800 m freestyle, men

What to remember

Rome, July 29, 2009: at the World Championships, China's Zhang Lin covered the 800 m freestyle in 7 min 32.12 s. That day he became world champion over the distance.

Born in Beijing, Zhang Lin is a freestyle specialist. The year before, he had won Olympic silver in the 400 m freestyle. The world title in Rome, over 800 m, completed that record.

The men's 800 m freestyle was missing from the Games for a long time: it was first contested there only in 2020, while women have raced it since 1968. At the World Championships, the men's event has existed since 2001 and the women's since the first edition, in 1973.