The men's 1500 metre freestyle event at the 1964 Olympic Games

1964 Summer Olympics

The 1964 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XVIII Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event held in Tokyo, Japan in 1964. Tokyo had been awarded with the organization of the 1940 Summer Olympics, but this honor was subsequently passed to Helsinki because of Japan's...

 took place between October 16 and 17. This 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...

 event used freestyle swimming

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...

, which means that the method of the stroke is not regulated (unlike backstroke, breaststroke, and butterfly events). Nearly all swimmers use the front crawl

Front crawl

The front crawl, forward crawl, or freestyle is a swimming stroke usually regarded as the fastest of the four front primary strokes. As such, the front crawl stroke is nearly universally used during a freestyle swimming competition, hence the synonymously used term "freestyle". It is one of two...

 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.

Medalists

Heats

Five heats were held; the eight fastest swimmers advanced to the Finals. Those that advanced are highlighted.

Heat One

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time
1	Bob Windle	Australia Australia Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...	17:15.9
2	József Katona	Hungary Hungary Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...	17:33.5
3	Kazuyuki Iwamoto	Japan Japan Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...	17:52.7
4	Holger Kirschke	Germany Germany Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...	18:01.6
5	Celestino Pérez	Puerto Rico Puerto Rico Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...	18:07.2
6	Tan Thuan Heng	Malaysia	18:24.2
7	Esa Lepola	Finland Finland Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...	18:33.4

Heat Two

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time
1	Roy Saari	United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...	17:27.0
2	Sueaki Sasaki	Japan Japan Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...	17:28.8
3	Sandy Gilchrist	Canada Canada Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...	17:42.0
4	Tin Maung Ni	Myanmar Myanmar Burma , officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar , is a country in Southeast Asia. Burma is bordered by China on the northeast, Laos on the east, Thailand on the southeast, Bangladesh on the west, India on the northwest, the Bay of Bengal to the southwest, and the Andaman Sea on the south....	18:09.5
5	Alan Durrett	Zambia Zambia Zambia , officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. The neighbouring countries are the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Tanzania to the north-east, Malawi to the east, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia to the south, and Angola to the west....	18:24.9
6	Slobodan Dijaković	Yugoslavia Yugoslavia Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....	18:31.2
7	Walter Ledgard Jr.	Peru Peru Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....	19:10.3

Heat Three

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time
1	John Nelson	United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...	17:22.4
2	Russell Phegan	Australia Australia Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...	17:28.9
3	Guillermo Echevarría	Mexico Mexico The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...	17:35.0
4	Miguel Torres	Spain Spain Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...	17:36.0
5	Heinz Junga	Germany Germany Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...	18:08.7
6	Petr Lohnický	Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...	18:18.4
7	Eliot Chenaux	Puerto Rico Puerto Rico Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...	18:33.1

Heat Four

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time
1	Allan Wood	Australia Australia Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...	17:26.3
2	Veljko Rogošić	Yugoslavia Yugoslavia Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....	18:05.5
3	John Thurley	Great Britain Great Britain Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...	18:12.3
4	Ricardo Morello	Argentina Argentina Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...	18:46.5
5	Pano Capéronis	Switzerland Switzerland Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....	19:10.5
6	Robert Loh	Hong Kong Hong Kong Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...	19:28.6

Heat Five

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time
1	Bill Farley	United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...	17:30.5
2	Satoru Nakano	Japan Japan Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...	17:40.4
3	Julio Arango	Colombia Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...	17:59.1
4	Alfredo Guzmán	Mexico Mexico The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...	18:07.4

Final

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Notes
	Bob Windle Bob Windle Robert George "Bob" Windle is a former Australian freestyle swimmer of the 1960s, who won four Olympic medals, including an individual gold medal...		17:01.7	OR
	John Nelson John Nelson (swimmer) John Nelson is an American Professional Swimmer and Olympic Gold Medalist. Nelson attended Pompano Beach High School and eventually enrolled in Yale University where he met his future Gold Medalist teammate and World Record competitor, Don Schollander...		17:03.0
	Allan Wood Allan Wood Allan Wood was an Australian freestyle swimmer of the 1960s, who won two bronze medals in the 400 m and 1500 m freestyle events at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo...		17:07.7
4	William Farley		17:18.2
5	Russell Phegan		17:22.4
6	Sueaki Sasaki		17:25.3
7	Roy Saari Roy Saari Roy Allen Saari was a freestyle and medley swimmer from the United States, who won two Olympic medals .-References:* * *...		17:29.2
8	József Katona József Katona (swimmer) József Katona is a former freestyle swimmer from Hungary, who competed in two consecutive Summer Olympics for his native country, starting in 1960....		17:30.8

Key: OR = Olympic record