The men's 1500 metre freestyle event at the 2008 Olympic Games took place on 15 and 17 August at the Beijing National Aquatics Center in Beijing, China.

The winning margin was 0.69 seconds which as of 2023 remains the only time this event was won by less than one second at the Olympics.

Competing at his third Games, Oussama Mellouli made an Olympic milestone to become Tunisia's first ever gold medalist in 48 years. He denied Australia's Grant Hackett a third straight title in the event, touching the wall first in an African record of 14:40.84. Hanging with the leaders through the first two-thirds of the race, Mellouli moved into the lead at the 1,100-metre mark, and held off Hackett's sprinted finish on the final lap. This was also a retribution for Mellouli, who served an 18-month doping ban from FINA for using the banned stimulant Adderall.

Trying to become the first male swimmer to win three gold medals in the same event, Hackett collected a silver in 14:41.53. Meanwhile, Canada's Ryan Cochrane powered home with a bronze in 14:42.69, finishing ahead of Russia's Yuri Prilukov (14:43.21). U.S. swimmer Larsen Jensen, silver medalist in Athens four years earlier, placed fifth with a time 14:48.16, and was followed in the sixth spot by Great Britain's David Davies in 14:52.11. Chinese duo Zhang Lin (14:55.20) and Sun Yang (15:05.12) rounded out the finale.

Earlier in the prelims, Cochrane established a new Olympic record of 14:40.84 in heat three, until Hackett cleared the 14:40 barrier, and lowered the record to 14:38.92 in the final heat of five.

Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.

The following new Olympic records were set during this competition. Date Event Name Nationality Time Record August 15 Heat 3 Ryan Cochrane 14:40.84 August 15 Heat 5 Grant Hackett 14:38.92

Results

Heats Rank Heat Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 1 5 5 Grant Hackett 14:38.92 Q, 2 3 5 Ryan Cochrane 14:40.84 Q, AM 3 3 4 Yuri Prilukov 14:41.13 Q, EU 4 5 6 Zhang Lin 14:45.84 Q, AS 5 3 3 David Davies 14:46.11 Q 6 4 6 Oussama Mellouli 14:47.76 Q 7 4 2 Sun Yang 14:48.39 Q 8 5 3 Larsen Jensen 14:49.53 Q 9 4 4 Mateusz Sawrymowicz 14:50.30 10 4 5 Federico Colbertaldo 14:51.44 11 5 4 Peter Vanderkaay 14:52.11 12 5 1 Spyridon Gianniotis 14:53.32 NR 13 2 3 Nicolas Rostoucher 15:00.58 14 2 5 Mads Glæsner 15:03.33 15 4 3 Craig Stevens 15:04.82 16 3 6 Park Tae-Hwan 15:05.55 17 4 7 Samuel Pizzetti 15:07.02 18 3 7 Takeshi Matsuda 15:09.17 19 5 8 Gergő Kis 15:09.67 20 2 2 Tom Vangeneugden 15:11.04 NR 21 1 5 Florian Janistyn 15:12.46 NR 22 5 7 Troyden Prinsloo 15:12.64 23 3 1 Sergey Fesenko 15:13.03 24 2 4 Maciej Hreniak 15:16.16 25 3 8 Richard Charlesworth 15:17.27 26 4 8 Marcos Rivera 15:18.98 27 3 2 Sébastien Rouault 15:21.14 28 2 1 Dragoș Coman 15:24.05 29 2 7 Fernando Costa 15:26.21 30 1 3 Petar Stoychev 15:28.84 31 5 2 Nikita Lobintsev 15:35.47 32 1 6 Ryan Arabejo 15:42.77 33 2 8 Ricardo Monasterio 15:45.98 34 1 4 Juan Martín Pereyra 15:49.57 35 1 2 Ediz Yildirimer 16:28.79 2 6 Christian Kubusch 4 1 Luka Turk

Final Rank Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 7 Oussama Mellouli 14:40.84 AF 4 Grant Hackett 14:41.53 5 Ryan Cochrane 14:42.69 4 3 Yuri Prilukov 14:43.21 5 8 Larsen Jensen 14:48.16 6 2 David Davies 14:52.11 7 6 Zhang Lin 14:55.20 8 1 Sun Yang 15:05.12

References

External links Official Olympic Report