# Swimming at the 1952 Summer Olympics – Men's 400 metre freestyle

The men's 400 metre freestyle event at the 1952 Olympic Games took place between 28 and 30 July at the Swimming Stadium. 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 | Jean Boiteux France |
| Silver | Ford Konno United States |
| Bronze | Per-Olof Östrand Sweden |
At the conclusion of the race, Boiteux's father jumped into the pool to congratulate his son.

## Results
### Heats

Heat 1
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time |
| 1 | Jack Wardrop | Great Britain | 4:43.7 |
| 2 | Yasuo Tanaka | Japan | 4:44.3 |
| 3 | Gotfryd Gremlowski | Poland | 4:49.0 |
| 4 | Jo Bernardo | France | 4:53.5 |
| 5 | Pentti Ikonen | Finland | 4:55.7 |
| 6 | Geoffrey Marks | Ceylon | 5:15.2 |
| 7 | Georg Mascetti | Saar | 5:31.2 |
Heat 2
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time |
| 1 | Hironoshin Furuhashi | Japan | 4:43.3 |
| 2 | Viktor Drobinsky | Soviet Union | 4:56.5 |
| 3 | Neo Chwee Kok | Singapore | 4:57.5 |
| 4 | Eduardo Priggione | Uruguay | 5:12.1 |
| 5 | Walter Bardgett | Bermuda | 5:18.0 |
| 6 | Sonny Monteiro | Hong Kong | 5:21.6 |
Heat 3
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time |
| 1 | Jimmy McLane | United States | 4:46.5 |
| 2 | Dennis Ford | South Africa | 4:50.2 |
| 3 | Allen Gilchrist | Canada | 4:52.5 |
| 4 | Enrique Granados | Spain | 4:53.7 |
| 5 | Federico Zwanck | Argentina | 4:56.4 |
| 6 | Ricardo Esperard | Brazil | 5:09.5 |
| 7 | Walter Schneider | Switzerland | 5:27.3 |
Heat 4
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time |
| 1 | Jean Boiteux | France | 4:45.1 |
| 2 | Graham Johnston | South Africa | 4:52.3 |
| 3 | Anatoly Raznochintsev | Soviet Union | 4:56.8 |
| 4 | Peter Steinwender | Austria | 5:03.6 |
| 5 | Peter Head | Great Britain | 5:04.2 |
| 6 | Cheung Kin Man | Hong Kong | 5:11.4 |
Heat 5
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time |
| 1 | György Csordás | Hungary | 4:45.7 |
| 2 | Ford Konno | United States | 4:47.9 |
| 3 | Joris Tjebbes | Netherlands | 4:54.4 |
| 4 | Carlos Alberto Bonacich | Argentina | 5:06.3 |
| 5 | Per Olsen | Norway | 5:08.6 |
| 6 | Pentti Paatsalo | Finland | 5:09.3 |
| 7 | Robert Cook | Bermuda | 5:15.4 |
Heat 6
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time |
| 1 | Per-Olof Östrand | Sweden | 4:38.6 |
| 2 | Gusztáv Kettesi | Hungary | 4:53.0 |
| 3 | Garrick Agnew | Australia | 4:55.5 |
| 4 | Roar Woldum | Norway | 5:14.4 |
| 5 | Einari Aalto | Finland | 5:15.8 |
Heat 7
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time |
| 1 | Tetsuo Okamoto | Brazil | 4:46.1 |
| 2 | John Marshall | Australia | 4:46.8 |
| 3 | Gerry McNamee | Canada | 4:53.5 |
| 4 | Alfredo Yantorno | Argentina | 4:54.5 |
| 5 | Ronald Burns | Great Britain | 4:55.2 |
| 6 | Nguyễn Văn Phan | Vietnam | 5:36.5 |
Heat 8
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time |
| 1 | Wayne Moore | United States | 4:43.2 |
| 2 | Peter Duncan | South Africa | 4:44.0 |
| 3 | Yoshio Tanaka | Japan | 4:54.0 |
| 4 | Angelo Romani | Italy | 5:05.1 |
| 5 | René Million | France | 5:07.0 |
| 6 | Fernando Madeira | Portugal | 5:08.6 |
| 7 | Muhammad Ramzan | Pakistan | 5:45.7 |

### Final

| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Notes |
| | Jean Boiteux | France | 4:30.7 | OR |
| | Ford Konno | United States | 4:31.3 | |
| | Per-Olof Östrand | Sweden | 4:35.2 | |
| 4 | Peter Duncan | South Africa | 4:37.9 | |
| 5 | Jack Wardrop | Great Britain | 4:39.9 | |
| 6 | Wayne Moore | United States | 4:40.1 | |
| 7 | Jimmy McLane | United States | 4:40.3 | |
| 8 | Hironoshin Furuhashi | Japan | 4:42.1 | |
Key: OR = Olympic record