The men's 1500 metre freestyle

Freestyle swimming

Freestyle is an unregulated swimming style used in swimming competitions according to the rules of FINA. The front crawl stroke is almost universally used during a freestyle race, as this style is generally the fastest...

was one of 6 swimming

Swimming (sport)

Swimming is a sport governed by the Fédération Internationale de Natation .-History: Competitive swimming in Europe began around 1800 BCE, mostly in the form of the freestyle. In 1873 Steve Bowyer introduced the trudgen to Western swimming competitions, after copying the front crawl used by Native...

 events on the swimming at the 1908 Summer Olympics

Swimming at the 1908 Summer Olympics

At the 1908 Summer Olympics in London, six swimming events were contested. These were the first Olympic Games in which a 100 metre pool had been especially constructed . Previous Olympic events were swum in open water...

 programme. Its distance was the longest of the 3 individual freestyle event distances. The competition was held from Tuesday July 21, 1908 to Saturday July 25, 1908.

Nineteen swimmers from eight nations competed.

Records

These were the standing world and Olympic records (in minutes) prior to the 1908 Summer Olympics.

World Record	?	?
Olympic Record	27:18.2(*)	Emil Rausch Emil Rausch Emil A. Rausch was a German freestyle swimmer who competed in the 1904 Summer Olympics and 1906 Summer Olympics....	St. Louis St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...  (USA United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district... )	September 6, 1904

(*) one mile (1609.34 m)

In the final Henry Taylor

Henry Taylor (swimmer)

Henry Taylor was a British freestyle swimmer who competed in the 1906 Summer Olympics, in the 1908 Summer Olympics, in the 1912 Summer Olympics, and in the 1920 Summer Olympics. He served in the Royal Navy during the First World War, and continued to swim competitively until 1926...

 set the first official world record for this distance in 22:48.4.

First round

Tuesday July 21, 1908: The fastest swimmer in each heat and the fastest loser advanced, qualifying eight swimmers for the semifinals.

Heat 1

Place	Swimmer	Time	Qual.
1		25:02.4	QS OR
2		27:15.4
3		28:52.6

Heat 2

Place	Swimmer	Time	Qual.
1		23:45.8	QS OR
2		25:15.4
3		27:24.4
4		27:34.4

Heat 3

Moist had no competition in the third heat.

Place	Swimmer	Time	Qual.
1		26:52.0	QS

Heat 4

Place	Swimmer	Time	Qual.
1		23:42.8	QS OR
2		24:52.4
3		32:37.0

Heat 5

Place	Swimmer	Time	Qual.
1		25:51.6	QS
2		28:09.0
3		28:14.8

Heat 6

Place	Swimmer	Time	Qual.
1		23:24.4	QS OR
2		24:15.8	qs
3		28:40.8
—		DNF

Heat 7

Foster had no competition in the seventh heat.

Place	Swimmer	Time	Qual.
1		24:33.0	QS

Semifinals

Thursday July 23, 1908: The fastest two swimmers from each semifinal advanced to the final.

Semifinal 1

Place	Swimmer	Time	Qual.
1		22:54.0	QF OR
2		23:25.4	QF
3		Unknown
4		Unknown

Semifinal 2

Place	Swimmer	Time	Qual.
1		23:23.0	QF
2		24:25.0	QF
—		DNF
		DNF

Final

The final was held on Saturday July 25, 1908.

Taylor stopped after the finish, but Battersby swam an extra 109.344 metres after the finish to complete the mile. His time over the mile was 24:33.0, beating the standing record of 24:42.6 set by David Billington in 1905.

Place	Swimmer	Time
1		22:48.4 WR
2		22:51.2
3		22:56.2
4		Unknown

Sources