Swimming at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Men's marathon 10 kilometre

The men's marathon 10 kilometre event at the 2008 Olympic Games took place on 21 August at the Shunyi Olympic Rowing-Canoeing Park in Beijing, China.[1]

Men's 10 km open water marathon
at the Games of the XXIX Olympiad
Gold medal winner Maarten van der Weijden.
VenueShunyi Olympic Rowing-Canoeing Park
DateAugust 21, 2008
Competitors25 from 24 nations
Winning time1:51:51.6
Medalists
Maarten van der Weijden  Netherlands
David Davies  Great Britain
Thomas Lurz  Germany
Swimming at the
2008 Summer Olympics
Qualification
Freestyle
50 mmenwomen
100 mmenwomen
200 mmenwomen
400 mmenwomen
800 mwomen
1500 mmen
Backstroke
100 mmenwomen
200 mmenwomen
Breaststroke
100 mmenwomen
200 mmenwomen
Butterfly
100 mmenwomen
200 mmenwomen
Individual medley
200 mmenwomen
400 mmenwomen
Freestyle relay
4×100 mmenwomen
4×200 mmenwomen
Medley relay
4×100 mmenwomen
Marathon
10 kmmenwomen

Dutch swimmer and cancer survivor Maarten van der Weijden enjoyed the race of his life as he sprinted in a three-way battle against Great Britain's David Davies and Germany's Thomas Lurz to a spectacular finish under a scorching rain, and most importantly, to claim the Olympic title in the inaugural men's open water marathon. With only a few hundred metres left, he pulled ahead from the rest of the field before slapping the yellow pads first in 1:51:51.6.[2][3] Van der Weijden was diagnosed with leukemia in 2001; however, with the aid of a stem cell treatment, he came back stronger from a two-year ordeal to resume his swimming career.[4]

Leading almost the entire race by over six body lengths, Davies drifted offline at the final stages, and eventually missed out the title by 1.5 seconds with the silver-medal time in 1:51:53.1.[5] Meanwhile, Lurz held off the final pack to claim the bronze in 1:51:53.6, finishing exactly two seconds behind Van der Weijden.[6][7]

Farther from the trio, Italy's Valerio Cleri finished off the podium with a fourth-place time in 1:52:07.5, and was followed in fifth by Russia's Evgeny Drattsev at 1:52:08.9. Bulgaria's Petar Stoychev, the English Channel record holder, trailed behind his Russian rival in a sprint challenge by two-tenths of a second (0.20), earning a sixth spot in 1:52:09.1. Belgium's Brian Ryckeman (1:52:10.7) and U.S. swimmer Mark Warkentin (1:52:13.0) managed to pull off from the rest of the field with a top-eight finish.[7][8]

Russia's pre-Olympic favorite and world champion Vladimir Dyatchin was disqualified from the race after he received a pair of yellow cards for obstructing his fellow swimmers and a red card for misconduct.[7][9]

Qualification

The men's 10 km races at the 2008 Olympics featured a field of twenty-five swimmers:

  • 10: the top-10 finishers in the 10 km races at the 2008 FINA World Championships in Seville, Spain.[10]
  • 9: the top-9 finishers at the Good Luck Beijing Olympic 10K Marathon Test Event (31 May–1 June 2008 in Beijing, China).[11]
  • 5: one representative from each FINA continent (Africa, Americas, Asia, Europe and Oceania). (These were selected based on the finishes at the World Championships.)[10]
  • 1: from the host nation (China) if not qualified by other means.

Competition format

Unlike all of the other swimming events in the pool, the men's and women's marathon 10 kilometre races were held in open water. No preliminary heats were held, with only the single mass-start race being contested. This race is held using freestyle swimming, with a lack of stroke regulations. For most of the event swimmers use the front crawl, but modifications are used situationally, especially when swimmers reach feeding stations.[12]

Open water swimming events require different tactics and showcase several different racing strategies that are more common to competitive cycling, marathon running and water polo than traditional pool swimming. It is one of the few Olympic sports where the athlete's coaches play a critical role during the actual event. The coaches have four opportunities to provide drinks to their athletes as the athletes swim by floating pontoons in the course. If the coach falls in the water, his or her athlete is immediately disqualified.

Results
RankAthleteNationTimeTime
behind		Notes
Maarten van der Weijden Netherlands1:51:51.6
David Davies Great Britain1:51:53.100:01.5
Thomas Lurz Germany1:51:53.600:02.0
4Valerio Cleri Italy1:52:07.500:15.9
5Evgeny Drattsev Russia1:52:08.900:17.3
6Petar Stoychev Bulgaria1:52:09.100:17.5
7Brian Ryckeman Belgium1:52:10.700:19.1
8Mark Warkentin United States1:52:13.000:21.4
9Chad Ho South Africa1:52:13.100:21.5
10Erwin Maldonado Venezuela1:52:13.600:22.0
11Ky Hurst Australia1:52:13.700:22.1
12Igor Chervynskiy Ukraine1:52:14.700:23.1
13Francisco Jose Hervas Spain1:52:16.500:24.9
14Allan do Carmo Brazil1:52:16.600:25.0
15Gilles Rondy France1:52:16.700:25.1
16Spyridon Gianniotis Greece1:52:20.400:28.8
17Rostislav Vítek Czech Republic1:52:41.800:50.2
18Luis Escobar Mexico1:53:47.901:56.3
19Saleh Mohammad Syria1:54:37.702:46.1
20Mohamed Monir Egypt1:55:17.003:25.4
21Damián Blaum Argentina1:55:48.603:57.0
22Arseniy Lavrentyev Portugal2:03:39.611:48.0
23Xin Tong China2:09:13.417:21.8
Csaba Gercsák HungaryDNF
Vladimir Dyatchin RussiaDSQ

References
  1. "Olympic Swimming Schedule". USA Today. 9 August 2008. Retrieved 14 May 2013.
  2. "Van der Weijden wins 10K swimming race in close finish". Beijing 2008. NBC Olympics. 20 August 2008. Retrieved 5 July 2013.
  3. "Holland's van der Weijden wins men's 10km marathon swim". ABC News Australia. 21 August 2008. Retrieved 5 July 2013.
  4. Paxinos, Stathi (21 August 2008). "After leukemia, marathon a breeze". The Age. Retrieved 5 July 2013.
  5. "Battling Davies wins 10km silver". BBC Sport. 21 August 2008. Retrieved 5 July 2013.
  6. Lord, Craig (21 August 2008). "Swimmer David Davies wins silver medal for Britain". The Times. Retrieved 5 July 2013.
  7. "Olympics, Open Water: Maarten van der Weijden Survives Leukemia to Claim Men's 10K Gold". Swimming World Magazine. 21 August 2008. Archived from the original on 4 July 2013. Retrieved 4 July 2013.
  8. "Warkentin finishes 8th in first-ever men's Olympic 10k marathon swim". USA Swimming. 21 August 2008. Retrieved 5 July 2013.
  9. Harris, Nick (21 August 2008). "Davies makes a splash in more ways than one". The Independent. Retrieved 5 July 2013.
  10. Munatones, Steve (4 May 2008). "FINA World Open Water Championships: Russia Revisited, Hackett Disqualification Report". Swimming World Magazine. Archived from the original on 29 August 2012. Retrieved 4 July 2013.
  11. Munatones, Steve (1 June 2008). "Open Water Test Event: Olympic 10K Marathon Swim Fields Set". Swimming World Magazine. Archived from the original on 29 March 2014. Retrieved 4 July 2013.
  12. "Inside the Sport: Competition format". Beijing 2008. NBC Olympics. Retrieved 5 July 2013.
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