Swimming at the 2000 Summer Olympics – Men's 400 metre individual medley


The men's 400 metre individual medley event at the 2000 Summer Olympics took place on 17 September at the Sydney International Aquatic Centre in Sydney, Australia.
U.S. swimmer Tom Dolan blistered the entire field, and broke a six-year-old world record to successfully defend his Olympic title in the event. Acknowledging a massive roar from an Australian crowd, Dolan pulled away from the field on the backstroke leg, and then opened up his lead to a powerful finish in a sterling time of 4:11.76. Dolan's teammate Erik Vendt came from last place on the first turn with a spectacular swim to take home the silver in 4:14.23, pulling off another top-two finish of the night for the Americans. Meanwhile, Canada's Curtis Myden managed to repeat his bronze from Atlanta four years earlier in 4:15.33, handing a second straight medal haul for North America in the event's history.
Leading earlier in the prelims, Italy's Alessio Boggiatto finished outside the podium by six-tenths of a second in 4:15.93. South Africa's Terence Parkin, a deaf mute since birth, swam on the outside in lane eight, but pulled off a fifth-place effort in an African record of 4:16.92. He was followed in sixth spot by Australia's newcomer Justin Norris, and in seventh by Romania's Cezar Bădiță, who had been overshadowed in his presence by a doping ban before the start of the Games. In May 2000, Badita failed a doping test for a steroid nandralone when he competed at the Mare Nostrum meet in Barcelona, Spain. Japan's Shinya Taniguchi closed out the field to eighth place with a time of 4:20.93.

Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.
The following new world and Olympic records were set during this competition.
DateEventNameNationalityTimeRecord
17 SeptemberFinalTom Dolan4:11.76

Results

Heats

RankHeatLaneNameNationalityTimeNotes
143Alessio Boggiatto4:14.26Q, NR
264Tom Dolan4:15.52Q
344Curtis Myden4:16.35Q
446Cezar Bădiță4:17.11Q, NR
554Erik Vendt4:17.15Q
655Justin Norris4:17.36Q
652Shinya Taniguchi4:17.36Q, AS
856Terence Parkin4:18.14Q, AF
957Jirka Letzin4:18.63
1066István Batházi4:18.85
1153Michael Halika4:19.97
1245Matthew Dunn4:20.31
1365Susumu Tabuchi4:20.76
1447Johann Le Bihan4:20.96
1563Frederik Hviid4:21.63
1641Dean Kent4:21.81
1732Alexey Kovrigin4:22.21
1836Yves Platel4:22.38
1961Massimiliano Eroli4:22.85
2051Ioannis Kokkodis4:23.19
2167Xie Xufeng4:23.33
2234Serghei Mariniuc4:23.57
2335Jan Vítazka4:23.81
2442Simon Militis4:24.38
2558Jin Hao4:24.56
2648Michael Windisch4:24.62
2722Jani Sievinen4:25.16
2837Dmytro Nazarenko4:25.26
2962Owen von Richter4:25.70
3031Marko Milenkovič4:26.62
3124Jeremy Knowles4:26.87
3268Torwai Sethsothorn4:28.42
3333Kim Bang-hyun4:28.56
3413Alex Fong4:29.02
3538Alejandro Bermúdez4:29.42
3623George Bovell4:29.52NR
3727Juan Carlos Piccio4:30.17
3825Juan Veloz4:31.73
3928Grigoriy Matuzkov4:31.89
4014Georgi Palazov4:35.92
4121Wan Azlan Abdullah4:36.90
4226Sandro Tomaš4:38.31
4315Oussama Mellouli4:41.97
4416Hsu Kuo-tung4:42.78
4512John Tabone4:53.12

Final