Swimming at the 1928 Summer Olympics – Men's 400 metre freestyle

The men's 400 metre freestyle was a swimming event held as part of the swimming at the 1928 Summer Olympics programme. It was the fifth appearance of the event, which was established in 1908. The competition was held from Tuesday August 7, 1928 to Thursday August 9, 1928.

Twenty-six swimmers from 17 nations competed.

Medalists

Gold	Silver	Bronze
Alberto Zorrilla  Argentina	Boy Charlton  Australia	Arne Borg  Sweden

Records

These were the standing world and Olympic records (in minutes) prior to the 1928 Summer Olympics.

World Record	4:50.3	Arne Borg	Stockholm (SWE)	September 11, 1925
Olympic Record	5:04.2	Johnny Weissmuller	Paris (FRA)	July 18, 1924

In the final Alberto Zorrilla bettered the Olympic record to 5:01.6 minutes.

Results

Heats

Tuesday August 7, 1928: The fastest two in each heat and the fastest third-placed from across the heats advanced.

Heat 1

Place	Swimmer	Time	Qual.
1	Austin Clapp (USA)	5:13.4	QQ
2	Nobuo Arai (JPN)	5:23.4	QQ
3	Friedel Berges (GER)	5:27.8
4	James Thompson (CAN)

Heat 2

Place	Swimmer	Time	Qual.
1	Buster Crabbe (USA)	5:09.8	QQ
2	Hiroshi Yoneyama (JPN)	5:17.8	QQ
3	Albert Vandeplancke (FRA)	5:20.0	qq
4	Géza Szigritz (HUN)	5:41.0
5	Arthur Watts (GBR)

Heat 3

Place	Swimmer	Time	Qual.
1	Garnet Ault (CAN)	5:18.8	QQ
2	Herbert Heinrich (GER)	5:20.0	QQ
3	Václav Antoš (TCH)	5:39.8
4	Taburan Tamse (PHI)

Heat 4

Place	Swimmer	Time	Qual.
1	Arne Borg (SWE)	5:09.6	QQ
2	Ray Ruddy (USA)	5:26.4	QQ
3	Walter Handschuhmacher (GER)	5:32.0
4	Rezső Wanié (HUN)	5:35.2

Heat 5

Place	Swimmer	Time	Qual.
1	Katsuo Takaishi (JPN)	5:22.8	QQ
2	Boy Charlton (AUS)	5:23.0	QQ
3	Paolo Costoli (ITA)
4	Adán Gordón (PAN)
5	Hernán Téllez (CHI)

Heat 6

Place	Swimmer	Time	Qual.
1	Alberto Zorrilla (ARG)	5:19.2	QQ
2	Jack Hatfield (GBR)	5:32.8	QQ
3	David Lindsay (NZL)	5:38.6
4	William Broderick (IRL)

Semifinals

Wednesday August 8, 1928: The fastest three in each semi-final advanced to the final.

Semifinal 1

Place	Swimmer	Time	Qual.
1	Alberto Zorrilla (ARG)	5:11.4	QF
2	Boy Charlton (AUS)	5:13.6	QF
3	Ray Ruddy (USA)	5:20.6	QF
4	Garnet Ault (CAN)
5	Hiroshi Yoneyama (JPN)
—	Jack Hatfield (GBR)	DNS
	Nobuo Arai (JPN)	DNS

Semifinal 2

Place	Swimmer	Time	Qual.
1	Arne Borg (SWE)	5:05.4	QF
2	Buster Crabbe (USA)	5:06.2	QF
3	Austin Clapp (USA)	5:06.8	QF
4	Katsuo Takaishi (JPN)
5	Herbert Heinrich (GER)
6	Albert Vandeplancke (FRA)

Final

Friday August 10, 1928:

Place	Swimmer	Time
1	Alberto Zorrilla (ARG)	5:01.6 OR
2	Boy Charlton (AUS)	5:03.6
3	Arne Borg (SWE)	5:04.6
4	Buster Crabbe (USA)	5:05.4
5	Austin Clapp (USA)	5:16.0
6	Ray Ruddy (USA)	5:25.0

References

• Olympic Report
• sports-reference
• Wudarski, Pawel (1999). "Wyniki Igrzysk Olimpijskich" (in Polish). Retrieved 30 September 2008.