Kieren John Perkins is an Australian former freestyle swimmer. He specialised in the 1500-metre freestyle and won successive Olympic gold medals in this event in the 1990s. He won his first at the 1992 Olympics which he won in world record time and then at the 1996 Olympics when he defended his title. In total he won four Olympic medals.
Laure Manaudou is a retired French Olympic, world and European champion swimmer. She has held the world record in freestyle events between 200 and 1500 meter. She is the older sister of Florent Manaudou who is also an Olympic gold medalist swimmer.
Grant George Hackett OAM is an Australian swimmer, most famous for winning the men's 1500 metres freestyle race at both the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney and the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. This achievement has led him to be regarded as one of the greatest distance swimmers in history. He also collected a gold medal in Sydney for swimming in the heats of the 4 × 200 m freestyle relay. He was well regarded for his versatility, and has held the long course world records in the 200 m, 800 m, and 1500 m freestyle events. He dominated the 1500 m event for a decade, being undefeated in the event in finals from 1996 until the 2007 World Aquatics Championships. In total, he won 10 long-course world championship gold medals.
Claes Arne Borg was a Swedish swimmer. He is best known for breaking 32 world records and winning five Olympic medals in the 1920s. In 1926 Borg won the Svenska Dagbladet Gold Medal, shared with Edvin Wide. Next year, at the 1927 European Championships, he set a new world record in the 1500 m at 19:07.2, which stood for nearly 11 years. Besides swimming, Borg also won a European silver medal in water polo in 1926. His twin brother Åke was also an Olympic medalist in swimming.
Hannah Stockbauer is a World Champion, Olympic and national-record holding swimmer from Germany. In 2003, she was named the female World Swimmer of the Year by Swimming World Magazine, following her winning the 400, 800 and 1500 freestyles at the 2003 World Championships.
Massimiliano Edgar "Massi" Rosolino is an Italian retired competitive swimmer.
Giorgio Lamberti is an Italian former swimmer. In 1991 he became the first swimmer of Italy to win a world title, and gold medal, at a FINA World Aquatics Championships. He formerly held world records in the short course and long course 200 metre freestyle as well as in the short course 400 metre freestyle.
Anders Holmertz is a Swedish retired swimmer who was a leader in freestyle races in the 1980s and at the beginning of the 1990s, though often missing personal success. He also settled a record in the 400 m freestyle. He is the brother of another Swedish swimmer, Mikael Holmertz.
Vladimir Valeryevich Salnikov is a Russian former freestyle swimmer who set 12 world records in the 400, 800 and 1,500 metre events. Nicknamed the "Tsar of the Pool", "Monster of the Waves" and "Leningrad Express", he was the first person to swim under fifteen minutes in the 1500 m freestyle and also the first person to swim under eight minutes in the 800 m freestyle. He was named the Male World Swimmer of the Year in 1979 and 1982 by Swimming World.
Bradford Paul Cooper is an Australian former freestyle and backstroke swimmer of the 1970s, who won a gold medal in the 400 m freestyle at the 1972 Summer Olympics. In that race he originally finished second by the smallest margin ever to decide an Olympic swimming final, but was later awarded the gold medal after the victor, American Rick DeMont, an asthmatic, was disqualified after his post-race urinalysis tested positive for traces of the banned substance ephedrine contained in his prescription asthma medication, Marax.
Robert George Windle is an Australian freestyle swimmer of the 1960s, who won four Olympic medals, including an individual gold medal. Windle won the 1500 m freestyle and took bronze in the 4 × 100 m freestyle relay at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, and silver and bronze in the 4 × 200 m and 4 × 100 m freestyle relays respectively at the 1968 Summer Olympics. Known for his versatility, he is the only male swimmer to represent Australia at the Olympics in all freestyle distances from 100 m to 1500 m. During his career, Windle set six world records and won six Commonwealth Games gold medals. He won 19 Australian championships in all distances from 220 yd to 1650 yd.
Emiliano Brembilla is a freestyle swimmer from Italy who was five-time individual European Champion, four in 400 m freestyle and one in 1500 m freestyle (1997).
Rainer Henkel is a retired freestyle swimmer from Germany, former World and European Champion in 1500 m freestyle. He also won the silver medal in the 4×200 m freestyle relay for West Germany at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles and the bronze medal in the 4×200 m freestyle relay for West Germany at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul.
Alessia Filippi is a retired Italian swimmer.
Gergő Szabolcs Kis is a Hungarian freestyle swimmer.
Ryan Andrew Cochrane is a retired Canadian competitive swimmer who specialised in freestyle distance events. Cochrane is an Olympic silver and bronze medallist as well as a triple gold medallist from the Pan Pacific Swimming Championships. He is also a four-time Commonwealth Games champion in the 400-metre and 1,500-metre having won both medals in 2010 and 2014. He holds six world championship medals from the 800-metre and 1500-metre, this also makes Cochrane Canada's all-time leading medallist for a swimmer at the World Aquatics Championships. Cochrane also won gold medals in the 400 and 1,500 m freestyle at the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto, as well as a bronze in the 4 x 200 m freestyle at the 2015 Games. From the year 2008 - 2015, Cochrane was named the Canadian male swimmer of the year - winning the award 8 times in a row.
Fernando Eurico de Barros Oliveira da Fonseca e Costa is a Portuguese former swimmer, who specialized in long-distance freestyle events. He is a two-time Olympian, and currently holds the Portuguese record in the 1500 m freestyle from the 2007 Summer Universiade in Bangkok, Thailand.
Adam Paul Faulkner is an English former competitive swimmer who represented Great Britain in the Olympic Games and competed for England in the Commonwealth Games. Faulkner specialised in long-distance freestyle events. He won a bronze medal, as a member of England swimming team, at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester, with a final time of 7:22.56.
David Popovici is a Romanian competitive swimmer who specializes in freestyle events and is the reigning Olympic champion in the 200-metre event, having won the gold medal at the 2024 Summer Olympics. He is a former world record holder in the long course 100-metre freestyle and the current junior world record holder in the long course 200-metre freestyle. He also holds the junior world record in the short course 100-metre freestyle.
Vlad-Ștefan Stancu is a Romanian competitive swimmer. He is the Romanian record holder in the long course 1500-metre freestyle and long course and short course 800-metre freestyle. At the 2022 World Junior Championships, he won the silver medal in the 400-metre freestyle and bronze medals in the 800-metre freestyle and the 1500-metre freestyle. At the 2022 European Junior Swimming Championships, he won gold medals in the 1500-metre freestyle and 4×100-metre freestyle relay and silver medals in the 400-metre freestyle and 800-metre freestyle.
Romania 
