# Swimming at the 1996 Summer Olympics – Women's 400 metre individual medley

The women's 400 metre individual medley event at the 1996 Summer Olympics took place on 20 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 | Petra Schneider (GDR) | 4:36.10 | Guayaquil, Ecuador | 1 August 1982 |
| Olympic record | Petra Schneider (GDR) | 4:36.29 | Moscow, Soviet Union | 26 July 1980 |

## 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 | 4 | Krisztina Egerszegi | Hungary | 4:43.09 | Q |
| 2 | 4 | 3 | Emma Johnson | Australia | 4:43.45 | Q |
| 3 | 3 | 5 | Michelle Smith | Ireland | 4:43.79 | Q |
| 4 | 4 | 5 | Allison Wagner | United States | 4:44.06 | Q |
| 5 | 4 | 1 | Beatrice Câșlaru | Romania | 4:44.66 | Q |
| 6 | 3 | 2 | Whitney Metzler | United States | 4:44.74 | Q |
| 7 | 2 | 3 | Sabine Herbst | Germany | 4:45.36 | Q |
| 8 | 2 | 7 | Lourdes Becerra | Spain | 4:45.54 | Q, NR |
| 9 | 2 | 5 | Joanne Malar | Canada | 4:47.85 | q |
| 10 | 3 | 3 | Fumie Kurotori | Japan | 4:48.51 | q |
| 11 | 4 | 7 | Nancy Sweetnam | Canada | 4:48.56 | q |
| 12 | 3 | 7 | Hideko Hiranaka | Japan | 4:49.32 | q |
| 13 | 4 | 2 | Hana Černá | Czech Republic | 4:49.43 | q, NR |
| 14 | 2 | 6 | Elli Overton | Australia | 4:49.82 | q |
| 15 | 3 | 1 | Pavla Chrástová | Czech Republic | 4:51.35 | q |
| 16 | 1 | 4 | Yseult Gervy | Belgium | 4:53.11 | q, NR |
| 17 | 3 | 4 | Chen Yan | China | 4:53.87 | |
| 18 | 2 | 4 | Wu Yanyan | China | 4:54.07 | |
| 19 | 4 | 8 | Sarah Hardcastle | Great Britain | 4:54.64 | |
| 20 | 3 | 8 | Britta Vestergaard | Denmark | 4:55.03 | |
| 21 | 3 | 6 | Cathleen Rund | Germany | 4:55.30 | |
| 22 | 1 | 7 | Carolyn Adel | Suriname | 4:55.48 | NR |
| 23 | 1 | 5 | Mirjana Boševska | Macedonia | 4:55.57 | |
| 24 | 2 | 2 | Anna Wilson | New Zealand | 4:55.72 | |
| 25 | 1 | 1 | Aikaterini Sarakatsani | Greece | 4:56.32 | NR |
| 26 | 4 | 6 | Darya Shmeleva | Russia | 4:57.06 | |
| 27 | 1 | 3 | Praphalsai Minpraphal | Thailand | 4:58.33 | |
| 28 | 1 | 2 | Lee Ji-hyun | South Korea | 4:59.52 | |
| 29 | 1 | 6 | Hsieh Shu-tzu | Chinese Taipei | 5:01.70 | |
| 30 | 2 | 8 | Martina Nemec | Austria | 5:02.52 | |
| 31 | 2 | 1 | Nadège Cliton | France | 5:06.46 | |

### Finals
#### Final B

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 9 | 4 | Joanne Malar | Canada | 4:46.34 | |
| 10 | 2 | Hana Černá | Czech Republic | 4:46.78 | NR |
| 11 | 3 | Nancy Sweetnam | Canada | 4:47.55 | |
| 12 | 5 | Fumie Kurotori | Japan | 4:47.98 | |
| 13 | 6 | Hideko Hiranaka | Japan | 4:48.72 | |
| 14 | 7 | Elli Overton | Australia | 4:50.73 | |
| 15 | 8 | Yseult Gervy | Belgium | 4:52.89 | |
| 16 | 1 | Pavla Chrástová | Czech Republic | 4:56.23 | |

#### Final A

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| | 3 | Michelle Smith | Ireland | 4:39.18 | NR |
| | 6 | Allison Wagner | United States | 4:42.03 | |
| | 4 | Krisztina Egerszegi | Hungary | 4:42.53 | |
| 4 | 1 | Sabine Herbst | Germany | 4:43.78 | |
| 5 | 5 | Emma Johnson | Australia | 4:44.02 | |
| 6 | 2 | Beatrice Câșlaru | Romania | 4:44.91 | |
| 7 | 8 | Lourdes Becerra | Spain | 4:45.17 | NR |
| 8 | 7 | Whitney Metzler | United States | 4:46.20 | |