# Swimming at the 1996 Summer Olympics – Men's 400 metre freestyle

The men's 400 metre freestyle event at the 1996 Summer Olympics took place on 23 July at the Georgia Tech Aquatic Center in Atlanta, United States.

## Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.
| World record | Kieren Perkins (AUS) | 3:43.80 | Rome, Italy | 11 September 1994 |
| Olympic record | Yevgeny Sadovyi (EUN) | 3:45.00 | Barcelona, Spain | 29 July 1992 |

## Results
### Heats

Rule: The eight fastest swimmers advance to final A (Q), while the next eight to final B (q).
| Rank | Heat | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 4 | 6 | Emiliano Brembilla | Italy | 3:49.35 | Q |
| 2 | 4 | 5 | Massimiliano Rosolino | Italy | 3:51.05 | Q |
| 3 | 4 | 3 | Jörg Hoffmann | Germany | 3:51.26 | Q |
| 4 | 5 | 5 | Danyon Loader | New Zealand | 3:51.54 | Q |
| 5 | 3 | 4 | Daniel Kowalski | Australia | 3:51.67 | Q |
| 6 | 5 | 3 | Paul Palmer | Great Britain | 3:51.98 | Q |
| 7 | 3 | 5 | Anders Holmertz | Sweden | 3:52.27 | Q |
| 8 | 5 | 2 | Jacob Carstensen | Denmark | 3:52.62 | Q |
| 9 | 3 | 3 | Sebastian Wiese | Germany | 3:53.55 | q |
| 10 | 4 | 4 | John Piersma | United States | 3:53.58 | q |
| 11 | 5 | 4 | Tom Dolan | United States | 3:53.91 | q, WD |
| 12 | 5 | 6 | Malcolm Allen | Australia | 3:54.34 | q |
| 13 | 3 | 2 | Dimitrios Manganas | Greece | 3:54.85 | q, NR |
| 14 | 4 | 7 | Yann de Fabrique | France | 3:55.42 | q |
| 15 | 5 | 8 | Igor Snitko | Ukraine | 3:55.67 | q, NR |
| 16 | 5 | 7 | Ryk Neethling | South Africa | 3:56.19 | q |
| 17 | 3 | 6 | Aleksey Akatyev | Russia | 3:56.40 | q |
| 18 | 3 | 7 | Luiz Lima | Brazil | 3:56.43 | |
| 19 | 4 | 1 | Torlarp Sethsothorn | Thailand | 3:57.08 | NR |
| 20 | 3 | 1 | Jure Bučar | Slovenia | 3:57.36 | |
| 21 | 2 | 1 | Alejandro Bermúdez | Colombia | 3:57.45 | NR |
| 22 | 2 | 4 | Miroslav Vučetić | Croatia | 3:59.20 | |
| 23 | 4 | 2 | Béla Szabados | Hungary | 3:59.36 | |
| 24 | 5 | 1 | Hisato Yasui | Japan | 4:00.19 | |
| 25 | 2 | 7 | Ricardo Monasterio | Venezuela | 4:00.44 | |
| 26 | 1 | 4 | Andrey Kvassov | Kyrgyzstan | 4:00.69 | NR |
| 27 | 2 | 5 | Can Ergenekan | Turkey | 4:02.39 | |
| 28 | 1 | 5 | Agustín Fiorilli | Argentina | 4:02.53 | |
| 29 | 2 | 6 | Mark Kwok Kin Ming | Hong Kong | 4:02.68 | |
| 30 | 3 | 8 | Woo Chul | South Korea | 4:03.11 | |
| 31 | 2 | 2 | Andrei Zaharov | Moldova | 4:09.30 | |
| 32 | 4 | 8 | Hisham Al-Masri | Syria | 4:10.23 | |
| 33 | 2 | 8 | Sng Ju Wei | Singapore | 4:12.24 | |
| 34 | 1 | 3 | Omar Dallal | Jordan | 4:41.12 | |
| | 2 | 3 | Antti Kasvio | Finland | DNS | |

### Finals
#### Final B

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 9 | 5 | John Piersma | United States | 3:50.69 | |
| 10 | 4 | Sebastian Wiese | Germany | 3:52.37 | |
| 11 | 1 | Ryk Neethling | South Africa | 3:54.34 | |
| 12 | 7 | Igor Snitko | Ukraine | 3:54.63 | NR |
| 13 | 3 | Malcolm Allen | Australia | 3:55.48 | |
| 14 | 8 | Aleksey Akatyev | Russia | 3:55.72 | |
| 15 | 2 | Yann de Fabrique | France | 3:56.46 | |
| 16 | 6 | Dimitrios Manganas | Greece | 3:57.39 | |

#### Final A

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| | 6 | Danyon Loader | New Zealand | 3:47.97 | NR |
| | 7 | Paul Palmer | Great Britain | 3:49.00 | |
| | 2 | Daniel Kowalski | Australia | 3:49.39 | |
| 4 | 4 | Emiliano Brembilla | Italy | 3:49.87 | |
| 5 | 1 | Anders Holmertz | Sweden | 3:50.66 | |
| 6 | 5 | Massimiliano Rosolino | Italy | 3:51.04 | |
| 7 | 3 | Jörg Hoffmann | Germany | 3:52.15 | |
| 8 | 8 | Jacob Carstensen | Denmark | 3:54.45 | |