The men's 1500 metre freestyle event at the 1972 Olympic Games took place between September 3 and 4. 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 consisted of 30 lengths of the pool.
Results
Heats Heat 1 Rank Athlete Country Time Notes 1 Hans Faßnacht 16:34.63 2 Peter Rosenkranz 16:58.26 3 François Deley 17:06.09 4 Jim Carter 17:16.01 5 Sergio Irredento 17:19.45 6 Friðrik Guðmundsson 17:32.47 7 Edwin Borja 18:12.17
Heat 2 Rank Athlete Country Time Notes 1 Graham Windeatt 15:59.63 2 Guillermo García 16:29.48 3 Anders Bellbring 16:33.27 4 Deane Buckboro 16:52.50 5 Gerardo Vera 17:10.33 6 Gustavo González 17:23.53
Heat 3 Rank Athlete Country Time Notes 1 Mike Burton 16:09.56 2 Graham White 16:19.63 3 Brian Brinkley 16:54.39 4 Alberto García 17:05.68 5 Jorge Jaramillo 17:35.84 6 Eugen Almer 17:49.80
Heat 4 Rank Athlete Country Time Notes 1 Doug Northway 16:15.30 2 Mark Treffers 16:23.86 3 Dusan Grozaj 16:44.59 4 Vincenzo Finocchiaro 17:13.42 5 Tomas Becerra 17:16.38 6 Alfredo Carlos Machado 17:20.34 7 Guillermo Pacheco 17:36.36 8 Dae Imlani 17:37.65
Heat 5 Rank Athlete Country Time Notes 1 Brad Cooper 16:11.41 2 Bengt Gingsjö 16:26.67 3 Klaus Dockhorn 16:55.30 4 Jo O-ryeon 17:29.23 5 Aleksandr Samsonov 17:32.88 6 Kamal Kenawi Ali Moustafa 17:40.37 7 Neil Dexter 17:42.83 8 Brian Clifford 18:09.28
Heat 6 Rank Athlete Country Time Notes 1 Ton van Klooster 16:34.77 2 Axel Freudenberg 16:37.19 3 Zoltán Verrasztó 17:18.66 4 Władysław Wojtakajtis 17:23.47 5 Christoph Kreienbühl 17:27.67 6 Csaba Sós 17:43.97 AC Dimitrios Theodoropoulos 16:17.61 DQ AC Rick DeMont 18:15.90 DQ
Final
Rank Athlete Country Time Notes Mike Burton 15:52.58 WR Graham Windeatt 15:58.48 Doug Northway 16:09.25 4 Bengt Gingsjö 16:16.01 5 Graham White 16:17.22 6 Mark Treffers 16:18.84 7 Brad Cooper 16:30.49 8 Guillermo García 16:36.03
Key: WR = World record
References