Swimming at the 2008 Summer Olympics - Men's 400 metre individual medley

Infobox Olympic event
event = Men's 400 metre individual medley
games = 2008 Summer


caption = Medal winners
venue = Beijing National Aquatics Center
dates = August 9 18:33-18:57 (heats) August 10 10:04-10:13 (final)
competitors = 29
nations = 22
win_value = 4:03.84 (WR|swimming)
gold = Michael Phelps
goldNOC = USA
silver = László Cseh
silverNOC = HUN
bronze = Ryan Lochte
bronzeNOC = USA
prev = 2004The men's 400 metre individual medley event at the 2008 Olympic took place on 9-10th August at the Beijing National Aquatics Center. This swimming event used medley swimming. Because an Olympic size swimming pool is 50 metres long, this race consisted of eight lengths of the pool. The first two lengths were swum using the butterfly stroke, the second pair with the backstroke, the third pair of lengths in breaststroke, and the final two were freestyle. Unlike other events using freestyle, swimmers could not use butterfly, backstroke, or breaststroke for the freestyle leg; most swimmers use the front crawl in freestyle events.

Four heats were held, with most containing the maximum number of swimmers (eight). The heat in which a swimmer competed did not formally matter for advancement, as the swimmers with the top eight times from the entire field qualified for the final; there, they all competed in a single final heat to earn final placements.

The qualifying standards were for the 2008 event were 4:18.40 (A norm) and 4:27.45 (B norm). Nations with two or more swimmers meeting the A standard could enter any two such swimmers; otherwise, they could enter a single swimmer meeting the B standard.

Records

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

World Olympic Record
world_athlete = flagathlete|Michael Phelps|USA
world_mark = 4:05.25
world_place = Omaha, United States
world_date = 29 June 2008
world_ref = [cite news|first=Karen|last=Crouse|title=Rival’s fast finish propels Phelps to another record|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/30/sports/olympics/30swimming.html|publisher="The New York Times"|date=2008-06-30|accessdate=2008-08-06]
olympic_athlete = flagIOCathlete|Michael Phelps|USA|2004 Summer
olympic_mark = 4:08.26
olympic_place = Athens, Greece
olympic_date = 14 August 2004
olympic_ref = -

The following new world and Olympic records were set during this competition.

* WR = World Record; OR = Olympic Record
* NR = National Record; ER = European Record; PB = Personal Best

References