Swimming at the 2016 Summer Olympics – Men's 400 metre freestyle

Men's 400 metre freestyle at the Games of the XXXI Olympiad
Venue	Olympic Aquatics Stadium
Dates	6 August 2016 (heats & final)
Competitors	50 from 39 nations
Winning time	3:41.55
Medalists
Mack Horton   Australia Sun Yang   China Gabriele Detti   Italy
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The men's 400 metre freestyle event at the 2016 Summer Olympics took place on 6 August at the Olympic Aquatics Stadium. ^[1] The winning margin was 0.13 seconds.

Summary

China's Sun Yang fell short of his attempt to a back-to-back gold in one of the program's long-distance freestyle races due to a strong performance from Australia's Mack Horton. Heading into the final lap with a narrow 0.14-second lead, Horton managed to hold off the fast-charging Sun towards the finish for his first individual gold medal in 3:41.55. ^[2] Unable to catch his Aussie rival near the wall by 13-hundredths of a second, Sun settled for the silver in 3:41.68. Meanwhile, Gabriele Detti picked up the bronze with a time of 3:43.49 to become Italy's first male Olympic medalist in swimming since 2000. ^[3]

Conor Dwyer (3:44.01), the fastest swimmer headed into the final, and fellow American Connor Jaeger (3:44.16) finished off the podium in fourth and fifth respectively, separated by a 0.15-second margin. ^[4] Great Britain's James Guy led the pack towards the halfway mark under a world record pace, but faded to sixth in 3:44.68. Horton's teammate David McKeon (3:45.28) and France's Jordan Pothain (3:49.07) rounded out the field. ^[3]

South Korean swimmer and Beijing 2008 champion Park Tae-hwan, as well as Canada's long distance ace Ryan Cochrane, did not advance to the final, finishing tenth and eleventh in the prelims. ^[5]

Records

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

World record	Paul Biedermann  (GER)	3:40.07	Rome, Italy	26 July 2009	[6]
Olympic record	Sun Yang  (CHN)	3:40.14	London, Great Britain	28 July 2012	[7]

Competition format

The competition consisted of two rounds: heats and a final. The swimmers with the best 8 times in the heats advanced to the final. Swim-offs were used as necessary to break ties for advancement to the next round. ^[1]

Results

Heats

The heats began at 1:48 pm. ^[8]

Rank	Heat	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	7	2	Conor Dwyer	United States	3:43.42	Q
2	7	4	Mack Horton	Australia	3:43.84	Q
3	7	3	Gabriele Detti	Italy	3:43.95	Q
4	6	4	Sun Yang	China	3:44.23	Q
5	7	6	David McKeon	Australia	3:44.68	Q
6	7	5	James Guy	Great Britain	3:45.31	Q
7	6	5	Connor Jaeger	United States	3:45.37	Q
8	5	7	Jordan Pothain	France	3:45.43	Q
9	6	2	Florian Vogel	Germany	3:45.49
10	6	3	Park Tae-hwan	South Korea	3:45.63
11	6	6	Ryan Cochrane	Canada	3:45.83
12	5	1	Myles Brown	South Africa	3:45.92
13	7	1	Stephen Milne	Great Britain	3:46.00
14	7	8	Velimir Stjepanović	Serbia	3:46.78
15	5	4	Aleksandr Krasnykh	Russia	3:47.39
16	4	5	Marwan El-Kamash	Egypt	3:47.43
17	6	7	Henrik Christiansen	Norway	3:47.90
18	5	5	Maarten Brzoskowski	Netherlands	3:48.00
19	4	2	Matthew Hutchins	New Zealand	3:48.25
20	4	3	Anton Ipsen	Denmark	3:48.31
21	7	7	Péter Bernek	Hungary	3:48.58
22	3	8	Marcelo Acosta	El Salvador	3:48.82
23	6	1	Wojciech Wojdak	Poland	3:48.87
24	5	3	Clemens Rapp	Germany	3:49.10
25	6	8	Felix Auböck	Austria	3:49.35
26	5	8	Qiu Ziao	China	3:49.45
27	4	4	Ahmed Akram	Egypt	3:49.46
28	5	2	Filip Zaborowski	Poland	3:49.84
29	4	1	Jan Micka	Czech Republic	3:49.97
30	4	8	Vyacheslav Andrusenko	Russia	3:50.23
31	5	6	Naito Ehara	Japan	3:50.61
32	3	2	Luiz Altamir Melo	Brazil	3:50.82
33	2	3	Cristian Quintero	Venezuela	3:50.84
34	3	7	Welson Sim	Malaysia	3:51.57
35	2	4	Ahmed Mathlouthi	Tunisia	3:52.00
36	4	6	Mads Glæsner	Denmark	3:52.59
37	4	7	Miguel Durán	Spain	3:53.40	ƒ
38	3	5	Gergő Kis	Hungary	3:54.15
39	2	5	Martín Naidich	Argentina	3:54.58
40	3	6	David Brandl	Austria	3:54.59
41	3	1	Dimitrios Dimitriou	Greece	3:54.98
42	3	4	Matias Koski	Finland	3:55.57
43	3	3	Nezir Karap	Turkey	3:58.37
44	2	7	Alex Sobers	Barbados	3:59.97
45	2	2	Irakli Revishvili	Georgia	4:00.56
46	2	6	Jessie Lacuna	Philippines	4:01.70
47	2	1	Iacovos Hadjiconstantinou	Cyprus	4:03.53
48	1	4	Geoffrey Butler	Cayman Islands	4:07.87
49	1	5	Pol Arias	Andorra	4:21.16
50	1	3	Haris Bandey	Pakistan	4:33.13

ƒ False start, but allowed to continue at referee's discretion. ^[9]

Final

The final began at 10:30 pm. ^[10]

Medal ceremony for the 400 m freestyle.

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
	5	Mack Horton	Australia	3:41.55
	6	Sun Yang	China	3:41.68
	3	Gabriele Detti	Italy	3:43.49
4	4	Conor Dwyer	United States	3:44.01
5	1	Connor Jaeger	United States	3:44.16
6	7	James Guy	Great Britain	3:44.68
7	2	David McKeon	Australia	3:45.28
8	8	Jordan Pothain	France	3:49.07

References

1. "Men's 400m Freestyle". Rio 2016. Archived from the original on 6 August 2016. Retrieved 5 August 2016.
2. Pentony, Luke (7 August 2016). "Rio 2016: Mack Horton wins Australia's first swimming medal, winning 400-metres freestyle". ABC News Australia . Retrieved 27 August 2016.
3. "Mack Horton Edges Sun Yang for 400 Freestyle Gold in Rio". Swimming World Magazine. 6 August 2016. Retrieved 27 August 2016.
4. Johnson, Raphielle (6 August 2016). "Australia's Horton hangs on for 400 meter freestyle gold". NBC Olympics . Retrieved 27 August 2016.
5. "Conor Dwyer Leads Tight 400 Free Field Into Finals At 2016 Rio Olympic Games". Swimming World Magazine. 6 August 2016. Retrieved 27 August 2016.
6. Cowley, Michael (27 July 2009). "Thorpe's mark tumbles in night of world records". Sydney Morning Herald . Retrieved 7 July 2013.
7. "Olympic swimming: China's Sun Yang beats rival Park to gold". BBC Sport. 28 July 2012. Archived from the original on 31 July 2012. Retrieved 7 July 2013.
8. "Results of the men's 400 metre freestyle heats at the 2016 Summer Olympics" (PDF). Rio 2016. 6 August 2016. Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 August 2016. Retrieved 7 August 2016.
9. Lutton, Phil (7 August 2016). "Teary Miguel Duran Navia gets second Rio chance after false start at Olympics". The Sydney Morning Herald . Fairfax Media . Retrieved 7 August 2016.
10. "Results of the men's 400 metre freestyle final at the 2016 Summer Olympics" (PDF). Rio 2016. 6 August 2016. Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 August 2016. Retrieved 7 August 2016.