The men's 400 metre freestyle event at the 1948 Olympic Games took place between 31 July and 4 August at the Empire Pool. 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 eight lengths of the pool.

Results

Heats

Rank Athlete Country Time Notes 1 Jimmy McLane 4:42.2 Q, OR 2 Bill Smith 4:45.3 Q 3 John Marshall 4:51.4 Q 4 Géza Kádas 4:52.8 Q 5 Jack Hale 4:53.3 Q 5 Alex Jany 4:53.3 Q 7 Per-Olof Östrand 4:53.5 Q 8 Alfredo Yantorno 4:53.8 Q 9 György Mitró 4:56.0 Q 10 Bill Heusner 4:58.3 Q 11 Don Johnston 4:57.4 Q 12 Miroslav Bartůšek 4:57.9 q 13 Branko Vidović 4:58.7 q 14 Janko Puhar 5:00.8 q 15 Marijan Stipetić 5:01.4 q 16 Imre Nyéki 5:01.8 Q 17 Luis González 5:02.1 18 Roy Botham 5:03.4 19 Jo Bernardo 5:03.8 20 Florbel Pérez 5:04.7 21 René Cornu 5:05.2 22 José Durañona 5:05.8 23 Garrick Agnew 5:06.1 24 Luis Child 5:08.5 25 Isidoro Martínez-Vela 5:10.0 26 Juan Garay 5:10.4 27 Doug Gibson 5:13.4 28 Isidoro Pérez 5:16.1 29 Ari Guðmundsson 5:16.2 30 Alejandro Febrero 5:16.9 31 Tom Holt 5:20.7 32 Derek Oatway 5:20.9 33 Allen Gilchrist 5:21.5 34 Sambiao Basanung 5:21.5 35 Walter Schneider 5:25.5 36 Walter Bardgett 5:37.2 37 Robert Cook 5:37.9 38 Bimal Chandra 5:38.6 39 Jack Hakim 5:40.3 40 Anwar Aziz Chaudhry 6:17.4 41 Sultan Karim Ali 7:16.9

Key: OR = Olympic record, Q = qualification by place in heat, q = qualification by overall place

Semifinals

Rank Athlete Country Time Notes 1 Géza Kádas 4:47.8 Q 2 William Smith 4:48.4 Q 3 Jimmy McLane 4:49.5 Q 4 John Marshall 4:50.0 Q 5 György Mitró 4:50.8 q 6 Alex Jany 4:51.3 q 7 Jack Hale 4:51.4 q 8 Alfredo Yantorno 4:57.3 q 9 Bill Heusner 4:57.4 10 Marjan Stipetić 4:58.6 11 Janko Puhar 4:58.7 11 Miroslav Bartůšek 4:58.7 13 Branko Vidović 4:59.4 14 Don Johnston 4:59.5

Key: Q = qualification by place in heat, q = qualification by overall place

Final

Rank Athlete Country Time Notes Bill Smith 4:41.0 OR Jimmy McLane 4:43.4 John Marshall 4:47.4 4 Géza Kádas 4:49.4 5 György Mitró 4:49.9 6 Alex Jany 4:51.4 7 Jack Hale 4:55.9 8 Alfredo Yantorno 4:58.7

Key: OR = Olympic record

References