Swimming at the 2012 Summer Olympics – Men's 400 metre freestyle


The men's 400 metre freestyle event at the 2012 Summer Olympics took place on 28 July at the London Aquatics Centre in London, United Kingdom.
Sun Yang made a historic milestone to become China's first ever male gold medalist in swimming, as he continued to build another Asian supremacy for the event, together with an Olympic record. He held off South Korea's defending champion Park Tae-hwan on the final stretch to effortlessly secure the gold medal in a sterling time of 3:40.14, cutting off Ian Thorpe's 2000 Olympic record by nearly half a second.
Meanwhile, Park ended a dramatic day with a silver medal in his pocket at 3:42.06. Earlier in the prelims, he was disqualified for an immediate false start from heat three, but reinstated in the final after the Korean Swimming Federation filed an appeal. U.S. swimmer Peter Vanderkaay added a second individual bronze and fourth career medal to his Olympic hardware in 3:44.69.
China's Hao Yun, Vanderkaay's teammate Conor Dwyer, Hungary's Gergő Kis, Great Britain's David Carry, and Australia's Ryan Napoleon also vied for an Olympic medal to round out the championship field.
Notable swimmers missed the final roster including Canada's Ryan Cochrane, who was bumped out of the lineup to ninth after Park's disqualification had been overturned; and Biedermann, who struggled to keep his form with a thirteenth-place effort in the prelims.

Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.
The following records were established during the competition:
DateEventNameNationalityTimeRecord
July 28FinalSun Yang3:40.14

Results

Heats

RankHeatLaneNameNationalityTimeNotes
144Sun Yang3:45.07Q
245Peter Vanderkaay3:45.80Q
347Conor Dwyer3:46.24Q
434Park Tae-hwan3:46.68Q
532Gergő Kis3:46.77Q
643Hao Yun3:46.88Q
735Ryan Napoleon3:47.01Q
836David Carry3:47.25Q
925Ryan Cochrane3:47.26
1046Pál Joensen3:47.36
1123Robert Renwick3:47.44
1226Mads Glæsner3:48.27
1324Paul Biedermann3:48.50
1433David McKeon3:48.57
1522Matthew Stanley3:49.44
1648Cristian Quintero Valero3:50.44
1731Sergiy Frolov3:50.63
1842Samuel Pizzetti3:50.93
1941Dominik Meichtry3:51.34
2027Egor Degtyarev3:52.33
2114Mateusz Sawrymowicz3:53.33
2238Matias Koski3:54.96
2328Đorđe Marković3:55.35
2421Juan Martin Pereyra3:56.76
2537Heerden Herman3:57.28
2615Mateo de Angulo Velasco3:57.76
2716Ahmed Gebrel4:08.51
2813Allan Gutierrez Castro4:09.10

Final