Swimming at the 2012 Summer Olympics – Men's marathon 10 kilometre

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]

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
Oussama Mellouli  Tunisia Thomas Lurz  Germany Richard Weinberger  Canada
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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 an American open water swimmer Alex Meyer (1:50:48.2) by exactly two seconds.^[11][12]

As the remaining swimmers completed the race, Guam's 16-year-old teen Benjamin Schulte 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
12	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	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

1. "Swimming: Results & Schedules". London 2012. NBC Olympics. 10 August 2012. Archived from the original on 3 July 2013. Retrieved 15 July 2013.
2. Helliker, Kevin (10 August 2012). "U.S.-Trained Tunisian Takes Gold in Open-Water Swim". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 15 July 2013.
3. Linden, Julian (10 August 2012). "Mellouli wins open water gold medal". Reuters. Retrieved 15 July 2013.
4. "Canadian Richard Weinberger wins Olympic bronze in men's marathon swim". National Post. 10 August 2012. Archived from the original on 2013-07-17. Retrieved 15 July 2013.
5. Blatchford, Christie (10 August 2012). "Victoria's Richard Weinberger takes Olympic bronze in marathon swimming for Canada". Vancouver Sun. Retrieved 15 July 2013.
6. "2012 London Olympics: Tunisia's Ous Mellouli Becomes First Pool/Open Water Double Gold Medalist with 10K Victory". Swimming World Magazine. 10 August 2012. Archived from the original on 2013-01-28. Retrieved 15 July 2013.
7. "Mellouli wins Olympic open water gold medal". London 2012. NBC Olympics. 10 August 2012. Archived from the original on 17 July 2013. Retrieved 15 July 2013.
8. 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.
9. Ingle, Sean (10 August 2012). "London 2012: Fifth for Daniel Fogg not enough in Olympic 10km swim". Guardian.co.uk. Retrieved 15 July 2013.
10. "Fogg has to settle for fifth: No joy for Brit in the Serpentine". The Daily Mirror. 10 August 2012. Retrieved 15 July 2013.
11. Berg, Aimee (10 August 2012). "Meyer Tenth in Open Water; Still Has Pool Goals". Team USA. Retrieved 15 July 2013.
12. Saraceno, Jon (10 August 2012). "Swimmer Alex Meyer tackles 10K with fallen friend on his mind". USA Today. Retrieved 15 July 2013.
13. "Guam's Benjamin Schulte, 16, wins battle with 'brown water' in 10km swim". News Corp Australia. 10 August 2012. Retrieved 15 July 2013.
14. "FINA World Championships, Open Water: Greece's Spyros Gianniotis Wins Men's 10K". Swimming World Magazine. 19 July 2011. Archived from the original on 2013-07-17. Retrieved 15 July 2013.
15. "FINA Press Release 2010–79: FINA Bureau Meeting in Dubai (UAE)". London 2012. FINA. 14 December 2010. Archived from the original on 5 March 2012. Retrieved 17 December 2010.
16. "Ous Mellouli Dominates Men's Open Water 10K Qualifier". Swimming World Magazine. 10 June 2012. Archived from the original on 2013-07-17. Retrieved 12 July 2013.

External links

• NBC Olympics Coverage
• Map of the Course Archived 2012-05-02 at the Wayback Machine