Men’s 1500 Freestyle World Record Under Serious Threat This Year
Of the nine fastest men ever in the 1500 freestyle, seven posted their best times within the last two years. At the end of 2019, only two men had ever broken 14:35 in the event; now, that number is seven, with four doing so last year alone. But to understand the full scope of the distance freestyle speed we are seeing now, we have to go back to the world record that was years ahead of its time.
At the 2001 World Championships, Grant Hackett annihilated the previous 30-lap record, swimming a time of 14:34.56 to beat the previous time set by fellow Australian Kieran Perkins by seven seconds. Hackett would go on to win two more world titles in the event as well as Olympic gold in 2004, but he would never come close to that time again.
Hackett would not break 14:40 again until the prelims at the 2008 Olympics (before swimming slower in the final and settling for silver), and no one else cracked 14:40 until the polyurethane suit era of 2009. But this 14:34 was so strong that it was the only men’s record to not be broken in 2008 and/or 2009.
But thanks to Sun Yang, it didn’t last much longer. The Chinese distance star first broke the record in winning a world title in 2011, clocking 14:34.14, and one year later, he touched in 14:31.04 for Olympic gold.
Sun would be the world’s dominant 1500 swimmer until 2015, when he won world titles in the 400 and 800 free but did not show up for the 1500 final at the World Championships under mysterious circumstances. That opened the door for Italy’s Gregorio Paltrinieri to become the new top man in the 1500, and the next year, he passed Hackett for No. 2 all-time in the event by swimming a time of 14:34.04 at the European Championships. Another 14:34 a few months later helped Paltrinieri mint Olympic gold.
Gregorio Paltrinieri — Photo Courtesy: Giorgio Scala / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto
The next few years brought something of a 1500 freestyle seesaw, with Paltrinieri providing the standout swims amid other periods of struggle:
- Paltrinieri won another world title in the event in 2017, but the following two years, he was beaten by both Florian Wellbrock and Mykhailo Romanchuk at the World Championships.
- The Italian rebounded in 2020 with the top swim of a year when COVID-19 forced the cancellation of all major meets. Paltrinieri swam a time of 14:33.10 in August, reinforcing his status as history’s second-fastest performer and moving him even closer to Sun’s world record.
- When the rescheduled Tokyo Olympics came around, Paltrinieri was battling mononucleosis and off his best. He won medals in the 800 free and 10K open water swim, but he missed the podium in the 1500 free, a race where American Bobby Finke stormed ahead of Wellbrock and Romanchuk for gold, with no one making any sort of run at the world record.
- Then, in 2022, Paltrinieri barely qualified for the World Championships final of the 1500 free, but he established a blazing pace from the beginning and could not be caught. He swam under world-record pace through 1450 meters before fading down the stretch, but he improved on his status as second-quickest man ever with a time of 14:32.80.
Got all that? Paltrinieri creeping up on Sun in the all-time rankings? Well, then 2023 happened, and the event is now back in serious flux. The all-time rankings now look something like this, with the five new entrants from last year in bold:
1. Sun Yang (CHN), 14:31.04 (2012)
2. Ahmed Hafnaoui (TUN), 14:31.54 (2023)
3. Bobby Finke (USA), 14:31.59 (2023)
4. Gregorio Paltrinieri (ITA), 14:32.80 (2022)
5. Grant Hackett (AUS), 14:34.56 (2001)
6. Florian Wellbrock (GER), 14:34.89 (2023)
7. Daniel Wiffen (IRL), 14:34.91 (2023)
8. Mykhailo Romanchuk (UKR), 14:36.10 (2022)
9. Sam Short (AUS), 14:37.28 (2023)
9. Ous Mellouli (TUN), 14:37.28 (2009)
Early in the year, Wellbrock and Daniel Wiffen unleashed a pair of 14:34s, but when the top swimmers in the world gathered in Fukuoka, in the same building that Hackett first swam his 14:34 22 years earlier, the field looked much different than expected. Paltrinieri, the pre-meet favorite, scratched the event while Wellbrock stunningly missed the final.
Instead, an incredible race developed between Finke and Ahmed Hafnaoui over the final 500 meters, and a drop-dead sprint to the wall saw the Tunisian get to the wall five hundredths ahead, with the pair coming up just a half-second short of the world record. Sam Short, already the world champion in the 400 free and silver medalist in the 800 free, joined the sub-14:40 club as he held off Wiffen for bronze.
Now, we have to expect Sun’s world record to be under serious threat in the Olympic year. We saw what Hafnaoui and Finke can do at their best, and both men have proven their ability to bring their “A” game at big moments. Wellbrock and Wiffen have the talent, speed and endurance, and they would just need tiny improvements to be right with the times Hafnaoui and Finke pioneered last year. And we cannot forget about Paltrinieri, the ultimate wild card who could return to the gold-medal podium or could miss the final entirely.
How often is the mile one of the most intriguing events of the Olympic Games? With so many contenders, nearly all of them having been under 14:40 in their careers, that is the case heading into Paris.