The men's 400 metre freestyle event at the 2000 Summer Olympics took place on 16 September at the Sydney International Aquatic Centre in Sydney, Australia.

At just 17 years old, Australia's top favorite Ian Thorpe—nicknamed the "Thorpedo"—made his Olympic debut by securing the host nation's first gold medal of the Games, winning by 2.81 seconds. Energized by a roaring home crowd and chants of "Thorpie," he led from start to finish, touching the wall first with a new world record time of 3:40.59.

Massimiliano Rosolino earned a silver medal for Italy in a European record of 3:43.40, finishing almost three seconds behind Thorpe. Meanwhile, U.S. swimmer Klete Keller (another 17-year-old) stormed home from last place in the 200 m lap to wrest a bronze in 3:47.00, an American record, edging out Rosolino's teammate Emiliano Brembilla (3:47.01) by a hundredth of a second (0.01).

Romania's Dragoș Coman finished fifth with a national record of 3:47.38, and was followed in the sixth spot by another U.S. swimmer Chad Carvin in 3:47.58. Aussie Grant Hackett (3:48.22) and South Africa's Ryk Neethling (3:48.52) rounded out the finale within three-tenths of a second (0.30) apart. Acknowledging a massive roar of the home crowd, Thorpe also cracked Yevgeny Sadovyi's 1992 Olympic record by 0.35 seconds to lead the final of six heats, and pick up a top-seeded time of 3:44.65 in the morning prelims.

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

The following new world and Olympic records were set during this competition. Date Event Name Nationality Time Record 16 September Heat 6 Ian Thorpe 3:44.65 16 September Final Ian Thorpe 3:40.59

Results

Heats

Rank Heat Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 1 6 4 Ian Thorpe 3:44.65 Q, 2 4 3 Massimiliano Rosolino 3:45.65 Q, NR 3 4 4 Ryk Neethling 3:48.08 Q 4 6 3 Emiliano Brembilla 3:48.41 Q 5 5 5 Chad Carvin 3:48.42 Q 6 6 5 Klete Keller 3:48.62 Q 7 5 3 Dragoș Coman 3:48.77 Q, NR 8 5 4 Grant Hackett 3:48.91 Q 9 5 2 Heiko Hell 3:50.80 10 4 5 Paul Palmer 3:51.06 11 4 1 Masato Hirano 3:51.42 AS 12 6 8 Nicolas Rostoucher 3:51.80 NR 13 5 6 James Salter 3:52.01 14 6 7 Alexei Filipets 3:52.21 15 6 6 Rick Say 3:52.72 16 4 7 Igor Snitko 3:52.97 17 4 2 Luiz Lima 3:53.87 18 4 6 Jacob Carstensen 3:54.14 19 5 7 Vlastimil Burda 3:54.40 20 5 8 Spyridon Gianniotis 3:54.96 21 6 2 Mark Johnston 3:54.99 22 4 8 Dmitry Koptur 3:55.26 23 5 1 Ricardo Monasterio 3:55.35 24 3 6 Torwai Sethsothorn 3:56.68 25 3 3 Jin Hao 3:57.22 26 3 8 Damian Alleyne 3:58.12 27 2 4 Woo Chul 3:58.31 28 3 5 Jorge Carral Armella 3:58.34 29 3 4 Jonathan Duncan 3:58.52 30 2 2 Mark Kwok Kin Ming 3:58.94 NR 31 3 2 Zoltán Szilágyi 3:59.40 32 2 5 Agustín Fiorilli 3:59.44 33 6 1 Igor Chervynskiy 3:59.84 34 2 3 Petar Stoychev 3:59.94 35 3 7 Jure Bučar 4:00.19 36 2 1 Miguel Mendoza 4:00.66 NR 37 1 2 Sng Ju Wei 4:01.34 NR 38 2 8 Victor Rogut 4:01.42 39 2 7 Aytekin Mindan 4:01.46 40 1 5 Giancarlo Zolezzi 4:01.51 41 1 4 Li Yun-lun 4:03.10 42 3 1 Hannes Kalteis 4:03.66 43 2 6 Dieung Manggang 4:03.77 44 1 6 Hani Elteir 4:04.23 45 1 3 Ivan Ivanov 4:09.33 46 1 7 Marcelino López 4:18.89

Final Rank Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 4 Ian Thorpe 3:40.59 5 Massimiliano Rosolino 3:43.40 EU 7 Klete Keller 3:47.00 AM 4 6 Emiliano Brembilla 3:47.01 5 1 Dragoș Coman 3:47.38 NR 6 2 Chad Carvin 3:47.58 7 8 Grant Hackett 3:48.22 8 3 Ryk Neethling 3:48.52

References

External links Official Olympic Report