Swimming at the 1956 Summer Olympics – Men's 1500 metre freestyle
The men's 1500 metre freestyle event at the 1956 Olympic Games took place between December 5 and 7. This swimming event used freestyle swimming, which means that the method of the stroke is not regulated. 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.Medalists
Results
Heats
Four heats were held; the swimmers with the fastest eight times advanced to the Finals. The swimmers that advanced are highlighted.Heat One
Heat Two
Heat Three
Heat Four
Final
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Notes |
| Murray Rose | | 17:58.9 | |
| Tsuyoshi Yamanaka | | 18:00.3 | |
| George Breen | | 18:08.2 | |
| 4 | Murray Garretty | | 18:26.5 | |
| 5 | William Slater | | 18:38.1 | |
| 6 | Jean Boiteux | | 18:38.3 | |
| 7 | Yukiyoshi Aoki | | 18:38.3 | |
| 8 | Gary Winram | | 19:06.2 | |
