Swimming at the 1972 Summer Olympics – Women's 400 metre individual medley
The women's 400 metre individual medley event at the 1972 Summer Olympics took place August 31. This swimming event used medley swimming. Because an Olympic size swimming pool is 50 metres long, this race consisted of eight lengths of the pool. The first two lengths were swum using the butterfly stroke, the second pair with the backstroke, the third pair of lengths in breaststroke, and the final two were freestyle. Unlike other events using freestyle, swimmers could not use butterfly, backstroke, or breaststroke for the freestyle leg; most swimmers use the front crawl in freestyle events.Medalists
Results
Heats
Heat 1
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Notes |
| 1 | Gail Neall | | 5:11.89 | |
| 2 | Susan Hunter | | 5:14.47 | |
| 3 | Jaroslava Slavíčková | | 5:18.53 | |
| 4 | Birutė Užkuraitytė | | 5:20.05 | |
| 5 | Helga Niemann | | 5:21.97 | |
| 6 | Shelagh Ratcliffe | | 5:24.27 | |
| 7 | Helmi Boxberger | | 5:32.31 | |
| 8 | Silvia Borgini | | 5:44.22 | |
Heat 2
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Notes |
| 1 | Hennie Penterman | | 5:14.99 | |
| 2 | Marlies Pohl | | 5:15.38 | |
| 3 | Jennifer McHugh | | 5:20.25 | |
| 4 | Debbie Bengtson | | 5:21.62 | |
| 5 | Eva Sigg | | 5:22.92 | |
| 6 | Karen Moras | | 5:24.13 | |
| 7 | Kirsten Strange-Campbell | | 5:25.97 | |
Heat 3
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Notes |
| 1 | Lynn Vidali | | 5:09.67 | |
| 2 | Novella Calligaris | | 5:11.16 | |
| 3 | Gerda Lassooij | | 5:22.09 | |
| 4 | Maria Isabel Guerra | | 5:24.43 | |
| 5 | Trine Krogh | | 5:25.08 | |
| 6 | Diane Walker | | 5:28.82 | |
| 7 | Eleni Avlonitou | | 5:32.49 | |
| 8 | Béatrice Mottoulle | | 5:35.38 | |
Heat 4
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Notes |
| 1 | Evelyn Stolze | | 5:06.96 | |
| 2 | Jenny Bartz | | 5:07.31 | |
| 3 | Nina Petrova | | 5:13.42 | |
| 4 | Yukari Takemoto | | 5:20.89 | |
| 5 | Wijda Mazereeuw | | 5:24.00 | |
| 6 | Laura Vaca | | 5:24.63 | |
| 7 | Roselina Angee | | 5:35.44 | |
Heat 5
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Notes |
| 1 | Leslie Cliff | | 5:08.64 | |
| 2 | Mary Montgomery | | 5:13.62 | |
| 3 | Angela Franke | | 5:14.81 | |
| 4 | Anita Zarnowiecki | | 5:15.05 | |
| 5 | Susan Richardson | | 5:19.53 | |
| 6 | Susanne Niesner | | 5:25.23 | |
| 7 | Gisela Cerezo | | 5:29.56 | |
| 8 | María Ballesteros | | 5:31.06 | |
Final
Key: WR = World record
