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

Men's 800 metre freestyle at the Games of the XXXII Olympiad
Venue	Tokyo Aquatics Centre
Dates	27 July 2021 (heats) 29 July 2021 (final)
Competitors	33 from 28 nations
Winning time	7:41.87
Medalists
Bobby Finke   United States Gregorio Paltrinieri   Italy Mykhailo Romanchuk   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.' Bobby 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 record	Zhang Lin  (CHN)	7:32.12	Rome, Italy	29 July 2009	[2]
Olympic record	Inaugural event	—	—	—	—

The following record was established during the competition:

Date	Event	Swimmer	Nation	Time	Record
July 27	Heat 4	Mykhailo Romanchuk	Ukraine	7:41.28	OR

Qualification

Main article: Swimming at the 2020 Summer Olympics – 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]

Date	Time	Round
Tuesday, 27 July 2021	20:17	Heats
Thursday, 29 July 2021	10:30	Final

Results

Heats

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

Rank	Heat	Lane	Swimmer	Nation	Time	Notes
1	4	5	Mykhailo Romanchuk	Ukraine	7:41.28	Q, OR , NR
2	4	3	Florian Wellbrock	Germany	7:41.77	Q, NR
3	4	7	Bobby Finke	United States	7:42.72	Q, NR
4	5	2	Felix Auböck	Austria	7:45.73	Q, NR
5	5	7	Guilherme Costa	Brazil	7:46.09	Q, SA
6	5	3	Jack McLoughlin	Australia	7:46.94	Q
7	4	2	Serhiy Frolov	Ukraine	7:47.67	Q
8	5	4	Gregorio Paltrinieri	Italy	7:47.73	Q
9	4	4	Henrik Christiansen	Norway	7:48.37
10	4	6	Ahmed Hafnaoui	Tunisia	7:49.14
	1	4	Victor Johansson	Sweden		NR
12	5	6	Gabriele Detti	Italy	7:49.47
13	5	1	Aleksandr Yegorov	ROC	7:49.97
14	3	8	Daniel Wiffen	Ireland	7:51.65	NR
15	3	5	Alfonso Mestre	Venezuela	7:52.07
16	3	7	Marwan El-Kamash	Egypt	7:52.76
17	4	8	Michael Brinegar	United States	7:53.00
18	2	6	Zac Reid	New Zealand	7:53.06	NR
19	3	1	Alexander Nørgaard	Denmark	7:53.50
20	2	5	Nguyễn Huy Hoàng	Vietnam	7:54.16
21	4	1	Anton Ipsen	Denmark	7:54.98
22	2	1	Ákos Kalmár	Hungary	7:55.85
23	2	4	José Lopes	Portugal	7:56.15
24	3	6	Yiğit Aslan	Turkey	7:56.18
25	3	4	Kieran Bird	Great Britain	7:57.53
26	2	3	Dimitrios Markos	Greece	7:58.68
27	2	7	Cheng Long	China	7:58.71
28	5	8	Jan Micka	Czech Republic	7:59.04
29	5	5	David Aubry	France	8:00.16
30	3	2	Ilya Druzhinin	ROC	8:01.47
31	1	3	Marcelo Acosta	El Salvador	8:03.01
32	1	5	Martin Bau	Slovenia	8:04.79
33	2	2	Vuk Čelić	Serbia	8:04.85
	3	3	Konstantinos Englezakis	Greece	DNS

Final

^[6]

Rank	Lane	Swimmer	Nation	Time	Notes
	3	Bobby Finke	United States	7:41.87	NR
	8	Gregorio Paltrinieri	Italy	7:42.11
	4	Mykhailo Romanchuk	Ukraine	7:42.33
4	5	Florian Wellbrock	Germany	7:42.68
5	7	Jack McLoughlin	Australia	7:45.00
6	1	Serhiy Frolov	Ukraine	7:45.11
7	6	Felix Auböck	Austria	7:49.14
8	2	Guilherme Costa	Brazil	7:53.31

See also

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

References

1. "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.