Swimming at the 1948 Summer Olympics – Men's 400 metre freestyle explained

The men's 400 metre freestyle event at the 1948 Olympic Games took place between 31 July and 4 August at the Empire Pool.^[1] This swimming event used freestyle swimming, which means that the method of the stroke is not regulated (unlike backstroke, breaststroke, and butterfly events). Nearly all swimmers use the front crawl or a variant of that stroke. Because an Olympic-size swimming pool is 50 metres long, this race consisted of eight lengths of the pool.

Results

Heats

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Notes
1			4:42.2	Q, OR
2			4:45.3	Q
3			4:51.4	Q
4			4:52.8	Q
5			4:53.3	Q
5			4:53.3	Q
7			4:53.5	Q
8			4:53.8	Q
9			4:56.0	Q
10			4:58.3	Q
11			4:57.4	Q
12			4:57.9	q
13			4:58.7	q
14			5:00.8	q
15			5:01.4	q
16			5:01.8	Q
17			5:02.1
18			5:03.4
19			5:03.8
20			5:04.7
21			5:05.2
22			5:05.8
23			5:06.1
24			5:08.5
25			5:10.0
26			5:10.4
27			5:13.4
28			5:16.1
29			5:16.2
30			5:16.9
31			5:20.7
32			5:20.9
33			5:21.5
34			5:21.5
35			5:25.5
36			5:37.2
37			5:37.9
38			5:38.6
39			5:40.3
40			6:17.4
41			7:16.9

Key: OR = Olympic record, Q = qualification by place in heat, q = qualification by overall place

Semifinals

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Notes
1			4:47.8	Q
2			4:48.4	Q
3			4:49.5	Q
4			4:50.0	Q
5			4:50.8	q
6			4:51.3	q
7			4:51.4	q
8			4:57.3	q
9			4:57.4
10			4:58.6
11			4:58.7
11			4:58.7
13			4:59.4
14			4:59.5

Key: Q = qualification by place in heat, q = qualification by overall place

Final

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Notes
			4:41.0	OR
			4:43.4
			4:47.4
4			4:49.4
5			4:49.9
6			4:51.4
7			4:55.9
8			4:58.7

Key: OR = Olympic record

Notes and References

Web site: Swimming at the 1948 London Summer Games: Men's 400 metres Freestyle . https://web.archive.org/web/20200417165241/https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/summer/1948/SWI/mens-400-metres-freestyle.html . dead . 17 April 2020 . 18 September 2016 . Sports Reference.