The men's 400 metre individual medley event at the 1988 Summer Olympics took place between 20–21 September at the Jamsil Indoor Swimming Pool in Seoul, South Korea.

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

The following records were established during the competition:

Date Round Name Nation Time Record20 September Heat 5 Tamás Darnyi 4:16.55 21 September Final A Tamás Darnyi 4:14.75

Results

Heats Rule: The eight fastest swimmers advance to final A (Q), while the next eight to final B (q).

Rank Heat Name Nationality Time Notes 1 5 Tamás Darnyi 4:16.55 Q, 2 3 Patrick Kühl 4:18.60 Q 3 5 Stefano Battistelli 4:20.43 Q 4 4 David Wharton 4:20.84 Q 5 4 József Szabó 4:20.85 Q 6 4 Jens-Peter Berndt 4:20.93 Q 7 5 Peter Bermel 4:22.78 Q 8 5 Luca Sacchi 4:23.37 Q 9 3 Christophe Bordeau 4:23.46 q 10 3 Jeff Kostoff 4:24.10 q 11 5 Jon Kelly 4:24.62 q 12 3 Robert Bruce 4:25.15 q 13 3 Mikhail Zubkov 4:25.30 q 14 5 Rob Woodhouse 4:25.60 q 15 5 Charalambos Papanikolaou 4:26.72 q 16 4 Paul Brew 4:27.22 q 17 4 Yoshiyuki Mizumoto 4:28.11 18 3 Laurent Journet 4:29.03 19 2 Ondřej Bureš 4:29.62 20 3 Salvador Vassallo 4:30.37 21 2 Javier Careaga 4:30.71 22 2 Rui Borges 4:30.79 23 5 Michael Meldrum 4:31.74 24 2 Renato Ramalho 4:31.95 25 3 Takahiro Fujimoto 4:33.03 26 2 Diogo Madeira 4:35.00 27 4 Martín López-Zubero 4:35.68 28 2 Lee Jae-soo 4:40.46 29 1 Jonathan Sakovich 4:44.78 30 2 René Concepcion 4:48.00 31 1 Sultan Al-Otaibi 4:50.16 32 1 Julian Bolling 4:53.61 2 Desmond Koh 4 John Davey 4 Jan Bidrman

Finals

Final B Rank Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 9 5 Jeff Kostoff 4:22.95 10 4 Christophe Bordeau 4:23.39 11 6 Robert Bruce 4:24.33 12 3 Jon Kelly 4:25.02 13 2 Mikhail Zubkov 4:25.44 14 7 Rob Woodhouse 4:26.14 15 8 Paul Brew 4:26.77 16 1 Charalambos Papanikolaou 4:27.95

Final A Rank Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 4 Tamás Darnyi 4:14.75 6 David Wharton 4:17.36 3 Stefano Battistelli 4:18.01 4 2 József Szabó 4:18.15 5 5 Patrick Kühl 4:18.44 6 7 Jens-Peter Berndt 4:21.71 7 8 Luca Sacchi 4:23.23 8 1 Peter Bermel 4:24.02

References

External links Official Report USA Swimming