10 kilometres, Men

At the 2019 World Championships, German Florian Wellbrock had won golds in both the 1,500 metre freestyle, in the pool, and the 10 km open water swim, the first time that double had been done at any major international meet. Before the open water swimming in Tokyo he had already competed in the 800 and 1,500 metre freestyles, winning a bronze medal in the latter.

Also competing in the 10 km swim at Tokyo was Italian Gregorio Paltrinieri, who had also swum the 800 and 1,500 earlier, winning silver in the 800 freestyle. He was competing in his first Olympic open water swim but won the gold medal at Rio in 2016 in the 1,500 freestyle. The defending gold medallist in the 10 km swim was the Netherlands’ Ferry Weertman, the 2017 World Champion over the distance.

But this event was about Florian Wellbrock, and Wellbrock alone. He led at the first split, reached in 9:22.5, by more than 10 seconds over his teammate, Rob Muffels. He continued to lead at every checkpoint, coming home in a dominant performance, winning in 1-48:33.7, over 15 seconds ahead of Hungary’s Kristóf Rasovszky, with Paltrinieri a few seconds further back for bronze.

Open water swimming had only been contested at the Olympics since 2008, but Wellbrock’s victory margin was by far the biggest, as the men’s events had previously been won only by 1-2 seconds, with the previous largest margin coming in 2016 when Sharon van Rouwendaal (NED) won the women’s event by 3.9 seconds.