Swimming at the 1896 Summer Olympics – Men's 500 metre freestyle

olympic swimming event

The men's 500 metre freestyle was one of the swimming events in the 1896 Summer Olympics.

Men's 500 metre freestyle
at the Games of the I Olympiad
VenueBay of Zea
DateApril 11
Competitors3 from 2 nations
Winning time8:12.6
Medalists
Gold medal 
Silver medal 
Bronze medal 

Only three swimmers swam in the 500 metre freestyle. Paul Neumann won the event. Alfréd Hajós, the winner of the 100m, tried to win all 3 open swimming events. However, he did not swim in the 500m because it started after the 100 metres. Efstathios Chorafas was the only swimmer to swim in all three events.

Background

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This was the only Olympic Games with a 500-metre freestyle swimming event. The 1900 Olympics had 200- and 1000-metre events. In the 1904 Olympics, the 400-metre swim was used. This became the standard for swimming after that.[1]

Competition

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This freestyle swimming competition was in a single race. All of the swimmers swam at the same time. The swimmers were taken out by a ship into the Bay of Zea. The swimmers would swim back to the shore.[1][2][3]

Schedule

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The 500 metre freestyle was the third of the swimming events.[2]

Date Time Round
Gregorian Julian
Saturday, 11 April 1896 Saturday, 30 March 1896 11:00 Final

Results

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Rank Swimmer Nation Time
  Paul Neumann   Austria 8:12.6
  Antonios Pepanos   Greece 9:57.6
  Efstathios Chorafas   Greece Unknown

References

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  1. 1.0 1.1 "500 metres Freestyle, Men". Olympedia. Retrieved 18 December 2020.
  2. 2.0 2.1 Official Report, part 2, p. 96.
  3. "Athens 1896 Swimming 400m Freestyle Men Result". Olympics.com. Retrieved 2021-09-03.