Swimming at the 2020 Summer Olympics – Men's 400 metre freestyle

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Men's 400 metre freestyle
at the Games of the XXXII Olympiad
Venue Tokyo Aquatics Centre
Dates24 July 2021 (heats)
25 July 2021 (final)
Competitors36 from 31 nations
Winning time3:43.36
Medalists
Gold medal icon.svg Ahmed Hafnaoui Flag of Tunisia.svg  Tunisia
Silver medal icon.svg Jack McLoughlin Flag of Australia.svg  Australia
Bronze medal icon.svg Kieran Smith Flag of the United States.svg  United States
  2016
2024  

The men's 400 metre freestyle event at the 2020 Summer Olympics was held in 2021 at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre. [1] It was the event's twenty-seventh consecutive appearance, having been held at every edition since 1904.

Summary

In one of the most stunning upsets in Olympic swimming history, Tunisia's Ahmed Hafnaoui became the lowest-seeded swimmer to win gold since 2004, when Kirsty Coventry won the 200 backstroke as the 21st seed. [2] Entered into the meet ranked 16th with a month-old personal best time of 3:46.16, Hafnaoui dropped almost half a second to qualify for the final in 8th place by just 0.14 s. The youngest swimmer in the final field, the 18 year old Tunisian was third at the 100 m mark, before moving up to second by the 150. Though he was 0.31 seconds behind Australia's Jack McLoughlin at the final turn, Hafnaoui used a blistering final lap to overtake him, recording a winning time of 3:43.36 - nearly three seconds faster than his entry time. By winning the title, Hafnaoui became the first African Olympic champion in this event and the second Tunisian swimmer to win gold, emulating the feats of his idol Oussama Mellouli.

Meanwhile McLoughlin, swimming out in lane 2, moved to the lead at the halfway mark before maintaining his position until the final turn. However, he could not fend off the late charge from Hafnaoui, settling for silver in 3:43.52. Swimming alongside Hafnaoui, the U.S.' Kieran Smith unleashed the second fastest closing split in the field to win the nation's first medal in this event since Peter Vanderkaay in 2012. While Austria's Felix Auboeck was third at the final turn, he narrowly missed the podium to place fourth in a tie with Germany Henning Mühlleitner who was the fastest finisher in the field.

The only defending medallist in the field, Italy's 2016 Bronze medallist Gabriele Detti was more than a second off his national record, clocking a 3:44.88 to take fifth. The only swimmer in the field to dip under the 3:43 barrier, Australia's pre-race favourite Elijah Winnington (3:45.20) shot out to an early lead before starting to fade at the halfway mark and eventually come seventh. The U.S.' Jake Mitchell, who qualified for the Olympics via a time trial, added 0.01 s from his preliminary time to place eighth.

Records

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

World recordFlag of Germany.svg  Paul Biedermann  (GER)3:40.07 Rome, Italy 26 July 2009 [3]
Olympic recordFlag of the People's Republic of China.svg  Sun Yang  (CHN)3:40.14 London, Great Britain 28 July 2012 [4]

No new records were set during the competition.

Qualification

The Olympic Qualifying Time for the event is 3:46.78. Up to two swimmers per National Olympic Committee (NOC) can automatically qualify by swimming that time at an approved qualification event. The Olympic Selection Time is 3:53.58. Up to one swimmer per NOC meeting that time is eligible for selection, allocated by world ranking until the maximum quota for all swimming events is reached. NOCs without a male swimmer qualified in any event can also use their universality place. [5]

Competition format

The competition consists of two rounds: heats and a final. The swimmers with the best 8 times in the heats advance to the final. Swim-offs are used as necessary to break ties for advancement to the next round. [6]

Schedule

All times are Japan Standard Time (UTC+9) [1]

DateTimeRound
24 July19:38Heats
25 July10:52Final

Results

The swimmers with the top 8 times, regardless of heat, advance to the final. [7]

Heats

RankHeatLaneSwimmerNationTimeNotes
142 Henning Mühlleitner Flag of Germany.svg  Germany 3:43.67Q
243 Felix Auböck Flag of Austria.svg  Austria 3:43.91Q, NR
344 Gabriele Detti Flag of Italy.svg  Italy 3:44.67Q
454 Elijah Winnington Flag of Australia.svg  Australia 3:45.20Q
455 Jack McLoughlin Flag of Australia.svg  Australia 3:45.20Q
652 Kieran Smith Flag of the United States.svg  United States 3:45.25Q
751 Jake Mitchell Flag of the United States.svg  United States 3:45.38Q
848 Ahmed Hafnaoui Flag of Tunisia.svg  Tunisia 3:45.68Q
935 Antonio Djakovic Civil Ensign of Switzerland (Pantone).svg  Switzerland 3:45.82 NR
1056 Marco De Tullio Flag of Italy.svg  Italy 3:45.85
1147 Guilherme Costa Flag of Brazil.svg  Brazil 3:45.99
1246 Lukas Märtens Flag of Germany.svg  Germany 3:46.30
1345 Danas Rapšys Flag of Lithuania.svg  Lithuania 3:46.32
1437 Marwan El-Kamash Flag of Egypt.svg  Egypt 3:46.94
1531 Kregor Zirk Flag of Estonia.svg  Estonia 3:47.05 NR
1624 Alfonso Mestre Flag of Venezuela (state).svg  Venezuela 3:47.14 NR
1734 Aleksandr Yegorov Russian Olympic Committee flag.png  ROC 3:47.71
1858 Gábor Zombori Flag of Hungary.svg  Hungary 3:47.99
1957 Ji Xinjie Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg  China 3:48.27
2041 Kieran Bird Flag of the United Kingdom (3-2).svg  Great Britain 3:48.55
2133 Henrik Christiansen Flag of Norway.svg  Norway 3:48.88
2253 Martin Malyutin Russian Olympic Committee flag.png  ROC 3:49.49
2332 Zac Reid Flag of New Zealand.svg  New Zealand 3:49.85
2423 Martin Bau Civil Ensign of Slovenia.svg  Slovenia 3:52.56
2522 Joaquín Vargas Flag of Peru.svg  Peru 3:52.94
2638 Lee Ho-joon Flag of South Korea.svg  South Korea 3:53.23
2715 Eduardo Cisternas Flag of Chile.svg  Chile 3:54.10 NR
2836 David Aubry Flag of France.svg  France 3:55.01
2926 Aflah Fadlan Prawira Flag of Indonesia.svg  Indonesia 3:55.08
3027 Wesley Roberts Flag of the Cook Islands.svg  Cook Islands 3:55.65
3114 Igor Mogne Flag of Mozambique.svg  Mozambique 3:56.56
3213 Irakli Revishvili Flag of Georgia.svg  Georgia 3:57.49
3325 Welson Sim Flag of Malaysia.svg  Malaysia 3:58.25
3428 Alex Sobers Flag of Barbados.svg  Barbados 3:59.14
3521 James Freeman Flag of Botswana.svg  Botswana 4:03.10
3616 Filip Derkoski Flag of North Macedonia (3-2).svg  North Macedonia 4:03.34

Final

[8]

RankLaneSwimmerNationTimeNotes
Gold medal icon.svg8 Ahmed Hafnaoui Flag of Tunisia.svg  Tunisia 3:43.36
Silver medal icon.svg2 Jack McLoughlin Flag of Australia.svg  Australia 3:43.52
Bronze medal icon.svg7 Kieran Smith Flag of the United States.svg  United States 3:43.94
44 Henning Mühlleitner Flag of Germany.svg  Germany 3:44.07
5 Felix Auböck Flag of Austria.svg  Austria 3:44.07
63 Gabriele Detti Flag of Italy.svg  Italy 3:44.88
76 Elijah Winnington Flag of Australia.svg  Australia 3:45.20
81 Jake Mitchell Flag of the United States.svg  United States 3:45.39

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References

  1. 1 2 "Tokyo 2020: Swimming Schedule". Tokyo 2020 . Retrieved 30 January 2020.
  2. "SwimmingStats".
  3. Cowley, Michael (27 July 2009). "Thorpe's mark tumbles in night of world records". Sydney Morning Herald . Retrieved 7 July 2013.
  4. "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.
  5. "Tokyo 2020 – FINA Swimming Qualification System" (pdf). Tokyo 2020 . FINA . Retrieved 29 January 2020.
  6. "FINA Swimming Rulebook, 2017–21" (PDF). FINA. Retrieved 29 January 2020.
  7. "Heats results" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 October 2021. Retrieved 24 July 2021.
  8. "Final results" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 August 2021. Retrieved 25 July 2021.