Swimming at the 1908 Summer Olympics

You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in French. (February 2021) Click [show] for important translation instructions.
  • View a machine-translated version of the French article.
  • Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia.
  • Consider adding a topic to this template: there are already 6,143 articles in the main category, and specifying|topic= will aid in categorization.
  • Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article.
  • You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing French Wikipedia article at [[:fr:Natation aux Jeux olympiques de 1908]]; see its history for attribution.
  • You should also add the template {{Translated|fr|Natation aux Jeux olympiques de 1908}} to the talk page.
  • For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.
Swimming
at the Games of the IV Olympiad
VenueWhite City Stadium
Dates13–25 July 1908
No. of events6
Competitors100 from 14 nations
← 1904
1912 →
  • v
  • t
  • e

At the 1908 Summer Olympics in London, six swimming events were contested.[1] These were the first Olympic Games in which a 100-metre pool had been especially constructed (inside the main stadium's track and field oval). Previous Olympic events were swum in open water (1896: The Mediterranean Sea, 1900: The Seine River, 1904: an artificial lake). Only men participated in the swimming events. The competitions were held from Monday, July 13, 1908, to Saturday, July 25, 1908.

All six of the 1908 events became staples of the Olympic swimming programme, and have been contested at every edition of the Games since. The 50 m, 200 m, and 800 m freestyle events were dropped from the previous edition (though these would later return), the relay was lengthened from 4 × 50 yards to 4 × 200 m, and the 400 m breaststroke was shortened to 200 metres.

Canada and Finland made their first appearances in swimming, while Austria, Hungary, and the United States continued their streaks of appearing each time. Fourteen nations competed in all, with 100 swimmers entering the events.

Medal table

RankNationGoldSilverBronzeTotal
1 Great Britain (GBR)4217
2 United States (USA)1012
3 Germany (GER)1001
4 Hungary (HUN)0202
5 Australasia (ANZ)0112
6 Denmark (DEN)0101
7 Sweden (SWE)0022
8 Austria (AUT)0011
Totals (8 entries)66618

Medal summary

Games Gold Silver Bronze
100 m freestyle
details
 Charles Daniels (USA)  Zoltán Halmay (HUN)  Harald Julin (SWE)
400 m freestyle
details
 Henry Taylor (GBR)  Frank Beaurepaire (ANZ)  Otto Scheff (AUT)
1500 m freestyle
details
 Henry Taylor (GBR)  Thomas Battersby (GBR)  Frank Beaurepaire (ANZ)
100 m backstroke
details
 Arno Bieberstein (GER)  Ludvig Dam (DEN)  Herbert Haresnape (GBR)
200 m breaststroke
details
 Frederick Holman (GBR)  William Robinson (GBR)  Pontus Hanson (SWE)
4 × 200 m freestyle relay
details
 Great Britain (GBR)
John Derbyshire
Paul Radmilovic
William Foster
Henry Taylor
 Hungary (HUN)
József Munk
Imre Zachár
Béla Las-Torres
Zoltán Halmay
 United States (USA)
Harry Hebner
Leo Goodwin
Charles Daniels
Leslie Rich

Participating nations

A total of 100 swimmers from 14 nations competed at the London Games:

References

  1. ^ "Olympedia – Swimming at the 1908 Summer Olympics". www.olympedia.org. Retrieved 2023-12-16.
  • "Olympic Medal Winners". International Olympic Committee. Retrieved 2008-03-19.
  • Cook, Theodore Andrea (May 1909). The Fourth Olympiad London 1908 Official Report (PDF). London: British Olympic Association. pp. 296–310. Retrieved 2008-03-19.
  • Mallon, Bill; Buchanan, Ian (February 2000). The 1908 Olympic Games: Results for All Competitors in All Events, With Commentary. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland. ISBN 978-0-7864-0598-5.
  • v
  • t
  • e
  • v
  • t
  • e
Editions
Current events
  • 50 m free
  • 100 m free
  • 200 m free
  • 400 m free
  • 800 m free
  • 1500 m free
  • 100 m back
  • 200 m back
  • 100 m breast
  • 200 m breast
  • 100 m fly
  • 200 m fly
  • 200 m IM
  • 400 m IM
  • 4 × 100 m free relay
  • 4 × 200 m free relay
  • 4 × 100 m medlay relay
  • 10 km
Past events

51°30′49″N 0°13′39″E / 51.5136°N 0.2274°E / 51.5136; 0.2274