The men's 800 metre freestyle event at the 2024 Summer Olympics was held from 29 to 30 July 2024 at Paris La Défense Arena, which was converted to a swimming pool for the swimming events.[1] Since an Olympic size swimming pool is 50 metres long, each competitor had to swim 16 lengths of the pool.
In the final, Australia's Elijah Winnington led until the 350 metre mark, but was overtaken by Wiffen. Wiffen led until the 650 metre mark when he was overtaken by Gregorio Paltrinieri, who led until the final length until he was overtaken back by Wiffen. Wiffen won the gold with a new Olympic and European record of 7:38.19, while Finke won silver with 7:38.75 and Paltrinieri took bronze with 7:39.38. SwimSwam later called the final "a race to remember", and Wiffen's win made him the first Irish man to win a medal in Olympic swimming.
Each National Olympic Committee (NOC) was permitted to enter a maximum of two qualified athletes in each individual event, but only if both of them had attained the Olympic Qualifying Time (OQT).[5] For this event, the OQT was 7:51.65 seconds. World Aquatics then considered athletes qualifying through universality; NOCs were given one event entry for each gender, which could be used by any athlete regardless of qualification time, providing the spaces had not already been taken by athletes from that nation who had achieved the OQT.[5][6] Finally, the rest of the spaces were filled by athletes who had met the Olympic Consideration Time (OCT), which was 7:54.01 for this event.[5] In total, 30 athletes qualified through achieving the OQT, one athlete qualified through a universality place and one athlete qualified through achieving the OCT.[6]
Four heats took place on 29 July 2024, starting at 11:28.[a][7] The swimmers with the best eight times in the heats advanced to the final.[8] Wiffen qualified with the fastest time of 7:41.53 to win heat four,[9][10] while Tunisia's Ahmed Jaouadi swam a personal best of 7:42.07 to win heat three. Paltrinieri and Finke also qualified, while Romanchuk and Short did not. SwimSwam speculated that Short's slower second half of the race could have been due to illness. Other qualifiers were Australia's Elijah Winnington, Germany's Sven Schwarz, Italy's Luca De Tullio and France's David Aubry.[10]
The final took place at 21:07 on 30 July.[12] Winnington led until the 350 metre mark when Wiffen took the lead. Wiffen held the lead until 650 metres when he was overtaken by Paltrinieri. Paltrinieri continued in first until the final length, when Wiffen overtook him back to claim gold with a new Olympic and European record of 7:38.19.[13][14] Finke also passed Paltrinieri on the final 50 metres to take silver with 7:38.75, and Paltrinieri took bronze with 7:39.38.[14]SwimSwam later called the final "a race to remember".[15]
Wiffen's win made him the first Irish man to win a medal in Olympic swimming,[16][17] and the Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris later tweeted "Yes Daniel Wiffin! Masterful. Gold for Ireland. Those last 100 metres were mind blowing!! World class. Olympic record".[13] Wiffen later said he wasn't focusing on this event as much as the 1500 metre freestyle, which was taking place a few days later.[18][19] He also called it "the most painful 800 [he's] ever done".[20]
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