Swimming at the 2012 Summer Olympics – Men's 1500 metre freestyle
The men's 1500 metre freestyle event at the 2012 Summer Olympics took place on 3–4 August at the London Aquatics Centre in London, United Kingdom.
Shaking off a potential false start due to fan noise, China's Sun Yang put together a marvelous swim with a relentless attack on his world record to strike a long-distance freestyle double at the Olympic Games for the first time, since the Soviet Union's Vladimir Salnikov did so in 1980. Leading from the start, Sun quickly dropped two seconds under a world-record pace, as he pulled away further from the rest of the field to smash his own standard with a stunning gold-medal time in 14:31.02. Trailing behind the leader by 8.61 seconds on a dominant fashion, Canada's Ryan Cochrane held off a close battle from Tunisia's defending champion Oussama Mellouli for the silver in an American record of 14:39.63. Meanwhile, Mellouli faded down the stretch to pick up a bronze in 14:40.31, edging out of South Korea's Park Tae-hwan by a wide margin of 10.3 seconds.
Italian teenager Gregorio Paltrinieri finished fifth in 14:51.92, while U.S. swimmer Connor Jaeger posted a sixth-place time of 14:52.99. Poland's Mateusz Sawrymowicz and Great Britain's Daniel Fogg rounded out a historic finale.
Notable swimmers missed the final including Jaeger's teammate Andrew Gemmell, Ukraine's Sergiy Frolov, Hungary's Gergő Kis, and British home favorite David Davies, bronze medalist in Athens eight years earlier.
Records
At the start of this event, the existing World and Olympic records were as follows.The following records were established during the competition:
| Date | Event | Name | Nationality | Time | Record |
| August 4 | Final | Sun Yang | 14:31.02 | , |
Results
Heats
| Rank | Heat | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 4 | 4 | Sun Yang | 14:43.25 | Q | |
| 2 | 4 | 7 | Oussama Mellouli | 14:46.23 | Q | |
| 3 | 3 | 4 | Ryan Cochrane | 14:49.31 | Q | |
| 4 | 2 | 5 | Gregorio Paltrinieri | 14:50.11 | Q | |
| 5 | 2 | 3 | Daniel Fogg | 14:56.12 | Q | |
| 6 | 3 | 5 | Park Tae-hwan | 14:56.89 | Q | |
| 7 | 3 | 3 | Connor Jaeger | 14:57.56 | Q | |
| 8 | 2 | 6 | Mateusz Sawrymowicz | 14:57.59 | Q | |
| 9 | 4 | 3 | Andrew Gemmell | 14:59.05 | ||
| 10 | 4 | 1 | Sergiy Frolov | 14:59.19 | NR | |
| 11 | 4 | 6 | Job Kienhuis | 15:03.16 | ||
| 12 | 3 | 7 | Gergely Gyurta | 15:04.22 | ||
| 13 | 2 | 2 | Gabriele Detti | 15:06.22 | ||
| 14 | 3 | 2 | Damien Joly | 15:08.50 | ||
| 15 | 3 | 1 | Dai Jun | 15:13.90 | ||
| 16 | 3 | 6 | David Davies | 15:14.77 | ||
| 17 | 4 | 5 | Pál Joensen | 15:18.42 | ||
| 18 | 4 | 8 | Jarrod Poort | 15:20.82 | ||
| 19 | 2 | 4 | Gergő Kis | 15:21.74 | ||
| 20 | 4 | 2 | Anthony Pannier | 15:24.08 | ||
| 21 | 2 | 7 | Heerden Herman | 15:25.71 | ||
| 22 | 1 | 4 | Arturo Pérez Vertti Ferrer | 15:25.91 | ||
| 23 | 2 | 8 | Alejandro Gómez | 15:27.38 | ||
| 24 | 1 | 7 | Jan Micka | 15:29.34 | ||
| 25 | 1 | 6 | Anton Sveinn McKee | 15:29.40 | NR | |
| 26 | 1 | 5 | Ediz Yıldırımer | 15:29.97 | ||
| 27 | 2 | 1 | Matias Koski | 15:34.80 | ||
| 28 | 1 | 3 | Ventsislav Aydarski | 15:34.86 | ||
| 29 | 3 | 8 | Juan Martín Pereyra | 15:36.72 | ||
| 30 | 1 | 2 | Uladzimir Zhyharau | 15:48.67 | ||
| 31 | 1 | 1 | Ullalmath Gagan | 16:31.14 |