The men's 1500 metre freestyle event at the 1972 Olympic Games

1972 Summer Olympics

The 1972 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XX Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event held in Munich, West Germany, from August 26 to September 11, 1972....

 took place between September 3 and 4. This swimming

Swimming (sport)

Swimming is a sport governed by the Fédération Internationale de Natation .-History: Competitive swimming in Europe began around 1800 BCE, mostly in the form of the freestyle. In 1873 Steve Bowyer introduced the trudgen to Western swimming competitions, after copying the front crawl used by Native...

 event used freestyle swimming

Freestyle swimming

Freestyle is an unregulated swimming style used in swimming competitions according to the rules of FINA. The front crawl stroke is almost universally used during a freestyle race, as this style is generally the fastest...

, which means that the method of the stroke is not regulated (unlike backstroke, breaststroke, and butterfly events). Nearly all swimmers use the front crawl

Front crawl

The front crawl, forward crawl, or freestyle is a swimming stroke usually regarded as the fastest of the four front primary strokes. As such, the front crawl stroke is nearly universally used during a freestyle swimming competition, hence the synonymously used term "freestyle". It is one of two...

 or a variant of that stroke. Because an Olympic size swimming pool is 50 metres long, this race consisted of 30 lengths of the pool.

Medalists

Final

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Notes
	Mike Burton		15:52.58	WR
	Graham Windeatt Graham Windeatt Graham Claude Windeatt was an Australian long-distance freestyle swimmer of the 1970s, who won a silver medal in the 1500 m freestyle at the 1972 Munich Olympics....		15:58.48
	Douglas Northway Douglas Northway Douglas Dale Northway is a former freestyle swimmer from the United States, who won the bronze medal in the Men's 1500m Freestyle at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany.-References:*...		16:09.25
4	Bengt Gingsjö Bengt Gingsjö Bengt Gingsjö is a former freestyle and medley swimmer from Sweden, who competed in the 1972 Summer Olympics and 1976 Summer Olympics. He finished fourth on the 1500m freestyle in 1972. Gingsjö also has a bronze medal on 400m freestyle from the first FINA World Aquatics Championships in...		16:16.01
5	Graham White Graham White Graham Ross White OAM was an Australian middle-long distance freestyle swimmer of the 1960s and 1970s, who won a silver medal in the 4x200 m freestyle relay at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics....		16:17.22
6	Mark Treffers Mark Treffers Mark Ferdinand Treffers is a former swimming representative from New Zealand who specialised in the freestyle....		16:18.84
7	Brad Cooper Brad Cooper Bradford Paul Cooper was an Australian freestyle and backstroke swimmer of the 1970s, who won a gold medal in the 400 m freestyle at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich...		16:30.49
8	Guillermo García Guillermo Garcia (swimmer) Guillermo García is a 2-time Olympic distance swimmer from Mexico. He swam for Mexico at the 1972 and 1976 Olympics.He won the bronze medal in the Men's 1500m Freestyle at the 1971 Pan American Games, and was a finalist in the same event at the 1972 Olympics.-References:...		16:36.03

Key: WR = World record