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

The women's 400 metre individual medley event at the 2008 Olympic Games 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 anyway.

Five 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 4:45.10 (A norm) and 4:55.06 (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.

Medalists

Final

AF = African record

References