# Swimming at the 2016 Summer Olympics – Men's 400 metre freestyle

The men's 400 metre freestyle event at the 2016 Summer Olympics took place on 6 August at the Olympic Aquatics Stadium. The winning margin was 0.13 seconds.

## Summary

China's Sun Yang fell short of his attempt to a back-to-back gold in one of the program's long-distance freestyle races due to a strong performance from Australia's Mack Horton. Heading into the final lap with a narrow 0.14-second lead, Horton managed to hold off the fast-charging Sun towards the finish for his first individual gold medal in 3:41.55. Unable to catch his Aussie rival near the wall by 13-hundredths of a second, Sun settled for the silver in 3:41.68. Meanwhile, Gabriele Detti picked up the bronze with a time of 3:43.49 to become Italy's first male Olympic medalist in swimming since 2000.
Conor Dwyer (3:44.01), the fastest swimmer headed into the final, and fellow American Connor Jaeger (3:44.16) finished off the podium in fourth and fifth respectively, separated by a 0.15-second margin. Great Britain's James Guy led the pack towards the halfway mark under a world record pace, but faded to sixth in 3:44.68. Horton's teammate David McKeon (3:45.28) and France's Jordan Pothain (3:49.07) rounded out the field.
South Korean swimmer and Beijing 2008 champion Park Tae-hwan, as well as Canada's long distance ace Ryan Cochrane, did not advance to the final, finishing tenth and eleventh in the prelims.

## Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.
| World record | Paul Biedermann (GER) | 3:40.07 | Rome, Italy | 26 July 2009 |
| Olympic record | Sun Yang (CHN) | 3:40.14 | London, Great Britain | 28 July 2012 |

## Competition format

The competition consisted of two rounds: heats and a final. The swimmers with the best 8 times in the heats advanced to the final. Swim-offs were used as necessary to break ties for advancement to the next round.

## Results
### Heats

The heats began at 1:48 pm.
| Rank | Heat | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 7 | 2 | Conor Dwyer | United States | 3:43.42 | Q |
| 2 | 7 | 4 | Mack Horton | Australia | 3:43.84 | Q |
| 3 | 7 | 3 | Gabriele Detti | Italy | 3:43.95 | Q |
| 4 | 6 | 4 | Sun Yang | China | 3:44.23 | Q |
| 5 | 7 | 6 | David McKeon | Australia | 3:44.68 | Q |
| 6 | 7 | 5 | James Guy | Great Britain | 3:45.31 | Q |
| 7 | 6 | 5 | Connor Jaeger | United States | 3:45.37 | Q |
| 8 | 5 | 7 | Jordan Pothain | France | 3:45.43 | Q |
| 9 | 6 | 2 | Florian Vogel | Germany | 3:45.49 | |
| 10 | 6 | 3 | Park Tae-hwan | South Korea | 3:45.63 | |
| 11 | 6 | 6 | Ryan Cochrane | Canada | 3:45.83 | |
| 12 | 5 | 1 | Myles Brown | South Africa | 3:45.92 | |
| 13 | 7 | 1 | Stephen Milne | Great Britain | 3:46.00 | |
| 14 | 7 | 8 | Velimir Stjepanović | Serbia | 3:46.78 | |
| 15 | 5 | 4 | Aleksandr Krasnykh | Russia | 3:47.39 | |
| 16 | 4 | 5 | Marwan El-Kamash | Egypt | 3:47.43 | |
| 17 | 6 | 7 | Henrik Christiansen | Norway | 3:47.90 | |
| 18 | 5 | 5 | Maarten Brzoskowski | Netherlands | 3:48.00 | |
| 19 | 4 | 2 | Matthew Hutchins | New Zealand | 3:48.25 | |
| 20 | 4 | 3 | Anton Ipsen | Denmark | 3:48.31 | |
| 21 | 7 | 7 | Péter Bernek | Hungary | 3:48.58 | |
| 22 | 3 | 8 | Marcelo Acosta | El Salvador | 3:48.82 | |
| 23 | 6 | 1 | Wojciech Wojdak | Poland | 3:48.87 | |
| 24 | 5 | 3 | Clemens Rapp | Germany | 3:49.10 | |
| 25 | 6 | 8 | Felix Auböck | Austria | 3:49.35 | |
| 26 | 5 | 8 | Qiu Ziao | China | 3:49.45 | |
| 27 | 4 | 4 | Ahmed Akram | Egypt | 3:49.46 | |
| 28 | 5 | 2 | Filip Zaborowski | Poland | 3:49.84 | |
| 29 | 4 | 1 | Jan Micka | Czech Republic | 3:49.97 | |
| 30 | 4 | 8 | Vyacheslav Andrusenko | Russia | 3:50.23 | |
| 31 | 5 | 6 | Naito Ehara | Japan | 3:50.61 | |
| 32 | 3 | 2 | Luiz Altamir Melo | Brazil | 3:50.82 | |
| 33 | 2 | 3 | Cristian Quintero | Venezuela | 3:50.84 | |
| 34 | 3 | 7 | Welson Sim | Malaysia | 3:51.57 | |
| 35 | 2 | 4 | Ahmed Mathlouthi | Tunisia | 3:52.00 | |
| 36 | 4 | 6 | Mads Glæsner | Denmark | 3:52.59 | |
| 37 | 4 | 7 | Miguel Durán | Spain | 3:53.40 | ƒ |
| 38 | 3 | 5 | Gergő Kis | Hungary | 3:54.15 | |
| 39 | 2 | 5 | Martín Naidich | Argentina | 3:54.58 | |
| 40 | 3 | 6 | David Brandl | Austria | 3:54.59 | |
| 41 | 3 | 1 | Dimitrios Dimitriou | Greece | 3:54.98 | |
| 42 | 3 | 4 | Matias Koski | Finland | 3:55.57 | |
| 43 | 3 | 3 | Nezir Karap | Turkey | 3:58.37 | |
| 44 | 2 | 7 | Alex Sobers | Barbados | 3:59.97 | |
| 45 | 2 | 2 | Irakli Revishvili | Georgia | 4:00.56 | |
| 46 | 2 | 6 | Jessie Lacuna | Philippines | 4:01.70 | |
| 47 | 2 | 1 | Iacovos Hadjiconstantinou | Cyprus | 4:03.53 | |
| 48 | 1 | 4 | Geoffrey Butler | Cayman Islands | 4:07.87 | |
| 49 | 1 | 5 | Pol Arias | Andorra | 4:21.16 | |
| 50 | 1 | 3 | Haris Bandey | Pakistan | 4:33.13 | |
ƒ False start, but allowed to continue at referee's discretion.

### Final

The final began at 10:30 pm.
| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time |
| | 5 | Mack Horton | Australia | 3:41.55 |
| | 6 | Sun Yang | China | 3:41.68 |
| | 3 | Gabriele Detti | Italy | 3:43.49 |
| 4 | 4 | Conor Dwyer | United States | 3:44.01 |
| 5 | 1 | Connor Jaeger | United States | 3:44.16 |
| 6 | 7 | James Guy | Great Britain | 3:44.68 |
| 7 | 2 | David McKeon | Australia | 3:45.28 |
| 8 | 8 | Jordan Pothain | France | 3:49.07 |