1,500 metres Freestyle, Men

Hironoshin Furuhashi of Japan had been the outstanding long distance freestyle swimmer since the last Olympics but was probably past his best by 1952. His preparations for Helsinki were ruined by a bout of malaria and his Olympic career was limited to a below-par swim in the 400m. The standard of competition was high, 400m champion Jean Boiteux went below the pre-Games Olympic record but failed to reach the final. The fastest qualifiers for the final were Shiro Hashizume of Japan and the Japanese-American Ford Konno, another from the great Hawaiian tradition of swimmers, and these two continued their form into the final. Hashizume went off into a lead but was gradually pulled back by Konno. At 1200m Konno moved level with the Japanese swimmer and then forged ahead as Hashizume’s fast start had drained his stamina. Konno eventually finished ten seconds clear of Hashizume whilst a frantic battle for third place saw Tetsuo Okamoto, a Brazilian of Japanese parentage, edge out the 1948 champion Jimmy McLane to complete an unusual “Japanese” sweep of the medals.