Swimming at the 1948 Summer Olympics – Women's 4 × 100 metre freestyle relay

The women's 4×100 metre freestyle relay event at the 1948 Olympic Games took place on 4th and 6 August at the Empire Pool. This swimming event used freestyle as a relay, with swimmers typically using the front crawl. Because an Olympic size swimming pool is 50 metres long, each of the four swimmers completed two lengths of the pool. The first swimmer had to touch the wall before the second could leave the starting block; timing of the starts was thus important.

Medalists

Gold	Silver	Bronze
United States Marie Corridon Thelma Kalama Brenda Helser Ann Curtis	Denmark Eva Arndt Karen Harup Greta Andersen Fritze Carstensen	Netherlands Irma Heijting-Schuhmacher Margot Marsman Marie-Louise Linssen-Vaessen Hannie Termeulen

Results

Heats

Heat One

Place	Swimmers	Time	Qual.
1	Eva Arndt-Riise, Karen Margrethe Harup, Greta Andersen, Fritze Carstensen and Elvi Svendsen (DEN)	4:33.5	QQ
2	Marie Corridon, Thelma Kalama, Brenda Helser, and Ann Curtis (USA)	4:34.1	QQ
3	Patricia Nielsen, Margaret Wellington, Lillian Preece, and Cathie Gibson (GBR)	4:36.1	QQ
4	Josette Arène, Gisèle Vallerey, Colette Thomas, Ginette Jany-Sendral and Marie Foucher-Creteau (FRA)	4:50.0	QQ
5	Enriqueta Duarte, Liliana Gonzalias, Adriana Camelli and Eileen Holt (ARG)	4:59.5
6	Kay McNamee, Joyce Court, Vivian King and Irene Strong (CAN)	5:04.5

Heat Two

Place	Swimmers	Time	Qual.
1	Irma Heijting-Schuhmacher, Margot Marsman, Marie-Louise Linssen-Vaessen and Hannie Termeulen (NED)	4:31.3	QQ
2	Gisela Thidholm, Elisabeth Ahlgren, Marianne Lundquist and Ingegerd Fredin (SWE)	4:38.5	QQ
3	Mária Littomeritzky, Ilona Novák, Judit Temes and Éva Székely (HUN)	4:47.5	QQ
4	Eleonora Schmidt, Maria da Costa, Talita Rodrígues and Piedade Coutinho-Tavares (BRA)	4:51.4	QQ
5	Maria Huybrechts, Maria Oeyen, Maria Van Den Brand and Fernande Caroen (BEL)	4:54.9

Final

Place	Swimmers	Time	Qual.
	Marie Corridon, Thelma Kalama, Brenda Helser, and Ann Curtis (USA)	4:29.2	OR
	Eva Arndt-Riise, Karen Margrethe Harup, Greta Andersen, Fritze Carstensen (DEN)	4:29.6
	Irma Heijting-Schuhmacher, Margot Marsman, Marie-Louise Linssen-Vaessen and Hannie Termeulen (NED)	4:31.6
4	Patricia Nielsen, Margaret Wellington, Lillian Preece, and Cathie Gibson (GBR)	4:34.7
5	Mária Littomeritzky, Ilona Novák, Judit Temes and Éva Székely (HUN)	4:44.8
6	Eleonora Schmidt, Maria da Costa, Talita Rodrígues and Piedade Coutinho-Tavares (BRA)	4:49.1
7	Josette Arène, Gisèle Vallerey, Colette Thomas, Ginette Jany-Sendral (FRA)	4:49.8
	Gisela Thidholm, Elisabeth Ahlgren, Marianne Lundquist and Ingegerd Fredin (SWE)	DQ