Swimming at the 2020 Summer Olympics – Men's 800 metre freestyle

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Men's 800 metre freestyle
at the Games of the XXXII Olympiad
Gregorio Paltrinieri, Mykhailo Romanchuk and Robert Finke with their Olympic medals at Tokyo 2020.jpg
Venue Tokyo Aquatics Centre
Dates27 July 2021 (heats)
29 July 2021 (final)
Competitors33 from 28 nations
Winning time7:41.87
Medalists
Gold medal icon.svg Robert Finke Flag of the United States.svg  United States
Silver medal icon.svg Gregorio Paltrinieri Flag of Italy.svg  Italy
Bronze medal icon.svg Mykhailo Romanchuk Flag of Ukraine.svg  Ukraine
  1904 (880 yards)
2024  

The men's 800 metre freestyle event at the 2020 Summer Olympics was held on 27 and 29 July 2021 at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre. [1] It was the event's recurrence to the Games for the first time in over a century, having last been held in 1904 (at 880 yards).

Summary

The U.S.' Robert Finke came from behind to win a surprise gold in the inaugural Olympic men's 800-meter freestyle. Fourth at the final turn, Finke unleashed a massive 26.39 split to overtake the field and lower the American record to 7:41.87. Earlier in the heats, Finke broke Michael McBroom's American record after coming into the meet with a personal best time of 7:48.22 set at the U.S. Olympic Trials.

Swimming in lane 8, Italy's reigning World champion Gregorio Paltrinieri was out quickly and established a body-length lead at the 200 m mark. While Germany's Florian Wellbrock and Ukraine's Mykhailo Romanchuk gained control at the halfway stage, Paltrinieri overtook the duo to claim silver in 7:42.11. Despite setting the Olympic record in the heats, Romanchuk was unable to replicate the time and settled for bronze in 7:42.33. Wellbrock was also unable to repeat his German record from the heats, narrowly missing the podium by 0.35 seconds.

Australia's Jack McLoughlin, who claimed silver in the 400 m freestyle on night one, picked up the fifth spot with a 7:45.00 to hold off Ukraine's Serhiy Frolov (7:45.11) by 11 one-hundredths of a second. Austria's Felix Auboeck finished seventh in 7:49.14, with Brazil's Guilherme Costa (7:53.31) rounding out the top eight field.

Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.

World recordFlag of the People's Republic of China.svg  Zhang Lin  (CHN)7:32.12 Rome, Italy 29 July 2009 [2]
Olympic recordInaugural event

The following record was established during the competition:

DateEventSwimmerNationTimeRecord
July 27Heat 4 Mykhailo Romanchuk Flag of Ukraine.svg  Ukraine 7:41.28 OR

Qualification

The Olympic Qualifying Time for the event is 7:54.31. Up to two swimmers per National Olympic Committee (NOC) can automatically qualify by swimming that time at an approved qualification event. The Olympic Selection Time is 8:08.54. Up to one swimmer per NOC meeting that time is eligible for selection, allocated by world ranking until the maximum quota for all swimming events is reached. NOCs without a male swimmer qualified in any event can also use their universality place. [3]

Competition format

The competition consists of two rounds: heats and a final. The swimmers with the best 8 times in the heats advance to the final. Swim-offs are used as necessary to break ties for advancement to the next round. [4]

Schedule

All times are Japan Standard Time (UTC+9) [1]

DateTimeRound
Tuesday, 27 July 202120:17Heats
Thursday, 29 July 202110:30Final

Results

Heats

The swimmers with the top 8 times, regardless of heat, advanced to the final. [5]

RankHeatLaneSwimmerNationTimeNotes
145 Mykhailo Romanchuk Flag of Ukraine.svg  Ukraine 7:41.28Q, OR , NR
243 Florian Wellbrock Flag of Germany.svg  Germany 7:41.77Q, NR
347 Robert Finke Flag of the United States.svg  United States 7:42.72Q, NR
452 Felix Auböck Flag of Austria.svg  Austria 7:45.73Q, NR
557 Guilherme Costa Flag of Brazil.svg  Brazil 7:46.09Q, SA
653 Jack McLoughlin Flag of Australia.svg  Australia 7:46.94Q
742 Serhiy Frolov Flag of Ukraine.svg  Ukraine 7:47.67Q
854 Gregorio Paltrinieri Flag of Italy.svg  Italy 7:47.73Q
944 Henrik Christiansen Flag of Norway.svg  Norway 7:48.37
1046 Ahmed Hafnaoui Flag of Tunisia.svg  Tunisia 7:49.14
14 Victor Johansson Flag of Sweden.svg  Sweden NR
1256 Gabriele Detti Flag of Italy.svg  Italy 7:49.47
1351 Aleksandr Yegorov Russian Olympic Committee flag.png  ROC 7:49.97
1438 Daniel Wiffen Flag of Ireland.svg  Ireland 7:51.65 NR
1535 Alfonso Mestre Flag of Venezuela (state).svg  Venezuela 7:52.07
1637 Marwan El-Kamash Flag of Egypt.svg  Egypt 7:52.76
1748 Michael Brinegar Flag of the United States.svg  United States 7:53.00
1826 Zac Reid Flag of New Zealand.svg  New Zealand 7:53.06 NR
1931 Alexander Nørgaard Flag of Denmark.svg  Denmark 7:53.50
2025 Nguyễn Huy Hoàng Flag of Vietnam.svg  Vietnam 7:54.16
2141 Anton Ipsen Flag of Denmark.svg  Denmark 7:54.98
2221 Ákos Kalmár Flag of Hungary.svg  Hungary 7:55.85
2324 José Lopes Flag of Portugal.svg  Portugal 7:56.15
2436 Yiğit Aslan Flag of Turkey.svg  Turkey 7:56.18
2534 Kieran Bird Flag of the United Kingdom (3-2).svg  Great Britain 7:57.53
2623 Dimitrios Markos Flag of Greece.svg  Greece 7:58.68
2727 Cheng Long Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg  China 7:58.71
2858 Jan Micka Flag of the Czech Republic.svg  Czech Republic 7:59.04
2955 David Aubry Flag of France.svg  France 8:00.16
3032 Ilya Druzhinin Russian Olympic Committee flag.png  ROC 8:01.47
3113 Marcelo Acosta Flag of El Salvador.svg  El Salvador 8:03.01
3215 Martin Bau Flag of Slovenia.svg  Slovenia 8:04.79
3322 Vuk Čelić Flag of Serbia.svg  Serbia 8:04.85
33 Konstantinos Englezakis Flag of Greece.svg  Greece DNS

Final

[6]

RankLaneSwimmerNationTimeNotes
Gold medal icon.svg3 Robert Finke Flag of the United States.svg  United States 7:41.87 NR
Silver medal icon.svg8 Gregorio Paltrinieri Flag of Italy.svg  Italy 7:42.11
Bronze medal icon.svg4 Mykhailo Romanchuk Flag of Ukraine.svg  Ukraine 7:42.33
45 Florian Wellbrock Flag of Germany.svg  Germany 7:42.68
57 Jack McLoughlin Flag of Australia.svg  Australia 7:45.00
61 Serhiy Frolov Flag of Ukraine.svg  Ukraine 7:45.11
76 Felix Auböck Flag of Austria.svg  Austria 7:49.14
82 Guilherme Costa Flag of Brazil.svg  Brazil 7:53.31

See also

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References

  1. 1 2 "Tokyo 2020: Swimming Schedule". Tokyo 2020 . Retrieved 30 January 2020.
  2. "FINA World Championships, Swimming: Flash! Zhang Lin Shatters Grant Hackett's 800 Free World Record in Victory". Swimming World Magazine. 29 July 2009. Retrieved 1 February 2020.
  3. "Tokyo 2020 – FINA Swimming Qualification System" (pdf). Tokyo 2020 . FINA . Retrieved 29 January 2020.
  4. "FINA Swimming Rulebook, 2017–21" (PDF). FINA. Retrieved 29 January 2020.
  5. "Heats results" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 July 2021. Retrieved 27 July 2021.
  6. "Final results" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 August 2021. Retrieved 1 August 2021.