The men's 1500 metre freestyle event at the 1948 Olympic Games took place between August 5 and 7, at the Empire Pool. 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 consists of 30 lengths of the pool.

Medalists

Semifinals

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Notes
1	Jimmy McLane		19:52.2	Q
2	John Marshall John Marshall (swimmer) John Birnie Marshall was an Australian freestyle swimmer of the 1940s and 1950s who won a silver and bronze medal in the 1500 m and 400 m freestyle respectively at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London...		19:53.8	Q
3	György Mitró György Mitró György Mitró was a Hungarian swimmer and Olympic medalist. He participated at the 1948 Summer Olympics, winning a silver medal in 4 × 200 metre freestyle relay, and a bronze medal in 1500 metre freestyle. He also became European champion in 1500 metres freestyle swimming in 1947.-References:...		20:06.5	Q
4	György Csordás György Csordás György Csordás was a freestyle swimmer from Hungary, who competed in three consecutive Summer Olympics for his native country, starting in 1948....		20:06.6	Q
5	Forbes Norris		20:09.3	Q
6	Marjan Stipetić		20:12.9	Q
7	Donald Bland		20:19.8	q
8	William Heusner William Heusner William W. Heusner, Jr. was an American swimmer, competing in the freestyle events.Heusner competed for his native country at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London, United Kingdom...		20:23.9	q
9	Jo Bernardo		20:25.5
10	Ferenc Vörös		20:31.4
11	Florbel Pérez		20:32.6
12	Miroslav Bartůšek		20:32.9
13	Luis González		20:41.6
14	Rolf Egon		20:44.6

Key: Q = qualification by place in heat, q = qualification by overall place

Final

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Notes
	Jimmy McLane		19:18.5
	John Marshall John Marshall (swimmer) John Birnie Marshall was an Australian freestyle swimmer of the 1940s and 1950s who won a silver and bronze medal in the 1500 m and 400 m freestyle respectively at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London...		19:31.3
	György Mitró György Mitró György Mitró was a Hungarian swimmer and Olympic medalist. He participated at the 1948 Summer Olympics, winning a silver medal in 4 × 200 metre freestyle relay, and a bronze medal in 1500 metre freestyle. He also became European champion in 1500 metres freestyle swimming in 1947.-References:...		19:43.2
4	György Csordás György Csordás György Csordás was a freestyle swimmer from Hungary, who competed in three consecutive Summer Olympics for his native country, starting in 1948....		19:54.2
5	Marjan Stipetić		20:10.7
6	Forbes Norris		20:18.8
7	Donald Bland		20:19.8
8	William Heusner William Heusner William W. Heusner, Jr. was an American swimmer, competing in the freestyle events.Heusner competed for his native country at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London, United Kingdom...		20:45.4