Women's 400 metre freestyle at the Games of the XXIX Olympiad | |||||||||||||
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Venue | Beijing National Aquatics Center | ||||||||||||
Date | August 10, 2008 (heats) August 11, 2008 (final) | ||||||||||||
Competitors | 42 from 35 nations | ||||||||||||
Winning time | 4:03.22 | ||||||||||||
Medalists | |||||||||||||
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Swimming at the 2008 Summer Olympics | ||
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Qualification | ||
Freestyle | ||
50 m | men | women |
100 m | men | women |
200 m | men | women |
400 m | men | women |
800 m | women | |
1500 m | men | |
Backstroke | ||
100 m | men | women |
200 m | men | women |
Breaststroke | ||
100 m | men | women |
200 m | men | women |
Butterfly | ||
100 m | men | women |
200 m | men | women |
Individual medley | ||
200 m | men | women |
400 m | men | women |
Freestyle relay | ||
4 × 100 m | men | women |
4 × 200 m | men | women |
Medley relay | ||
4 × 100 m | men | women |
Marathon | ||
10 km | men | women |
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]
Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows:
World record | Federica Pellegrini (ITA) | 4:01.53 | Eindhoven, Netherlands | 24 March 2008 | [7] |
Olympic record | Janet Evans (USA) | 4:03.85 | Seoul, South Korea | 22 September 1988 |
The following new world and Olympic records were set during this competition.
Date | Event | Name | Nationality | Time | Record |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
August 10 | Heat 5 | Katie Hoff | United States | 4:03.71 | OR |
August 10 | Heat 6 | Federica Pellegrini | Italy | 4:02.19 | OR |
Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
5 | Rebecca Adlington | Great Britain | 4:03.22 | ||
3 | Katie Hoff | United States | 4:03.29 | ||
6 | Joanne Jackson | Great Britain | 4:03.52 | ||
4 | 7 | Coralie Balmy | France | 4:03.60 | |
5 | 4 | Federica Pellegrini | Italy | 4:04.56 | |
6 | 1 | Camelia Potec | Romania | 4:04.66 | |
7 | 2 | Bronte Barratt | Australia | 4:05.05 | |
8 | 8 | Laure Manaudou | France | 4:11.26 |
Federica Pellegrini is an Italian retired swimmer. A native of Mirano, in the province of Venice, she won a gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. At the 2009 World Championships in Rome, Pellegrini became the first woman ever to break the 4-minute barrier in the 400 m freestyle with a time of 3:59.15. She also held the women's 200 meters freestyle world record.
Kathryn Elise Hoff is a former American competitive swimmer, she is an Olympic medalist, and former world record-holder. Hoff was known for her success in the 200-meter and 400-meter individual medley. She represented the United States at the 2004 Summer Olympics and 2008 Summer Olympics, in which she was awarded a silver medal and two bronze medals.
Kate Marie Ziegler is an American competition swimmer who specializes in freestyle and long-distance events. Ziegler has won a total of fifteen medals in major international competition, including eight golds, five silvers, and two bronzes spanning the World Aquatics and the Pan Pacific Championships. She was a member of the 2012 United States Olympic team, and competed in the 800-meter freestyle event at the 2012 Summer Olympics.
Stephanie Louise Rice, OAM is an Australian former competitive swimmer. She won three gold medals at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, and was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia on 26 January 2009.
Benjamin Marshall Wildman-Tobriner is an American competition swimmer, Olympic gold medalist, and former world record-holder.
Rebecca Adlington is an English former competitive swimmer who specialised in freestyle events in international competition. She won two gold medals at the 2008 Summer Olympics in the 400-metre freestyle and 800-metre freestyle, breaking the 19-year-old world record of Janet Evans in the 800-metre final. Adlington was Britain's first Olympic swimming champion since 1988, and the first British swimmer to win two Olympic gold medals since 1908. After winning her first World Championship gold over 800 metres in 2011, along with silver in the 400 metres at the same meet, she won bronze medals in both the women's 400-metre and 800-metre freestyle events in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. Adlington is one of the few people to have won Olympic Games, World Championships, continental championships and Commonwealth Games gold medals, although she did not win a set in any one event.
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