# Swimming at the 1948 Summer Olympics – Men's 1500 metre freestyle

The men's 1500 metre freestyle event at the 1948 Olympic Games took place between 5 and 7 August, at the Empire Pool. 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.

## Medalists

| Gold | Jimmy McLane United States |
| Silver | John Marshall Australia |
| Bronze | György Mitró Hungary |

## Results
### Heats

| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time |
| 1 | John Marshall | Australia | 20:01.1 |
| 2 | György Csordás | Hungary | 20:06.8 |
| 3 | Marijan Stipetić | Yugoslavia | 20:10.1 |
| 4 | Donald Bland | Great Britain | 20:13.9 |
| 5 | György Mitró | Hungary | 20:15.0 |
| 6 | Jimmy McLane | United States | 20:17.7 |
| 7 | Miroslav Bartůšek | Czechoslovakia | 20:19.4 |
| 8 | Per-Olof Östrand | Sweden | 20:19.8 |
| 9 | Florbel Pérez | Uruguay | 20:20.2 |
| 10 | Forbes Norris | United States | 20:21.0 |
| 11 | Bill Heusner | United States | 20:29.6 |
| 12 | Ferenc Vörös | Hungary | 20:31.9 |
| 13 | Jack Hale | Great Britain | 20:31.9 |
| 14 | Jo Bernardo | France | 20:34.8 |
| 15 | Rolf Kestener | Brazil | 20:36.3 |
| 16 | Luis González | Colombia | 20:40.6 |
| 17 | Don Johnston | South Africa | 20:41.8 |
| 18 | Jack Wardrop | Great Britain | 20:43.0 |
| 19 | Ramón Bravo | Mexico | 20:45.5 |
| 20 | Luis Child | Colombia | 20:47.0 |
| 21 | Angel Maldonado | Mexico | 20:47.2 |
| 22 | René Cornu | France | 21:01.6 |
| 23 | Sambiao Basanung | Philippines | 21:05.9 |
| 24 | Isidoro Martínez-Vela | Spain | 21:13.7 |
| 25 | César Borja | Mexico | 21:15.8 |
| 26 | Alejandro Febrero | Spain | 21:15.9 |
| 27 | Adolfo Mancuso | Argentina | 21:16.7 |
| 28 | Vanja Illić | Yugoslavia | 21:17.0 |
| 29 | Joseph Reynders | Belgium | 21:23.1 |
| 30 | Doug Gibson | Canada | 21:25.6 |
| 31 | Juan Garay | Argentina | 21:33.2 |
| 32 | Jesús Domínguez | Spain | 21:33.5 |
| 33 | Garrick Agnew | Australia | 21:40.1 |
| 34 | Janko Puhar | Yugoslavia | 21:45.1 |
| 35 | Derek Oatway | Bermuda | 21:55.1 |
| 36 | Bimal Chandra | India | 22:52.9 |
| 37 | Philip Tribley | Bermuda | 22:56.6 |
| 38 | Allen Gilchrist | Canada | 23:00.6 |
| 39 | Anwar Aziz Chaudhry | Pakistan | 25:37.4 |

### Semifinals

| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Notes |
| 1 | Jimmy McLane | United States | 19:52.2 | Q |
| 2 | John Marshall | Australia | 19:53.8 | Q |
| 3 | György Mitró | Hungary | 20:06.5 | Q |
| 4 | György Csordás | Hungary | 20:06.6 | Q |
| 5 | Forbes Norris | United States | 20:09.3 | Q |
| 6 | Marjan Stipetić | Yugoslavia | 20:12.9 | Q |
| 7 | Donald Bland | Great Britain | 20:19.8 | q |
| 8 | Bill Heusner | United States | 20:23.9 | q |
| 9 | Jo Bernardo | France | 20:25.5 | |
| 10 | Ferenc Vörös | Hungary | 20:31.4 | |
| 11 | Florbel Pérez | Uruguay | 20:32.6 | |
| 12 | Miroslav Bartůšek | Czechoslovakia | 20:32.9 | |
| 13 | Luis González | Colombia | 20:41.6 | |
| 14 | Rolf Egon | Brazil | 20:44.6 | |
Key: Q = qualification by place in heat, q = qualification by overall place

### Final

| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time |
| | Jimmy McLane | United States | 19:18.5 |
| | John Marshall | Australia | 19:31.3 |
| | György Mitró | Hungary | 19:43.2 |
| 4 | György Csordás | Hungary | 19:54.2 |
| 5 | Marjan Stipetić | Yugoslavia | 20:10.7 |
| 6 | Forbes Norris | United States | 20:18.8 |
| 7 | Donald Bland | Great Britain | 20:19.8 |
| 8 | Bill Heusner | United States | 20:45.4 |