 | 4 | 7 | Ahmed Jaouadi | Tunisia | 14:44.20 | Q |
| 4 | 3 | 6 | David Aubry | France | 14:44.90 | Q |
| 5 | 2 | 4 | Kuzey Tunçelli | Turkey | 14:45.27 | Q |
| 6 | 4 | 4 | Bobby Finke | United States | 14:45.31 | Q |
| 7 | 3 | 1 | Damien Joly | France | 14:45.52 | Q |
| 8 | 4 | 2 | Dávid Betlehem | Hungary | 14:45.59 | Q, NR |
| 9 | 4 | 1 | Fei Liwei | China | 14:50.06 | |
| 10 | 4 | 6 | Sven Schwarz | Germany | 14:51.97 | |
| 11 | 3 | 8 | Zalán Sárkány | Hungary | 14:52.42 | |
| 12 | 3 | 7 | Luca de Tullio | Italy | 14:55.61 | |
| 13 | 3 | 5 | Samuel Short | Australia | 14:58.15 | |
| 14 | 4 | 5 | Florian Wellbrock | Germany | 15:01.88 | |
| 15 | 3 | 2 | Daniel Jervis | Great Britain | 15:03.75 | |
| 16 | 2 | 8 | Krzysztof Chmielewski | Poland | 15:04.99 | |
| 17 | 2 | 2 | Victor Johansson | Sweden | 15:05.62 | |
| 18 | 4 | 8 | David Johnston | United States | 15:10.64 | |
| 19 | 1 | 5 | Dimitrios Markos | Greece | 15:11.19 | |
| 20 | 2 | 6 | Henrik Christiansen | Norway | 15:14.11 | |
| 21 | 1 | 4 | Nguyễn Huy Hoàng | Vietnam | 15:18.63 | |
| 22 | 2 | 3 | Carlos Garach | Spain | 15:20.84 | |
| 23 | 2 | 1 | Emir Batur Albayrak | Turkey | 15:23.21 | |
| 24 | 1 | 3 | Rodolfo Falcón Jr | Cuba | 16:00.31 | |
| | 4 | 3 | Mykhailo Romanchuk | Ukraine | DNS | |
| | 2 | 5 | Marwan Elkamash | Egypt | DNS | |
| | 2 | 7 | Vlad Stancu | Romania | DNS | |

## Final

The final took place at 18:37 on 4 August. Finke led from beginning to end to successfully defend his title with a new world record of 14:30.67, which beat Sun Yang's previous mark of 14:31.02 from the 2012 Olympics. Paltrinieri finished almost four seconds later with 14:34.55 to win silver, and Wiffen finished with 14:39.63 for bronze.
Betlehem finished fourth with a time of 14:40.91, which lowered his national record set in the heats by 4.68 seconds. Tunçelli finished fifth with a new world junior record and national record of 14:41.22, which lowered his previous mark by 0.67. David Aubry also lowered France's national record, swimming 14:44.66 to finish seventh.
SwimSwam noted that Finke had changed his strategy away from swimming faster during the back end of the race to swimming a more consistent pace the whole way through, and they later called his race the "swim of the meet". Finke's win also moved the USA to the top of the swimming medal table, where they stayed for the remaining day of the swimming events. His win won him the USA's only male individual swimming gold of the Games.
Results :
| Rank | Lane | Swimmer | Nation | Time | Notes |
| | 7 | Bobby Finke | United States | 14:30.67 | WR |
| | 5 | Gregorio Paltrinieri | Italy | 14:34.55 | |
| | 4 | Daniel Wiffen | Ireland | 14:39.63 | |
| 4 | 8 | Dávid Betlehem | Hungary | 14:40.91 | NR |
| 5 | 2 | Kuzey Tunçelli | Turkey | 14:41.22 | WJ, NR |
| 6 | 3 | Ahmed Jaouadi | Tunisia | 14:43.35 | |
| 7 | 6 | David Aubry | France | 14:44.66 | NR |
| 8 | 1 | Damien Joly | France | 14:52.61 | |
Statistics :
| Name | 500 metre split | 1000 metre split | 1300 metre split | Time | Stroke rate (strokes/min) |
| Bobby Finke | 04:49.10 | 09:41.72 | 12:36.69 | 14:30.67 | 39.0 |
| Gregorio Paltrinieri | 04:50.37 | 09:43.02 | 12:38.05 | 14:34.55 | 43.3 |
| Daniel Wiffen | 04:52.24 | 09:45.16 | 12:41.93 | 14:39.63 | 36.6 |
| Dávid Betlehem | 04:52.76 | 09:48.54 | 12:46.27 | 14:40.91 | 47.5 |
| Kuzey Tunçelli | 04:53.36 | 09:49.29 | 12:46.13 | 14:41.22 | 44.0 |
| Ahmed Jaouadi | 04:53.23 | 09:49.34 | 12:48.29 | 14:43.35 | 36.9 |
| David Aubry | 04:59.29 | 09:50.30 | 12:48.15 | 14:44.66 | 35.1 |
| Damien Joly | 04:57.52 | 09:55.31 | 12:54.09 | 14:52.61 | 38.8 |