Swimming at the 2012 Summer Olympics – Men's 400 metre individual medley

Men's 400 metre individual medley at the Games of the XXX Olympiad
Venue	London Aquatics Centre
Dates	July 28, 2012 (heats & final)
Competitors	37 from 29 nations
Winning time	4:05.18
Medalists
Ryan Lochte  United States Thiago Pereira  Brazil Kosuke Hagino  Japan

The men's 400 metre individual medley event at the 2012 Summer Olympics took place on 28 July at the London Aquatics Centre in London, United Kingdom.^[1]

U.S. Ryan Lochte pulled away from the rest of the field, including double defending champion Michael Phelps, over a wide margin to capture the Olympic title in the event. He rocketed to a strong finish in a sterling textile best of 4:05.18, the second fastest ever behind Phelps' 2008 world record by 1.34 seconds.^[2][3] Meanwhile, Brazil's Thiago Pereira powered home with the silver in a matching South American record of 4:08.86, making him the first swimmer for his nation to claim an Olympic medal in the event, since Ricardo Prado did so in 1984.^[4] Japanese teen Kosuke Hagino smashed an Asian record of 4:08.94 to edge Phelps out of the podium for the bronze.^[5][6]

For the first time since his official debut in 2000, Phelps struggled to a fourth-place finish and denied his seventeenth career medal in 4:09.28. He almost missed the final roster by a small fraction of a second, after posting an eighth-seeded time of 4:13.33 from the morning prelims.^[7][8]

South Africa's Chad le Clos (4:12.42), Hagino's teammate Yuya Horihata (4:13.30), Aussie swimmer Thomas Fraser-Holmes (4:13.49), and Italy's Luca Marin (4:14.89) rounded out the historic finale.^[6] Surprisingly, Hungary's top medal favorite and European champion László Cseh missed the final by seven-hundredths of a second (0.07) with a ninth-place effort (4:13.40).^[9]

Records

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

World record	Michael Phelps (USA)	4:03.84	Beijing, China	10 August 2008	[10][11]
Olympic record	Michael Phelps (USA)	4:03.84	Beijing, China	10 August 2008	[10][11]

Results

Heats

^[12]

Rank	Heat	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	3	4	Kosuke Hagino	Japan	4:10.01	Q, AS
2	5	2	Chad le Clos	South Africa	4:12.24	Q, NR
3	5	4	Ryan Lochte	United States	4:12.35	Q
4	3	6	Thiago Pereira	Brazil	4:12.39	Q
5	5	3	Thomas Fraser-Holmes	Australia	4:12.66	Q
6	5	6	Luca Marin	Italy	4:13.02	Q
7	5	5	Yuya Horihata	Japan	4:13.09	Q
8	4	4	Michael Phelps	United States	4:13.33	Q
9	4	5	László Cseh	Hungary	4:13.40
10	3	1	Gal Nevo	Israel	4:14.77
11	4	2	Yannick Lebherz	Germany	4:15.41
12	3	3	Yang Zhixian	China	4:15.45
13	4	6	Roberto Pavoni	Great Britain	4:15.56
14	4	3	Wang Chengxiang	China	4:15.57
15	4	1	Maksym Shemberev	Ukraine	4:16.63
16	2	4	Ward Bauwens	Belgium	4:16.71	NR
17	4	7	Ioannis Drymonakos	Greece	4:17.04
18	2	6	Raphaël Stacchiotti	Luxembourg	4:17.20	NR
19	5	1	Riaan Schoeman	South Africa	4:17.22
	5	7	Federico Turrini	Italy
21	3	7	Alexander Tikhonov	Russia	4:18.12
22	3	5	Dávid Verrasztó	Hungary	4:18.31
23	4	8	Alec Page	Canada	4:19.17
24	3	2	Joe Roebuck	Great Britain	4:20.24
25	1	5	Bradley Ally	Barbados	4:21.32
26	2	2	Yury Suvorau	Belarus	4:23.06	NR
	2	5	Diogo Carvalho	Portugal
28	2	3	Jung Won-yong	South Korea	4:23.12
29	2	1	Esteban Enderica Salgado	Ecuador	4:24.32	NR
30	2	8	Pedro Pinotes	Angola	4:24.69
31	1	4	Anton Sveinn McKee	Iceland	4:25.06	NR
32	5	8	Daniel Tranter	Australia	4:25.76
33	2	7	Quah Zheng Wen	Singapore	4:26.81
34	1	6	Marko Blaževski	Macedonia	4:32.38
35	1	3	Rafael Alfaro	El Salvador	4:35.80
36	1	2	Ahmed Ghithe Atari	Qatar	5:21.30
	3	8	Taki Mrabet	Tunisia	DSQ

Final

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
	3	Ryan Lochte	United States	4:05.18
	6	Thiago Pereira	Brazil	4:08.86	SA
	4	Kosuke Hagino	Japan	4:08.94	AS
4	8	Michael Phelps	United States	4:09.28
5	5	Chad le Clos	South Africa	4:12.42
6	1	Yuya Horihata	Japan	4:13.30
7	2	Thomas Fraser-Holmes	Australia	4:13.49
8	7	Luca Marin	Italy	4:14.89

References

1. "Swimming: Results & Schedules". London 2012. NBC Olympics. 28 July 2012. Archived from the original on 3 July 2013. Retrieved 7 July 2013.
2. "Ryan Lochte wins medley gold as Michael Phelps finishes fourth". BBC Sport. 28 July 2012. Archived from the original on 8 November 2012. Retrieved 7 July 2013.
3. "Lochte wins 400 IM final for first US gold". ESPN. 28 July 2012. Retrieved 7 July 2013.
4. Carroll, Mary (28 July 2012). "Brazil Starts Olympics With a Gold: Daily". The Rio Times. Retrieved 7 July 2013.
5. Newberry, Paul (28 July 2012). "Lochte wins 400m IM in blowout; Phelps finishes 4th". London 2012. NBC Olympics. Archived from the original on 7 July 2013. Retrieved 7 July 2013.
6. "2012 London Olympics: Ryan Lochte Posts Textile Best, Demolishes Field in 400 IM; Michael Phelps Misses Podium". Swimming World Magazine. 28 July 2012. Archived from the original on 28 January 2013. Retrieved 7 July 2013.
7. Adderly, Esther (28 July 2012). "London 2012: Michael Phelps fourth as Ryan Lochte cruises to victory". The Guardian. Retrieved 7 July 2013.
8. "Slow prelims puts Phelps in unenviable Lane 8 for 400 IM final". CBS Sports. 28 July 2012. Retrieved 7 July 2013.
9. "2012 London Olympics: Kosuke Hagino With Asian Record to Lead 400 IM; Phelps Underperforms". Swimming World Magazine. 28 July 2012. Archived from the original on 2013-05-27. Retrieved 7 July 2013.
10. Bishop, Greg (9 August 2008). "Phelps smashes world record to win gold". The New York Times. Retrieved 14 August 2008.
11. "Opening statement: Phelps grabs gold, WR in 400 IM". ESPN. 10 August 2008. Retrieved 17 May 2013.
12. "Men's 400m Individual Medley – Heats". London2012.com. London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Archived from the original on 5 December 2012. Retrieved 27 July 2012.

External links

• NBC Olympics Coverage