Swimming at the 1948 Summer Olympics – Men's 400 metre freestyle

Swimming at the 1948 Summer Olympics
Freestyle
100 m	men	women
400 m	men	women
1500 m	men
Backstroke
100 m	men	women
Breaststroke
200 m	men	women
Freestyle relay
4×100 m		women
4×200 m	men

The men's 400 metre freestyle event at the 1948 Olympic Games took place between July 31 and August 4 at the Empire Pool. This swimming event used freestyle swimming, which means that the method of the stroke is not regulated (unlike backstroke, breaststroke, and butterfly events). Nearly all swimmers use the front crawl or a variant of that stroke. Because an Olympic size swimming pool is 50 metres long, this race consisted of eight lengths of the pool.

Medalists

Gold	Bill Smith United States
Silver	Jimmy McLane United States
Bronze	John Marshall Australia

Results

Heats

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Notes
1	Jimmy McLane	United States	4:42.2	Q, OR
2	Bill Smith	United States	4:45.3	Q
3	John Marshall	Australia	4:51.4	Q
4	Géza Kádas	Hungary	4:52.8	Q
5	Jack Hale	Great Britain	4:53.3	Q
5	Alex Jany	France	4:53.3	Q
7	Per-Olof Östrand	Sweden	4:53.5	Q
8	Alfredo Yantorno	Argentina	4:53.8	Q
9	György Mitró	Hungary	4:56.0	Q
10	Bill Heusner	United States	4:58.3	Q
11	Don Johnston	23x15px South Africa	4:57.4	Q
12	Miroslav Bartůšek	Czechoslovakia	4:57.9	q
13	Branko Vidović	Yugoslavia	4:58.7	q
14	Janko Puhar	Yugoslavia	5:00.8	q
15	Marjan Stipetić	Yugoslavia	5:01.4	q
16	Imre Nyéki	Hungary	5:01.8	Q

Key: OR = Olympic record, Q = qualification by place in heat, q = qualification by overall place

Semifinals

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Notes
1	Géza Kádas	Hungary	4:47.8	Q
2	William Smith	United States	4:48.4	Q
3	Jimmy McLane	United States	4:49.5	Q
4	John Marshall	Australia	4:50.0	Q
5	György Mitró	Hungary	4:50.8	q
6	Alex Jany	France	4:51.3	q
7	Jack Hale	Great Britain	4:51.4	q
8	Alfredo Yantorno	Argentina	4:57.3	q
9	Bill Heusner	United States	4:57.4
10	Marjan Stipetić	Yugoslavia	4:58.6
11	Janko Puhar	Yugoslavia	4:58.7
11	Miroslav Bartůšek	Czechoslovakia	4:58.7
13	Branko Vidović	Yugoslavia	4:59.4
14	Don Johnston	23x15px South Africa	4:59.5

Key: Q = qualification by place in heat, q = qualification by overall place

Final

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Notes
	Bill Smith	United States	4:41.0	OR
	Jimmy McLane	United States	4:43.4
	John Marshall	Australia	4:47.4
4	Géza Kádas	Hungary	4:49.4
5	György Mitró	Hungary	4:49.9
6	Alex Jany	France	4:51.4
7	Jack Hale	Great Britain	4:55.9
8	Alfredo Yantorno	Argentina	4:58.7