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. 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
Results
Heats
Semifinals
Final
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Notes |
| Ann Curtis | | 5:17.8 | OR |
| Karen Margrethe Harup | | 5:21.2 | |
| Catherine Gibson | | 5:22.5 | |
| 4 | Fernande Caroen | | 5:25.3 | |
| 5 | Brenda Helser | | 5:26.0 | |
| 6 | Piedade Coutinho | | 5:29.4 | |
| 7 | Fritze Carstensen | | 5:29.4 | |
| 8 | Nancy Lees | | 5:32.9 | |
Key: OR = Olympic record
