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

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 →
Swimming at the
2008 Summer Olympics
Sample picture of the event (unofficial)
Qualification
Freestyle
50 mmenwomen
100 mmenwomen
200 mmenwomen
400 mmenwomen
800 mwomen
1500 mmen
Backstroke
100 mmenwomen
200 mmenwomen
Breaststroke
100 mmenwomen
200 mmenwomen
Butterfly
100 mmenwomen
200 mmenwomen
Individual medley
200 mmenwomen
400 mmenwomen
Freestyle relay
4 × 100 mmenwomen
4 × 200 mmenwomen
Medley relay
4 × 100 mmenwomen
Marathon
10 kmmenwomen

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]

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

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

Heats

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

Rank Lane Name Nationality Time Notes
1st place, gold medalist(s) 3 Park Tae-Hwan  South Korea 3:41.86 AS
2nd place, silver medalist(s) 5 Zhang Lin  China 3:42.44 NR
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) 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

  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.