The 15-minute barrier used to be the litmus test for the 1500m freestyle. Only the very best freestylers in the world could approach such a time. However, during the "LZR" era, when the polyurethane suits came into favour (they only launched in February 2008), the 15 minute barrier became irrelevant. 15 swimmers broke the barrier in 2008; another 13 in 2009. But with the ban of "speedsuits" in 2010, swimmers are finding it difficult to even get close to the 15 minute mark. So far in 2010, the best time is 15:17 by the French swimmer Sebastien Rouault. Good news for Canadian swimmers since Ryan Cochrane is ranked third so far in 2010, with a time of 15:19. It's a slow year for swimmers (no Olympics, no World Championships) so it will be interesting what happens as we go through 2010 - although the Aussies, Canadians, and the rest of the Commonwealth will compete in October in the Commonwealth Games.
Remarkably, even with the speedsuits, swimmers didn't get close to the world record of 14:34 set way back in 2001 by the legendary Grant Hackett. It is the oldest world record in swimming today, with every other world record (short-course or long-course, men or women) having been set in 2008-09 with two small exceptions. The men's short course 1500m record is also held by Hackett from 2001, and the women's 1500m freestyle long course was set in 2007 by American Kate Ziegler. Interesting that the speed suits didn't really impact the world records in the longer distance events like they did in every other distance...
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