Swimming at the 1956 Summer Olympics – Men's 400 metre freestyle

The men's 400 metre freestyle event at the 1956 Olympic Games took place between 1 and 4 December. 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

Five heats were held; the swimmers with the fastest eight times advanced to the Finals. The swimmers that advanced are highlighted.

Heat One Rank Athlete Country Time 1 Kevin O'Halloran Australia 4:36.9 2 Koji Nonoshita Japan 4:37.4 3 Angelo Romani Italy 4:37.6 4 Bill Woolsey United States 4:38.2 5 Silvio dos Santos Brazil 4:48.8 6 Ulfiano Babol Philippines 4:53.4 7 Wan Shiu Ming Hong Kong 5:02.6

Heat Two Rank Athlete Country Time 1 Jack Wardrop Great Britain 4:39.8 2 Tony Briscoe South Africa 4:41.4 3 George Onekea United States 4:41.6 4 Hans Köhler Germany 4:43.5 5 Habib Nasution Indonesia 4:44.0 6 Per-Olof Östrand Sweden 4:45.9 7 Gilberto Martínez Colombia 4:51.4 8 Raúl Martín Cuba 4:58.2

Heat Three Rank Athlete Country Time 1 George Breen United States 4:35.7 2 Peter Duncan South Africa 4:46.7 3 Karri Käyhkö Finland 4:49.6 4 Yoshiro Noda Japan 4:49.9 5 Guy Montserrat France 4:52.6

Heat Four Rank Athlete Country Time 1 Gary Winram Australia 4:34.5 2 Jean Boiteux France 4:37.9 3 William Slater Canada 4:40.4 4 Neil McKechnie Great Britain 4:42.6 5 Boris Nik'it'ini Soviet Union 4:42.8 6 Billy Steuart South Africa 4:43.0 7 Bana Sailani Philippines 4:49.0

Heat Five Rank Athlete Country Time 1 Murray Rose Australia 4:31.7 2 Tsuyoshi Yamanaka Japan 4:31.8 3 Hans Zierold Germany 4:35.7 4 Jenő Áts Hungary 4:47.6 5 Jacques Collignon France 4:49.3

Final

Rank Athlete Country Time Notes Murray Rose 4:27.3 WR Tsuyoshi Yamanaka 4:30.4 George Breen 4:32.5 4 Kevin O'Halloran 4:32.9 5 Hans Zierold 4:34.6 6 Gary Winram 4:34.9 7 Koji Nonoshita 4:38.2 8 Angelo Romani 4:41.7

Key: WR = World record

References