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

The men's 400 metre freestyle event at the 1948 Olympic Games took place between 31 July and 4 August at the Empire Pool. 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.

Medalists

Gold	Bill Smith  United States
Silver	Jimmy McLane  United States
Bronze	John Marshall  Australia

Results

Heats

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Notes
1	Jimmy McLane	United States	4:42.2	Q, OR
2	Bill Smith	United States	4:45.3	Q
3	John Marshall	Australia	4:51.4	Q
4	Géza Kádas	Hungary	4:52.8	Q
5	Jack Hale	Great Britain	4:53.3	Q
5	Alex Jany	France	4:53.3	Q
7	Per-Olof Östrand	Sweden	4:53.5	Q
8	Alfredo Yantorno	Argentina	4:53.8	Q
9	György Mitró	Hungary	4:56.0	Q
10	Bill Heusner	United States	4:58.3	Q
11	Don Johnston	South Africa	4:57.4	Q
12	Miroslav Bartůšek	Czechoslovakia	4:57.9	q
13	Branko Vidović	Yugoslavia	4:58.7	q
14	Janko Puhar	Yugoslavia	5:00.8	q
15	Marijan Stipetić	Yugoslavia	5:01.4	q
16	Imre Nyéki	Hungary	5:01.8	Q
17	Luis González	Colombia	5:02.1
18	Roy Botham	Great Britain	5:03.4
19	Jo Bernardo	France	5:03.8
20	Florbel Pérez	Uruguay	5:04.7
21	René Cornu	France	5:05.2
22	José Durañona	Argentina	5:05.8
23	Garrick Agnew	Australia	5:06.1
24	Luis Child	Colombia	5:08.5
25	Isidoro Martínez-Vela	Spain	5:10.0
26	Juan Garay	Argentina	5:10.4
27	Doug Gibson	Canada	5:13.4
28	Isidoro Pérez	Spain	5:16.1
29	Ari Guðmundsson	Iceland	5:16.2
30	Alejandro Febrero	Spain	5:16.9
31	Tom Holt	Great Britain	5:20.7
32	Derek Oatway	Bermuda	5:20.9
33	Allen Gilchrist	Canada	5:21.5
34	Sambiao Basanung	Philippines	5:21.5
35	Walter Schneider	Switzerland	5:25.5
36	Walter Bardgett	Bermuda	5:37.2
37	Robert Cook	Bermuda	5:37.9
38	Bimal Chandra	India	5:38.6
39	Jack Hakim	Egypt	5:40.3
40	Anwar Aziz Chaudhry	Pakistan	6:17.4
41	Sultan Karim Ali	Pakistan	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	Géza Kádas	Hungary	4:47.8	Q
2	William Smith	United States	4:48.4	Q
3	Jimmy McLane	United States	4:49.5	Q
4	John Marshall	Australia	4:50.0	Q
5	György Mitró	Hungary	4:50.8	q
6	Alex Jany	France	4:51.3	q
7	Jack Hale	Great Britain	4:51.4	q
8	Alfredo Yantorno	Argentina	4:57.3	q
9	Bill Heusner	United States	4:57.4
10	Marjan Stipetić	Yugoslavia	4:58.6
11	Janko Puhar	Yugoslavia	4:58.7
11	Miroslav Bartůšek	Czechoslovakia	4:58.7
13	Branko Vidović	Yugoslavia	4:59.4
14	Don Johnston	South Africa	4:59.5

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

Final

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Notes
	Bill Smith	United States	4:41.0	OR
	Jimmy McLane	United States	4:43.4
	John Marshall	Australia	4:47.4
4	Géza Kádas	Hungary	4:49.4
5	György Mitró	Hungary	4:49.9
6	Alex Jany	France	4:51.4
7	Jack Hale	Great Britain	4:55.9
8	Alfredo Yantorno	Argentina	4:58.7

Key: OR = Olympic record