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Swimming at the 2020 Summer Olympics – Men's 400 metre freestyle

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Men's 400 metre freestyle
at the Games of the XXXII Olympiad
VenueTokyo Aquatics Centre
Dates24 July 2021 (heats)
25 July 2021 (final)
Competitors36 from 31 nations
Winning time3:43.36
Medalists
1st place, gold medalist(s) Ahmed Hafnaoui  Tunisia
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Jack McLoughlin  Australia
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Kieran Smith  United States
← 2016
2024 →

The men's 400 metre freestyle event at the 2020 Summer Olympics was held in 2021 at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre.[1] It was the event's twenty-seventh consecutive appearance, having been held at every edition since 1904.

Summary

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In one of the most stunning upsets in Olympic swimming history, Tunisia's Ahmed Hafnaoui became the lowest-seeded swimmer to win gold since 2004, when Kirsty Coventry won the 200 backstroke as the 21st seed.[2] Entered into the meet ranked 16th with a month-old personal best time of 3:46.16, Hafnaoui dropped almost half a second to qualify for the final in 8th place by just 0.14 s. The youngest swimmer in the final field, the 18 year old Tunisian was third at the 100 m mark, before moving up to second by the 150. Though he was 0.31 seconds behind Australia's Jack McLoughlin at the final turn, Hafnaoui used a blistering final lap to overtake him, recording a winning time of 3:43.36 - nearly three seconds faster than his entry time. By winning the title, Hafnaoui became the first African Olympic champion in this event and the second Tunisian swimmer to win gold, emulating the feats of his idol Oussama Mellouli.

Meanwhile McLoughlin, swimming out in lane 2, moved to the lead at the halfway mark before maintaining his position until the final turn. However, he could not fend off the late charge from Hafnaoui, settling for silver in 3:43.52. Swimming alongside Hafnaoui, the U.S.' Kieran Smith unleashed the second fastest closing split in the field to win the nation's first medal in this event since Peter Vanderkaay in 2012. While Austria's Felix Auboeck was third at the final turn, he narrowly missed the podium to place fourth in a tie with Germany Henning Mühlleitner who was the fastest finisher in the field.

The only defending medallist in the field, Italy's 2016 Bronze medallist Gabriele Detti was more than a second off his national record, clocking a 3:44.88 to take fifth. The only swimmer in the field to dip under the 3:43 barrier, Australia's pre-race favourite Elijah Winnington (3:45.20) shot out to an early lead before starting to fade at the halfway mark and eventually come seventh. The U.S.' Jake Mitchell, who qualified for the Olympics via a time trial, added 0.01 s from his preliminary time to place eighth.

Records

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Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.

World record  Paul Biedermann (GER) 3:40.07 Rome, Italy 26 July 2009 [3]
Olympic record  Sun Yang (CHN) 3:40.14 London, Great Britain 28 July 2012 [4]

No new records were set during the competition.

Qualification

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The Olympic Qualifying Time for the event is 3:46.78. Up to two swimmers per National Olympic Committee (NOC) can automatically qualify by swimming that time at an approved qualification event. The Olympic Selection Time is 3:53.58. Up to one swimmer per NOC meeting that time is eligible for selection, allocated by world ranking until the maximum quota for all swimming events is reached. NOCs without a male swimmer qualified in any event can also use their universality place.[5]

Competition format

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The competition consists of two rounds: heats and a final. The swimmers with the best 8 times in the heats advance to the final. Swim-offs are used as necessary to break ties for advancement to the next round.[6]

Schedule

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All times are Japan Standard Time (UTC+9)[1]

Date Time Round
24 July 19:38 Heats
25 July 10:52 Final

Results

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The swimmers with the top 8 times, regardless of heat, advance to the final.[7]

Heats

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Rank Heat Lane Swimmer Nation Time Notes
1 4 2 Henning Mühlleitner  Germany 3:43.67 Q
2 4 3 Felix Auböck  Austria 3:43.91 Q, NR
3 4 4 Gabriele Detti  Italy 3:44.67 Q
4 5 4 Elijah Winnington  Australia 3:45.20 Q
4 5 5 Jack McLoughlin  Australia 3:45.20 Q
6 5 2 Kieran Smith  United States 3:45.25 Q
7 5 1 Jake Mitchell  United States 3:45.38 Q
8 4 8 Ahmed Hafnaoui  Tunisia 3:45.68 Q
9 3 5 Antonio Djakovic  Switzerland 3:45.82 NR
10 5 6 Marco De Tullio  Italy 3:45.85
11 4 7 Guilherme Costa  Brazil 3:45.99
12 4 6 Lukas Märtens  Germany 3:46.30
13 4 5 Danas Rapšys  Lithuania 3:46.32
14 3 7 Marwan El-Kamash  Egypt 3:46.94
15 3 1 Kregor Zirk  Estonia 3:47.05 NR
16 2 4 Alfonso Mestre  Venezuela 3:47.14 NR
17 3 4 Aleksandr Yegorov  ROC 3:47.71
18 5 8 Gábor Zombori  Hungary 3:47.99
19 5 7 Ji Xinjie  China 3:48.27
20 4 1 Kieran Bird  Great Britain 3:48.55
21 3 3 Henrik Christiansen  Norway 3:48.88
22 5 3 Martin Malyutin  ROC 3:49.49
23 3 2 Zac Reid  New Zealand 3:49.85
24 2 3 Martin Bau  Slovenia 3:52.56
25 2 2 Joaquín Vargas  Peru 3:52.94
26 3 8 Lee Ho-joon  South Korea 3:53.23
27 1 5 Eduardo Cisternas  Chile 3:54.10 NR
28 3 6 David Aubry  France 3:55.01
29 2 6 Aflah Fadlan Prawira  Indonesia 3:55.08
30 2 7 Wesley Roberts  Cook Islands 3:55.65
31 1 4 Igor Mogne  Mozambique 3:56.56
32 1 3 Irakli Revishvili  Georgia 3:57.49
33 2 5 Welson Sim  Malaysia 3:58.25
34 2 8 Alex Sobers  Barbados 3:59.14
35 2 1 James Freeman  Botswana 4:03.10
36 1 6 Filip Derkoski  North Macedonia 4:03.34

Final

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[8]

Rank Lane Swimmer Nation Time Notes
1st place, gold medalist(s) 8 Ahmed Hafnaoui  Tunisia 3:43.36
2nd place, silver medalist(s) 2 Jack McLoughlin  Australia 3:43.52
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) 7 Kieran Smith  United States 3:43.94
4 4 Henning Mühlleitner  Germany 3:44.07
5 Felix Auböck  Austria 3:44.07
6 3 Gabriele Detti  Italy 3:44.88
7 6 Elijah Winnington  Australia 3:45.20
8 1 Jake Mitchell  United States 3:45.39

References

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  1. ^ a b "Tokyo 2020: Swimming Schedule". Tokyo 2020. Retrieved 30 January 2020.
  2. ^ "SwimmingStats".
  3. ^ Cowley, Michael (27 July 2009). "Thorpe's mark tumbles in night of world records". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 7 July 2013.
  4. ^ "Olympic swimming: China's Sun Yang beats rival Park to gold". BBC Sport. 28 July 2012. Archived from the original on 31 July 2012. Retrieved 7 July 2013.
  5. ^ "Tokyo 2020 – FINA Swimming Qualification System" (pdf). Tokyo 2020. FINA. Retrieved 29 January 2020.
  6. ^ "FINA Swimming Rulebook, 2017–21" (PDF). FINA. Retrieved 29 January 2020.
  7. ^ "Heats results" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 October 2021. Retrieved 24 July 2021.
  8. ^ "Final results" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 August 2021. Retrieved 25 July 2021.