Swimming at the 2012 Summer Olympics – Men's marathon 10 kilometre
| Men's Marathon Swim at the Games of the XXX Olympiad | ||||||||||
 The race was held in the Serpentine lake | ||||||||||
| Venue | The Serpentine, Hyde Park | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dates | August 10, 2012 | |||||||||
| Competitors | 25 from 23 nations | |||||||||
| Winning time | 1:49:55.1 | |||||||||
| Medalists | ||||||||||
| ||||||||||
| Swimming at the 2012 Summer Olympics  | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Freestyle | ||||
| 50 m | men | women | ||
| 100 m | men | women | ||
| 200 m | men | women | ||
| 400 m | men | women | ||
| 800 m | women | |||
| 1500 m | men | |||
| Backstroke | ||||
| 100 m | men | women | ||
| 200 m | men | women | ||
| Breaststroke | ||||
| 100 m | men | women | ||
| 200 m | men | women | ||
| Butterfly | ||||
| 100 m | men | women | ||
| 200 m | men | women | ||
| Individual medley | ||||
| 200 m | men | women | ||
| 400 m | men | women | ||
| Freestyle relay | ||||
| 4×100 m | men | women | ||
| 4×200 m | men | women | ||
| Medley relay | ||||
| 4×100 m | men | women | ||
| Marathon | ||||
| 10 km | men | women | ||
The men's marathon swim over a distance of 10 kilometres at the 2012 Olympic Games in London took place on 10 August in the Serpentine at Hyde Park.[1]
Outclassing a vast field of rivals, Tunisia's Oussama Mellouli built a historic milestone as the first ever swimmer to capture Olympic titles in both pool and open water. Around the 7 km mark, Mellouli quickly opened up a three-body-length lead over a small pack of swimmers, and maintained a fast pace to claim his second gold and third career medal in 1:49:55.1.[2][3] Chasing for two more Olympic medals in a grueling race, Germany's Thomas Lurz finished behind the leader by 3.4 seconds with a silver in 1:49:58.5, while Canada's Richard Weinberger, who pulled off a powerful lead on the first lap, grabbed the bronze in 1:50:00.3.[4][5][6]
Greece's Spyridon Gianniotis, the reigning world champion, mounted a spirited challenge against Mellouli, Lurz and Weinberger in pursuit, but dropped back in the last 200 metres to fourth in 1:50:05.3.[7][8] Enjoying a massive support from the home crowd at Hyde Park, Great Britain's Daniel Fogg struggled to maintain his form after the fourth lap, but pushed himself further from behind with a spectacular swim to claim a fifth spot in 1:50:37.3.[9][10] Fogg was followed in sixth and seventh respectively by Russian duo Sergey Bolshakov (1:50:40.1) and Vladimir Dyatchin (1:50:42.8), while Lurz's teammate Andreas Waschburger, who led both the third and fourth lap ahead of Mellouli and Weinberger, faded down the stretch to pick up the eighth spot in 1:50:44.4.[6] Bulgaria's four-time Olympian Petar Stoychev finished ninth in 1:50:46.2 to hold off a fast-charging American open water swimmer Alex Meyer (1:50:48.2) by exactly two full-body lengths apart from the distance.[11][12]
As the remaining swimmers completed the race in a magnificent fashion, Guam's 16-year-old teen Benjamin Schulte, dubbed as Benny the Bream by the crowd, fought off audaciously throughout the open-water course to round out the field with a twenty-fifth place time in 2:03:35.1.[6][13]
Qualification
The men's 10 km open water marathon at the 2012 Olympics featured a field of 25 swimmers:
- 10: the top-10 finishers in the 10 km race at the 2011 FINA World Championships.[14]
- 9: the top-9 finishers at the 2012 Olympic Marathon Swim Qualifier (8–9 June 2012 in Setúbal, Portugal).[15][16]
- 5: one representative from each FINA continent (Africa, Americas, Asia, Europe and Oceania). (These were selected based on the finishes at the qualifying race in Setúbal.)
- 1: from the host nation (Great Britain) if not qualified by other means. If Great Britain already had a qualifier in the race, this spot was allocated back into the general pool from the 2012 qualifying race.
Results
| Rank | Athlete | Nation | Time | Time behind | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Oussama Mellouli |  Tunisia | 1:49:55.1 | ||
 | Thomas Lurz |  Germany | 1:49:58.5 | +3.4 | |
 | Richard Weinberger |  Canada | 1:50:00.3 | +5.2 | |
| 4 | Spyridon Gianniotis |  Greece | 1:50:05.3 | +10.2 | |
| 5 | Daniel Fogg |  Great Britain | 1:50:37.3 | +42.2 | |
| 6 | Sergey Bolshakov |  Russia | 1:50:40.1 | +45.0 | |
| 7 | Vladimir Dyatchin | Russia | 1:50:42.8 | +47.7 | |
| 8 | Andreas Waschburger | Germany | 1:50:44.4 | +49.3 | Warning |
| 9 | Petar Stoychev |  Bulgaria | 1:50:46.2 | +51.1 | |
| 10 | Alex Meyer |  United States | 1:50:48.2 | +53.1 | |
| 11 | Julien Sauvage |  France | 1:50:51.3 | +56.2 | |
| 12 | Hercules Troyden Prinsloo |  South Africa | 1:50:52.9 | +57.8 | Warning |
| 13 | Erwin Maldonado |  Venezuela | 1:50:52.9 | +57.8 | |
| 14 | Igor Chervynskiy |  Ukraine | 1:50:56.9 | +1:01.8 | |
| 15 | Yasunari Hirai |  Japan | 1:51:20.1 | +1:25.0 | Warning |
| 16 | Brian Ryckeman | .svg.png){kind=small} Belgium | 1:51:27.1 | +1:32.0 | |
| 17 | Valerio Cleri |  Italy | 1:51:29.5 | +1:34.4 | |
| 18 | Csaba Gercsák |  Hungary | 1:51:30.9 | +1:35.8 | |
| 19 | Arseniy Lavrentyev |  Portugal | 1:51:37.2 | +1:42.1 | |
| 20 | Ky Hurst |  Australia | 1:51:41.3 | +1:46.2 | |
| 21 | Ivan Enderica Ochoa |  Ecuador | 1:52:28.6 | +2:33.5 | |
| 22 | Yuriy Kudinov |  Kazakhstan | 1:52:59.0 | +3:03.9 | |
| 23 | Francisco Hervás |  Spain | 1:53:27.8 | +3:32.7 | |
| 24 | Mazen Metwaly |  Egypt | 1:54:33.2 | +4:38.1 | Warning |
| 25 | Benjamin Schulte |  Guam | 2:03:35.1 | +13:40.0 |
References
- ↑ "Swimming: Results & Schedules". London 2012. NBC Olympics. 10 August 2012. Retrieved 15 July 2013.
- ↑ Helliker, Kevin (10 August 2012). "U.S.-Trained Tunisian Takes Gold in Open-Water Swim". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 15 July 2013.
- ↑ Linden, Julian (10 August 2012). "Mellouli wins open water gold medal". Reuters. Retrieved 15 July 2013.
- ↑ "Canadian Richard Weinberger wins Olympic bronze in men's marathon swim". National Post. 10 August 2012. Retrieved 15 July 2013.
- ↑ Blatchford, Christie (10 August 2012). "Victoria's Richard Weinberger takes Olympic bronze in marathon swimming for Canada". Vancouver Sun. Retrieved 15 July 2013.
- 1 2 3 "2012 London Olympics: Tunisia's Ous Mellouli Becomes First Pool/Open Water Double Gold Medalist with 10K Victory". Swimming World Magazine. 10 August 2012. Retrieved 15 July 2013.
- ↑ "Mellouli wins Olympic open water gold medal". London 2012. NBC Olympics. 10 August 2012. Retrieved 15 July 2013.
- ↑ White, Duncan (10 August 2012). "London 2012 Olympics: Daniel Fogg fears open water swimming funding cut after Team GB medal failure". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 15 July 2013.
- ↑ Ingle, Sean (10 August 2012). "London 2012: Fifth for Daniel Fogg not enough in Olympic 10km swim". Guardian.co.uk. Retrieved 15 July 2013.
- ↑ "Fogg has to settle for fifth: No joy for Brit in the Serpentine". The Daily Mirror. 10 August 2012. Retrieved 15 July 2013.
- ↑ Berg, Aimee (10 August 2012). "Meyer Tenth in Open Water; Still Has Pool Goals". Team USA. Retrieved 15 July 2013.
- ↑ Saraceno, Jon (10 August 2012). "Swimmer Alex Meyer tackles 10K with fallen friend on his mind". USA Today. Retrieved 15 July 2013.
- ↑ "Guam's Benjamin Schulte, 16, wins battle with 'brown water' in 10km swim". News Corp Australia. 10 August 2012. Retrieved 15 July 2013.
- ↑ "FINA World Championships, Open Water: Greece's Spyros Gianniotis Wins Men's 10K". Swimming World Magazine. 19 July 2011. Retrieved 15 July 2013.
- ↑ "FINA Press Release 2010–79: FINA Bureau Meeting in Dubai (UAE)". London 2012. FINA. 14 December 2010. Retrieved 17 December 2010.
- ↑ "Ous Mellouli Dominates Men's Open Water 10K Qualifier". Swimming World Magazine. 10 June 2012. Retrieved 12 July 2013.
