# Swimming at the 1964 Summer Olympics – Men's 400 metre freestyle

The men's 400 metre freestyle event at the 1964 Olympic Games took place between October 14 and 15. 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 | Don Schollander United States |
| Silver | Frank Wiegand United Team of Germany |
| Bronze | Allan Wood Australia |

## Results
### Heats

Seven heats were held; the fastest eight swimmers advanced to the Finals. Those that advanced are highlighted.

#### Heat One

| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time |
| 1 | Bob Windle | Australia | 4:21.6 |
| 2 | Haruo Yoshimuta | Japan | 4:28.8 |
| 3 | Wolfgang Kremer | Germany | 4:29.9 |
| 4 | Giovanni Orlando | Italy | 4:30.8 |
| 5 | Carlos Canepa | Peru | 4:44.9 |
| 6 | László Szlamka | Hungary | 5:00.0 |

#### Heat Two

| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time |
| 1 | Roy Saari | United States | 4:20.0 |
| 2 | Sandy Gilchrist | Canada | 4:24.2 |
| 3 | Sergio De Gregorio | Italy | 4:27.4 |
| 4 | Aleksandr Paramonov | Soviet Union | 4:34.0 |
| 5 | Julio Arango | Colombia | 4:35.1 |
| 6 | Tin Maung Ni | Myanmar | 4:40.9 |
| 7 | Robert Loh | Hong Kong | 4:53.3 |

#### Heat Three

| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time |
| 1 | John Nelson | United States | 4:19.9 |
| 2 | Johan Bontekoe | Netherlands | 4:26.6 |
| 3 | Yevgeny Novikov | Soviet Union | 4:30.0 |
| 4 | Carlos van der Maath | Argentina | 4:30.2 |
| 5 | Alan Durrett | Northern Rhodesia | 4:39.0 |
| 6 | Aad Oudt | Netherlands | 4:46.5 |

#### Heat Four

| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time |
| 1 | Tsuyoshi Yamanaka | Japan | 4:21.1 |
| 2 | Hans Rosendahl | Sweden | 4:23.5 |
| 3 | Ron Jacks | Canada | 4:29.3 |
| 4 | Pierpaolo Spangaro | Italy | 4:30.0 |
| 5 | Tuomo Hämäläinen | Finland | 4:35.5 |
| 6 | Gert Kölli | Austria | 4:38.4 |
| 7 | Kim Bong-jo | South Korea | 4:55.8 |

#### Heat Five

| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time |
| 1 | Russell Phegan | Australia | 4:19.8 |
| 2 | József Katona | Hungary | 4:24.7 |
| 3 | Takeshi Yamakage | Japan | 4:27.8 |
| 4 | John Thurley | Great Britain | 4:31.0 |
| 5 | Slobodan Dijaković | Yugoslavia | 4:41.0 |
| 6 | Téodoro Capriles | Venezuela | 4:44.5 |
| 7 | Walter Ledgard Jr. | Peru | 4:50.4 |

#### Heat Six

| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time |
| 1 | Frank Wiegand | Germany | 4:17.2 |
| 2 | Semyon Belits-Geiman | Soviet Union | 4:19.4 |
| 3 | Petr Lohnický | Czechoslovakia | 4:28.9 |
| 4 | Celestino Pérez | Puerto Rico | 4:30.9 |
| 5 | Bob Lord | Great Britain | 4:33.2 |
| 6 | Francis Luyce | France | 4:33.2 |
| 7 | Ilkka Suvanto | Finland | 4:38.0 |
| 8 | András Bodnár | Hungary | 5:03.7 |

#### Heat Seven

| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time |
| 1 | Don Schollander | United States | 4:15.8 |
| 2 | Allan Wood | Australia | 4:16.2 |
| 3 | Mats Svensson | Sweden | 4:24.6 |
| 4 | Martin Klink | Germany | 4:29.1 |
| 5 | Ralph Hutton | Canada | 4:29.4 |
| 6 | John Martin-Dye | Great Britain | 4:34.3 |
| 7 | Tan Thuan Heng | Malaysia | 4:38.2 |
| 8 | Pano Capéronis | Switzerland | 4:43.8 |

### Final

| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Notes |
| | Don Schollander | United States | 4:12.2 | WR |
| | Frank Wiegand | United Team of Germany | 4:14.9 | |
| | Allan Wood | Australia | 4:15.1 | |
| 4 | Roy Saari | United States | 4:16.7 | |
| 5 | John Nelson | United States | 4:16.9 | |
| 6 | Tsuyoshi Yamanaka | Japan | 4:19.1 | |
| 7 | Russell Phegan | Australia | 4:20.2 | |
| 8 | Semyon Belits-Geiman | Soviet Union | 4:21.4 | |
Key: WR = World record