# Swimming at the 1973 World Aquatics Championships – Men's 400 metre individual medley

The men's 400 metre individual medley competition of the swimming events at the 1973 World Aquatics Championships took place on September 5.

## Records

Prior to the competition, the existing world and championship records were as follows.
| World record | Gary Hall, Sr. (USA) | 4:30.81 | Chicago, United States | 3 August 1972 |
| Competition record | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
The following records were established during the competition:
| Date | Event | Name | Nationality | Time | Record |
| 5 September | Heat 1 | András Hargitay | Hungary | 4:38.96 | CR |
| 5 September | Heat 4 | Rick Colella | United States | 4:38.50 | CR |
| 5 September | Final | András Hargitay | Hungary | 4:31.11 | CR |

## Results
### Heats

29 swimmers participated in 4 heats, qualified swimmers are listed:
| Rank | Heat | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 4 | - | Rick Colella | United States | 4:38.50 | Q, CR |
| 2 | 1 | - | András Hargitay | Hungary | 4:38.96 | Q, CR |
| 3 | 3 | - | Rod Strachan | United States | 4:40.06 | Q |
| 4 | 4 | - | Bengt Gingsjö | Sweden | 4:41.23 | Q |
| 5 | 1 | - | Wolfram Sperling | East Germany | 4:41.83 | Q |
| 6 | 3 | - | Sergey Zakharov | Soviet Union | 4:41.96 | Q |
| 7 | 4 | - | Anatoly Smirnov | Soviet Union | 4:42.65 | Q |
| 8 | 2 | - | Brian Brinkley | Great Britain | 4:43.54 | Q |
| 9 | 1 | - | Neil Martin | Australia | 4:44.55 | |
| 10 | 3 | - | Patrick Moreau | France | 4:45.14 | |
| 11 | 4 | - | Csaba Sós | Hungary | 4:45.29 | |
| 12 | 3 | - | David Brumwell | Canada | 4:45.52 | |
| 13 | 1 | - | Anders Bellbring | Sweden | 4:46.56 | |
| 14 | 2 | - | Hans-Joachim Geisler | West Germany | 4:47.68 | |
| 15 | 3 | - | Ignacio Álvarez | Mexico | 4:48.96 | |
| 16 | 4 | - | Tsuyoshi Yanagidate | Japan | 4:49.24 | |
| 17 | 1 | - | Gunnar Gundersen | Norway | 4:51.46 | |
| 18 | 2 | - | Peter Tetlow | Australia | 4:51.98 | |
| 19 | 1 | - | Lorenzo Marugo | Italy | 4:51.98 | |
| 20 | 4 | - | Paul Hughes | Canada | 4:52.00 | |
| 21 | 2 | - | François Deley | Belgium | 4:52.91 | |
| 22 | 2 | - | Mark Treffers | New Zealand | 4:55.35 | |
| 23 | 3 | - | Antônio Azevedo | Brazil | 4:56.24 | |
| 24 | 3 | - | Ali Gharbi | Tunisia | 5:04.13 | |
| 25 | 3 | - | Evangelos Koskinas | Greece | 5:07.35 | |
| 26 | 2 | - | Angel Chakarov | Bulgaria | 5:08.22 | |
| 27 | 4 | - | Carlos Santiago | Puerto Rico | 5:08.66 | |
| 28 | 1 | - | Francisco Canales | Puerto Rico | 5:09.52 | |
| 29 | 2 | - | C. Manochehr | Iran | 5:41.12 | |
| – | 2 | - | Christian Leitzmann | East Germany | Did not finish | Did not finish |
| – | 1 | - | L. Diaz | Argentina | Did not start | Did not start |
| – | 4 | - | Bandi Wetternek | Romania | Did not start | Did not start |
    $^1$ Christian Leitzmann, almost at the end at the butterfly leg, swallowed some water and abandoned the race.

### Final

The results of the final are below.
| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| | - | András Hargitay | Hungary | 4:31.11 | CR, ER |
| | - | Rod Strachan | United States | 4:33.50 | |
| | - | Rick Colella | United States | 4:34.68 | |
| 4 | - | Sergey Zakharov | Soviet Union | 4:37.05 | |
| 5 | - | Wolfram Sperling | East Germany | 4:37.17 | |
| 6 | - | Bengt Gingsjö | Sweden | 4:37.62 | |
| 7 | - | Brian Brinkley | Great Britain | 4:40.94 | NR |
| 8 | - | Anatoly Smirnov | Soviet Union | 4:41.26 | |