Swimming at the 1952 Summer Olympics – Women's 400 metre freestyle

The women's 400 metre freestyle event at the 1952 Olympic Games took place between 31 July and 2 August at the Swimming Stadium.^[1] 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 metres long, this race consisted of sixteen lengths of the pool.

Medalists

Gold	Valéria Gyenge Hungary
Silver	Éva Novák Hungary
Bronze	Evelyn Kawamoto United States

Results

Heats

Sixteen fastest swimmers advanced to semi-finals.

Heat 1

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Notes
1	Ana María Schultz	Argentina	5:26.1	Q
2	Huguette Peters	Belgium	5:29.8	Q
3	Mette Petersen	Denmark	5:30.6
4	Grace Wood	Great Britain	5:31.2
5	Kay McNamee	Canada	5:50.5
6	Geertje Wielema	Netherlands	6:02.6

Heat 2

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Notes
1	Ragnhild Hveger	Denmark	5:19.6	Q
2	Éva Székely	Hungary	5:20.9	Q
3	Judy Davies	Australia	5:21.2	Q
4	Delia Meulenkamp	United States	5:21.4	Q
5	Lillian Preece	Great Britain	5:32.1
6	Sybille Verckist	Belgium	5:40.1
7	Ritva Järvinen	Finland	5:53.5

Heat 3

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Notes
1	Valéria Gyenge	Hungary	5:22.6	Q
2	Carolyn Green	United States	5:23.8	Q
3	Colette Thomas	France	5:36.8
4	Elisabeth Rechlin	Germany	5:38.0
5	Johanna Termeulen	Netherlands	5:45.5
6	Gladys Priestley	Canada	5:52.7
7	Cynthia Eager	Hong Kong	5:55.8

Heat 4

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Notes
1	Evelyn Kawamoto	United States	5:16.6	Q
2	Daphne Wilkinson	Great Britain	5:16.6	Q
3	Joan Harrison	South Africa	5:21.8	Q
4	Ingegärd Fredin	Sweden	5:28.7	Q
5	Ginette Jany	France	5:32.6
6	Irma Heyting-Schumacher	Netherlands	5:45.2
7	Sadako Yamashita	Japan	5:48.4

Heat 5

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Notes
1	Éva Novák	Hungary	5:19.1	Q
2	Greta Andersen	Denmark	5:21.3	Q
3	Piedade Coutinho-Tavares	Brazil	5:26.9	Q
4	Denise Norton	Australia	5:28.5	Q
5	Marianne Lundqvist	Sweden	5:34.4
6	Josette Arene	France	5:44.1
7	Misako Tamura	Japan	5:59.0

Semifinals

Eight fastest swimmers advanced to the finals.

Heat 1

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Notes
1	Evelyn Kawamoto	United States	5:21.2	Q
2	Éva Novák	Hungary	5:21.3	Q
3	Ana María Schultz	Argentina	5:22.0	Q
4	Greta Andersen	Denmark	5:22.1	Q
5	Joan Harrison	South Africa	5:23.1
6	Judy Davies	Australia	5:25.6
7	Piedade Coutinho-Tavares	Brazil	5:28.5
	Ingegärd Fredin	Sweden	–

Heat 2

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Notes
1	Valéria Gyenge	Hungary	5:16.9	Q
2	Carolyn Green	United States	5:18.3	Q
3	Éva Székely	Hungary	5:19.3	Q
4	Ragnhild Hveger	Denmark	5:19.5	Q
5	Daphne Wilkinson	Great Britain	5:27.2
6	Delia Meulenkamp	United States	5:27.9
7	Denise Norton	Australia	5:30.9
8	Huguette Peters	Belgium	5:36.5

Final

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Notes
	Valéria Gyenge	Hungary	5:12.1	OR
	Éva Novák	Hungary	5:13.7
	Evelyn Kawamoto	United States	5:14.6
4	Carolyn Green	United States	5:16.5
5	Ragnhild Hveger	Denmark	5:16.9
6	Éva Székely	Hungary	5:17.9
7	Ana María Schultz	Argentina	5:24.0
8	Greta Andersen	Denmark	5:27.0