Swimming at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Women's 400 metre freestyle

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Women's 400 metre freestyle
at the Games of the XXIX Olympiad
Venue Beijing National Aquatics Center
DateAugust 10, 2008 (heats)
August 11, 2008 (final)
Competitors42 from 35 nations
Winning time4:03.22
Medalists
Gold medal icon.svg Rebecca Adlington Flag of the United Kingdom.svg  Great Britain
Silver medal icon.svg Katie Hoff Flag of the United States.svg  United States
Bronze medal icon.svg Joanne Jackson Flag of the United Kingdom.svg  Great Britain
  2004
2012  

The women's 400 metre freestyle event at the 2008 Olympic Games took place on 10–11 August at the Beijing National Aquatics Center in Beijing, China. [1] The winning margin was 0.07 seconds which as of 2023 is the narrowest winning margin for this event in the Olympics.

Rebecca Adlington became Great Britain's first female gold medalist in swimming in 48 years. [2] She posted an outside-record time of 4:03.22 to pip U.S. swimmer Katie Hoff in the final 5 metres after a 1.46-second deficit, with one length to go. Hoff added a silver to her hardware from the 400 m individual medley just a day earlier, in 4:03.29. Adlington's teammate Joanne Jackson earned a bronze in 4:03.52, handing 2 of the 3 medals won by Team GB in the pool. [3] [4] [5]

France's Coralie Balmy narrowly missed the podium by eight hundredths of a second (0.08), finishing in fourth place at 4:03.60. Italy's world record holder and top favorite Federica Pellegrini earned a fifth spot in a time of 4:04.56, holding off Romania's Camelia Potec to sixth by 0.10 of a second (4:04.66). Australia's Bronte Barratt (4:05.05) and defending Olympic champion Laure Manaudou (4:11.26). [3]

Notable swimmers missed out the top 8 final, featuring Poland's Otylia Jędrzejczak, silver medalist in Athens four years earlier, Hoff's teammate Kate Ziegler, and South Africa's Wendy Trott, who broke a new African record (4:08.38) in the heats. [6]

Earlier in the prelims, Pellegrini, Hoff, Jackson, and Adlington broke one of the oldest Olympic records in the book as they each went under the time of 4:03.85, which had stood since Janet Evans won the gold medal in the event at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul. [6]

Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows:

World recordFlag of Italy.svg  Federica Pellegrini  (ITA)4:01.53 Eindhoven, Netherlands 24 March 2008 [7]
Olympic recordFlag of the United States.svg  Janet Evans  (USA)4:03.85 Seoul, South Korea 22 September 1988

The following new world and Olympic records were set during this competition.

DateEventNameNationalityTimeRecord
August 10Heat 5 Katie Hoff Flag of the United States.svg  United States 4:03.71 OR
August 10Heat 6 Federica Pellegrini Flag of Italy.svg  Italy 4:02.19 OR

Results

Heats

RankHeatLaneNameNationalityTimeNotes
164 Federica Pellegrini Flag of Italy.svg  Italy 4:02.19Q, OR
263 Rebecca Adlington Flag of the United Kingdom.svg  Great Britain 4:02.24Q, NR
354 Katie Hoff Flag of the United States.svg  United States 4:03.71Q
456 Joanne Jackson Flag of the United Kingdom.svg  Great Britain 4:03.80Q
553 Bronte Barratt Flag of Australia.svg  Australia 4:04.16Q, OC
655 Coralie Balmy Flag of France.svg  France 4:04.25Q
746 Camelia Potec Flag of Romania.svg  Romania 4:04.55Q
844 Laure Manaudou Flag of France.svg  France 4:04.93Q
945 Otylia Jędrzejczak Flag of Poland.svg  Poland 4:05.50
1043 Linda Mackenzie Flag of Australia.svg  Australia 4:05.91
1161 Stephanie Horner Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg  Canada 4:07.45
1252 Wendy Trott Flag of South Africa.svg  South Africa 4:08.38 AF
1357 Lotte Friis Flag of Denmark.svg  Denmark 4:08.47
1465 Kate Ziegler Flag of the United States.svg  United States 4:09.59
67 Flavia Rigamonti Flag of Switzerland.svg  Switzerland
1648 Jördis Steinegger Flag of Austria.svg  Austria 4:09.72 NR
1762 Melissa Corfe Flag of South Africa.svg  South Africa 4:10.54
1851 Gabriella Fagundez Flag of Sweden.svg  Sweden 4:11.40
1941 Savannah King Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg  Canada 4:11.49
2033 Susana Escobar Flag of Mexico.svg  Mexico 4:11.99 NR
2135 Monique Ferreira Flag of Brazil.svg  Brazil 4:12.21
2247 Tan Miao Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg  China 4:12.35
2342 Erika Villaécija Flag of Spain.svg  Spain 4:14.25
2436 Hoi Shun Stephanie Au Flag of Hong Kong.svg  Hong Kong 4:14.82
2568 Jaana Ehmcke Flag of Germany.svg  Germany 4:15.15
2658 Li Mo Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg  China 4:15.50
2732 Eleftheria Evgenia Efstathiou Flag of Greece.svg  Greece 4:15.78
2834 Daria Belyakina Flag of Russia.svg  Russia 4:16.21
2914 Boglárka Kapás Flag of Hungary.svg  Hungary 4:16.22
3031 Lynette Lim Flag of Singapore.svg  Singapore 4:17.67
3166 Ai Shibata Flag of Japan.svg  Japan 4:17.96
3222 Yanel Pinto Flag of Venezuela.svg  Venezuela 4:18.09
3321 Nataliya Khudyakova Flag of Ukraine.svg  Ukraine 4:18.34
3437 Cecilia Biagioli Flag of Argentina (1861-2010).svg  Argentina 4:19.85
3527 Eva Lehtonen Flag of Finland.svg  Finland 4:20.07
3623 Kristina Lennox-Silva Flag of Puerto Rico.svg  Puerto Rico 4:20.17
3726 Lee Ji-eun Flag of South Korea (1997-2011).svg  South Korea 4:21.53
3825 Khoo Cai Lin Flag of Malaysia.svg  Malaysia 4:23.37
3924 Golda Marcus Flag of El Salvador.svg  El Salvador 4:23.50
4038 Yang Chin-kuei Flag of Chinese Taipei for Olympic games.svg  Chinese Taipei 4:24.78
4113 Shrone Austin Flag of Seychelles.svg  Seychelles 4:35.86
15 Natthanan Junkrajang Flag of Thailand.svg  Thailand DNS

Final

RankLaneNameNationalityTimeNotes
Gold medal icon.svg5 Rebecca Adlington Flag of the United Kingdom.svg  Great Britain 4:03.22
Silver medal icon.svg3 Katie Hoff Flag of the United States.svg  United States 4:03.29
Bronze medal icon.svg6 Joanne Jackson Flag of the United Kingdom.svg  Great Britain 4:03.52
47 Coralie Balmy Flag of France.svg  France 4:03.60
54 Federica Pellegrini Flag of Italy.svg  Italy 4:04.56
61 Camelia Potec Flag of Romania.svg  Romania 4:04.66
72 Bronte Barratt Flag of Australia.svg  Australia 4:05.05
88 Laure Manaudou Flag of France.svg  France 4:11.26

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References

  1. "Olympic Swimming Schedule". USA Today. 9 August 2008. Retrieved 14 May 2013.
  2. "Adlington snatches swimming gold". BBC Sport. 11 August 2008. Retrieved 19 May 2013.
  3. 1 2 Lohn, John (10 August 2008). "Olympics, Swimming: Rebecca Adlington Overtakes Katie Hoff for Gold in Women's 400 Free". Swimming World Magazine. Archived from the original on 6 May 2013. Retrieved 19 May 2013.
  4. Kitson, Robert (11 August 2008). "Olympics: Rebecca Adlington wins gold for Britain in 400m freestyle". Guardian.co.uk . Retrieved 19 May 2013.
  5. Lonsbrough, Anita (11 August 2008). "Rebecca Adlington wins gold on a rewarding day for Britain – Beijing Olympics 2008". The Daily Telegraph . Retrieved 19 May 2013.
  6. 1 2 Lohn, John (10 August 2008). "Olympics, Swimming: Olympic Record Falls Twice in Women's 400 Free, Federica Pellegrini Tops Qualifying". Swimming World Magazine. Archived from the original on 10 June 2013. Retrieved 19 May 2013.
  7. "Veldhuis and Pellegrini set world records at Euro swimming championships". International Herald Tribune. 24 March 2008. Retrieved 6 August 2008.