Swimming at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Men's 400 metre freestyle

The men's 400 metre freestyle event at the 2008 Olympic Games took place on 9–10 August at the Beijing National Aquatics Center in Beijing, China.[1]

Men's 400 metre freestyle
at the Games of the XXIX Olympiad
VenueBeijing National Aquatics Center
DateAugust 9, 2008 (heats)
August 10, 2008 (final)
Competitors37 from 27 nations
Winning time3:41.86
Medalists
1st place, gold medalist(s) Park Tae-Hwan  South Korea
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Zhang Lin  China
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Larsen Jensen  United States
← 2004
2012 →

Reigning world champion Park Tae-Hwan made an Olympic milestone to become South Korea's first ever gold medalist in swimming. He powered past the field to an unexpected triumph in an Asian record of 3:41.86.[2][3][4] Coming from sixth place in the final lap, China's Zhang Lin delighted the home crowd with a silver-medal effort in 3:42.44. Meanwhile, U.S. swimmer Larsen Jensen set a new American record of 3:42.78 to take the bronze.[5]

American Peter Vanderkaay delivered a strong swim with a fourth-place effort in 3:43.11, just 0.35 of a second ahead of Tunisia's Oussama Mellouli, who established a new African record of 3:43.45. Leading the field in the first 100 metres, Australia's Grant Hackett, the silver medalist in the event from Athens, could not keep the pace over the final laps, and settled only for sixth place with a time of 3:43.84. Russian duo Yuri Prilukov (3:43.97) and Nikita Lobintsev (3:48.29) rounded out the final.[2][3]

Records

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

World record   Ian Thorpe (AUS) 3:40.08 Manchester, United Kingdom 30 July 2002 [6]
Olympic record   Ian Thorpe (AUS) 3:40.59 Sydney, Australia 16 September 2000 -

Results

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Heats

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Rank Heat Lane Name Nationality Time Notes
1 4 4 Larsen Jensen   United States 3:43.10 Q, AM
2 3 5 Zhang Lin   China 3:43.32 Q, AS
3 3 4 Park Tae-Hwan   South Korea 3:43.35 Q
4 4 6 Nikita Lobintsev   Russia 3:43.45 Q, NR
5 5 4 Grant Hackett   Australia 3:44.03 Q
6 5 5 Peter Vanderkaay   United States 3:44.22 Q
7 4 5 Oussama Mellouli   Tunisia 3:44.54 Q
8 5 3 Yuri Prilukov   Russia 3:44.82 Q
9 5 2 Ryan Cochrane   Canada 3:44.85 NR
10 3 2 Takeshi Matsuda   Japan 3:44.99 NR
11 3 3 Federico Colbertaldo   Italy 3:45.28
12 4 8 Mads Glæsner   Denmark 3:45.38 NR
13 4 3 Massimiliano Rosolino   Italy 3:45.57
14 3 1 Nicolas Rostoucher   France 3:47.15
15 5 7 David Carry   Great Britain 3:47.17 NR
16 5 1 Sergey Fesenko   Ukraine 3:47.75 NR
17 5 8 Dragoș Coman   Romania 3:47.79
18 3 7 Paul Biedermann   Germany 3:48.03
19 5 6 Przemysław Stańczyk   Poland 3:48.11
20 2 5 David Brandl   Austria 3:48.63
21 3 8 Dean Milwain   Great Britain 3:48.77
22 4 7 Paweł Korzeniowski   Poland 3:48.78
23 2 4 Sébastien Rouault   France 3:48.84
24 2 3 Spyridon Gianniotis   Greece 3:49.34
25 3 6 Craig Stevens   Australia 3:50.22
26 1 5 Gard Kvale   Norway 3:50.47 NR
27 2 7 Dominik Meichtry   Switzerland 3:50.55
28 4 2 Sun Yang   China 3:50.90
29 4 1 Christian Kubusch   Germany 3:52.73
30 2 6 Jean Basson   South Africa 3:52.90
31 1 4 Daniele Tirabassi   Venezuela 3:53.26
32 2 8 Balázs Gercsák   Hungary 3:54.14
33 1 3 Květoslav Svoboda   Czech Republic 3:56.54
34 2 2 Jon Raahauge Rud   Denmark 3:57.41
35 1 6 Juan Martín Pereyra   Argentina 3:59.35
36 1 2 Oleg Rabota   Kazakhstan 4:02.16
2 1 Luka Turk   Slovenia DNS

Final

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Rank Lane Name Nationality Time Notes
  3 Park Tae-Hwan   South Korea 3:41.86 AS
  5 Zhang Lin   China 3:42.44 NR
  4 Larsen Jensen   United States 3:42.78 AM
4 7 Peter Vanderkaay   United States 3:43.11
5 1 Oussama Mellouli   Tunisia 3:43.45 AF
6 2 Grant Hackett   Australia 3:43.84
7 8 Yuri Prilukov   Russia 3:43.97
8 6 Nikita Lobintsev   Russia 3:48.29

References

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  1. ^ "Olympic Swimming Schedule". USA Today. 9 August 2008. Retrieved 14 May 2013.
  2. ^ a b Lohn, John (10 August 2008). "Olympics, Swimming: Tae Hwan Park Captures Gold Medal in Men's 400 Free". Swimming World Magazine. Archived from the original on 21 June 2013. Retrieved 15 May 2013.
  3. ^ a b "Park secures 400m freestyle gold". BBC Sport. 10 August 2008. Retrieved 15 May 2013.
  4. ^ "S. Korean Park wins men's 400m freestyle Olympic gold". Xinhua. China Daily. 10 August 2008. Retrieved 15 May 2013.
  5. ^ "Park Tae-hwan wins swim event". News24. 11 August 2008. Retrieved 15 May 2013.
  6. ^ "Double joy for Thorpe". BBC Sport. 30 July 2002. Retrieved 6 August 2008.
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