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

The women's 400 metre freestyle event at the 1948 Olympic Games took place between 5 and 7 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 meters long, this race consisted of eight lengths of the pool.

Medalists

Gold	Ann Curtis  United States
Silver	Karen Harup  Denmark
Bronze	Catherine Gibson  Great Britain

Results

Heats

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Notes
1	Cathie Gibson	Great Britain	5:26.9
2	Fernande Caroen	Belgium	5:29.2
3	Fritze Carstensen	Denmark	5:29.4
4	Nancy Lees	United States	5:29.6
5	Brenda Helser	United States	5:30.0
6	Piedade Coutinho-Tavares	Brazil	5:30.0
7	Karen Margrethe Harup	Denmark	5:31.7
8	Ann Curtis	United States	5:32.0
9	Colette Thomas	France	5:32.9
10	Gisela Thidholm	Sweden	5:34.5
11	Margaret Wellington	Great Britain	5:40.0
12	Patricia Nielsen	Great Britain	5:40.4
13	Denise Spencer	Australia	5:40.9
14	Magda Bruggemann	Mexico	5:43.8
15	Eileen Holt	Argentina	5:44.9
16	Vivian King	Canada	5:54.8
17	Kay McNamee	Canada	5:58.7
18	Enriqueta Duarte	Argentina	6:14.4
19	Greta Andersen	Denmark	DNF

Semifinals

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Notes
1	Karen Margrethe Harup	Denmark	5:25.7	OR
2	Fernande Caroen	Belgium	5:26.1	Q
3	Ann Curtis	United States	5:26.4	Q
4	Brenda Helser	United States	5:28.1	Q
5	Fritze Carstensen	Denmark	5:29.5	Q
6	Cathie Gibson	Great Britain	5:31.0	q
7	Piedade Coutinho-Tavares	Brazil	5:31.1	Q
8	Nancy Lees	United States	5:31.9	q
9	Colette Thomas	France	5:35.3
10	Denise Spencer	Australia	5:35.6
11	Margaret Wellington	Great Britain	5:38.2
12	Patricia Nielsen	Great Britain	5:39.5
13	Magda Bruggemann	Mexico	5:42.4
14	Eileen Holt	Argentina	5:52.4
15	Vivian King	Canada	5:52.7
16	Gisela Thidholm	Sweden	DNS

Final

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Notes
	Ann Curtis	United States	5:17.8	OR
	Karen Margrethe Harup	Denmark	5:21.2
	Catherine Gibson	Great Britain	5:22.5
4	Fernande Caroen	Belgium	5:25.3
5	Brenda Helser	United States	5:26.0
6	Piedade Coutinho	Brazil	5:29.4
7	Fritze Carstensen	Denmark	5:29.4
8	Nancy Lees	United States	5:32.9

Key: OR = Olympic record