Swimming at the 1896 Summer Olympics – Men's 500 metre freestyle

The men's 500 metre freestyle was one of the swimming events in the 1896 Summer Olympics.

Only three swimmers swam in the 500 metre freestyle. Paul Neumann won the event. Alfréd Hajós, the winner of the 100m, tried to win all 3 open swimming events. However, he did not swim in the 500m because it started after the 100 metres. Efstathios Chorafas was the only swimmer to swim in all three events.

Background

This was the only Olympic Games with a 500-metre freestyle swimming event. The 1900 Olympics had 200- and 1000-metre events. In the 1904 Olympics, the 400-metre swim was used. This became the standard for swimming after that.

Competition

This freestyle swimming competition was in a single race. All of the swimmers swam at the same time. The swimmers were taken out by a ship into the Bay of Zea. The swimmers would swim back to the shore.Official Report, part 2, p. 96.

Schedule

The 500 metre freestyle was the third of the swimming events.

 Date Time Round Gregorian Julian Saturday, 11 April 1896  Saturday, 30 March 1896  11:00  Final

Results

 Rank  Swimmer  Nation  Time     8:12.6     9:57.6     Unknown

References

  (Digitally available at  )
  (Excerpt available at  )


Men's freestyle 0500