# Swimming at the 2024 Summer Olympics – Men's 400 metre freestyle

The men's 400 metre freestyle event at the 2024 Summer Olympics was held on 27 July 2024 at Paris La Défense Arena, which was converted to a swimming pool for the swimming events. Since an Olympic size swimming pool is 50 metres long, each competitor had to swim eight lengths of the pool.
Going into the event, Germany's Lukas Märtens was the favourite, while South Korean Kim Woo-min and Australians Elijah Winnington and Samuel Short were also among the top contenders. In the final, Märtens led from beginning to end to take gold with a time of 3:41.78, while Winnington took silver and Woo-min took bronze. The win won Märtens the first swimming gold medal of the games.
National records for Guyana and Chile were broken during the heats, and in the finals Brazil's Guilherme Costa set a new Americas record of 3:42.76.

## Background

Tunisia's defending Olympic champion and silver medallist at the 2023 World Championships Ahmed Hafnaoui withdrew from the Games due to an undisclosed injury. South Korean Kim Woo-min won the event at the 2024 World Championships, while Lukas Märtens of Germany had swum over a second faster than anyone else that year. Australians Elijah Winnington and Samuel Short won the event at the 2022 and 2023 World Championships respectively, and they also held 2024's second and third fastest times. Both SwimSwam and Swimming World also considered Brazil's Guilherme Costa, Germany's Oliver Klemet and Austria's Felix Auböck as contenders. They also both predicted that Short would win gold and Märtens would take silver.

## Qualification

Each National Olympic Committee (NOC) was permitted to enter a maximum of two qualified athletes in each individual event, but only if both of them had attained the Olympic Qualifying Time (OQT). For this event, the OQT was 3:46.78 seconds. World Aquatics then considered athletes qualifying through universality; NOCs were given one event entry for each gender, which could be used by any athlete regardless of qualification time, providing the spaces had not already been taken by athletes from that nation who had achieved the OQT. Finally, the rest of the spaces were filled by athletes who had met the Olympic Consideration Time (OCT), which was 3:47.91 for this event. In total, 23 athletes qualified through achieving the OQT, 13 athletes qualified through universality places and two athletes qualified through achieving the OCT.
Top 10 fastest qualification times :
| Swimmer | Country | Time | Competition |
| Lukas Märtens | Germany | 03:40:33 | 2024 German Championships |
| Samuel Short | Australia | 03:40:68 | 2023 World Aquatics Championships |
| Elijah Winnington | Australia | 03:41:41 | 2024 Australian Championships |
| Kim Woo-min | South Korea | 03:42:42 | 2024 Mare Nostrum Monte Carlo |
| Oliver Klemet | Germany | 03:42:81 | 2024 Gothaer & Friends Meet |
| Guilherme Costa | Brazil | 03:43:58 | 2023 World Aquatics Championships |
| Felix Auböck | Austria | 03:44:14 | 2023 World Aquatics Championships |
| Antonio Djakovic | Switzerland | 03:44:22 | 2023 World Aquatics Championships |
| Petar Mitsin | Bulgaria | 03:44:31 | 2023 European Junior Championships |
| Lucas Henveaux | Belgium | 03:44:61 | 2023 World Aquatics Championships |

## Heats

Five heats took place on 27 July 2024, starting at 11:45. The swimmers with the best eight times in the heats advanced to the final. Guyana's Raekwon Noel beat his own national record in the first heat, setting it at 4:02.29. Eduardo Cisternas from Chile also lowered his national record by over two and a half seconds to 3:51.29. Austria's Felix Auböck did not qualify.
Results :
| Rank | Heat | Lane | Swimmer | Nation | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 5 | 4 | Lukas Märtens | Germany | 3:44.13 | Q |
| 2 | 4 | 3 | Guilherme Costa | Brazil | 3:44.23 | Q |
| 3 | 3 | 3 | Fei Liwei | China | 3:44.60 | Q |
| 4 | 5 | 5 | Elijah Winnington | Australia | 3:44.87 | Q |
| 5 | 4 | 4 | Samuel Short | Australia | 3:44.88 | Q |
| 6 | 4 | 1 | Aaron Shackell | United States | 3:45.45 | Q |
| 7 | 4 | 5 | Kim Woo-min | South Korea | 3:45.52 | Q |
| 8 | 5 | 3 | Oliver Klemet | Germany | 3:45.75 | Q |
| 9 | 3 | 5 | Ahmed Jaouadi | Tunisia | 3:46.19 | |
| 10 | 4 | 7 | Danas Rapšys | Lithuania | 3:46.27 | |
| 11 | 4 | 8 | Kieran Smith | United States | 3:46.47 | |
| 12 | 5 | 1 | Zhang Zhanshuo | China | 3:46.76 | |
| 12 | 4 | 2 | Lucas Henveaux | Belgium | 3:46.76 | |
| 14 | 3 | 8 | Zalán Sárkány | Hungary | 3:47.33 | |
| 15 | 3 | 7 | David Aubry | France | 3:47.53 | |
| 16 | 5 | 8 | Kieran Bird | Great Britain | 3:47.54 | |
| 17 | 5 | 7 | Marco De Tullio | Italy | 3:47.90 | |
| 18 | 3 | 4 | Victor Johansson | Sweden | 3:47.98 | |
| 19 | 3 | 1 | Alfonso Mestre | Venezuela | 3:48.20 | |
| 20 | 3 | 6 | Matteo Lamberti | Italy | 3:48.38 | |
| 21 | 5 | 2 | Petar Mitsin | Bulgaria | 3:49.30 | |
| 22 | 2 | 5 | Kregor Zirk | Estonia | 3:49.59 | |
| 23 | 4 | 6 | Antonio Djakovic | Switzerland | 3:49.77 | |
| 24 | 5 | 6 | Felix Auböck | Austria | 3:50.50 | |
| 25 | 2 | 7 | Eduardo Cisternas | Chile | 3:51.29 | NR |
| 26 | 2 | 3 | Ilia Sibirtsev | Uzbekistan | 3:51.52 | |
| 27 | 2 | 4 | Khiew Hoe Yean | Malaysia | 3:51.66 | |
| 28 | 3 | 2 | Eduardo Moraes | Brazil | 3:51.74 | |
| 29 | 2 | 2 | Joaquín Vargas | Peru | 3:54.59 | |
| 30 | 2 | 6 | Jovan Lekić | Bosnia and Herzegovina | 3:57.90 | |
| 31 | 2 | 8 | Pavel Alovațki | Moldova | 3:59.77 | |
| 32 | 2 | 1 | Loris Bianchi | San Marino | 4:01.13 | |
| 33 | 1 | 5 | Ilias el Fallaki | Morocco | 4:01.59 | |
| 34 | 1 | 3 | Raekwon Noel | Guyana | 4:02.29 | NR |
| 35 | 1 | 6 | Alberto Vega | Costa Rica | 4:03.14 | |
| 36 | 1 | 2 | Ridhwan Abubakar | Kenya | 4:05.14 | |
| 37 | 1 | 4 | Nikola Ǵuretanoviḱ | North Macedonia | 4:05.38 | |

## Final

The final took place at 20:42 on 27 July. Germany's Lukas Märtens led the race from beginning to end, with both Märtens and South Korean Kim Woo-min splitting below Paul Biedermann's world record pace. Through the rest of the race, Märtens held on for gold with a time of 3:41.78 while Australia's Elijah Winnington overtook Woo-min to take silver with 3:42.21. Woo-min took the bronze with 3:42.50. Brazil's Guilherme Costa set a new Americas record of 3:42.76, beating Larsen Jensen's 16 year old time of 3:42.78. The win won Märtens the first swimming gold medal of the games.
Results :
| Rank | Lane | Swimmer | Nation | Time | Notes |
| | 4 | Lukas Märtens | Germany | 3:41.78 | |
| | 6 | Elijah Winnington | Australia | 3:42.21 | |
| | 1 | Kim Woo-min | South Korea | 3:42.50 | |
| 4 | 2 | Samuel Short | Australia | 3:42.64 | |
| 5 | 5 | Guilherme Costa | Brazil | 3:42.76 | AM |
| 6 | 3 | Fei Liwei | China | 3:44.24 | |
| 7 | 8 | Oliver Klemet | Germany | 3:46.59 | |
| 8 | 7 | Aaron Shackell | United States | 3:47.00 | |
Statistics :
| Name | 100 metre split | 200 metre split | 300 metre split | Time | Stroke rate (strokes/min) |
| Lukas Märtens | 00:52.01 | 01:48.40 | 02:45.26 | 3:41.78 | 40.9 |
| Elijah Winnington | 00:52.78 | 01:49.18 | 02:46.44 | 3:42.21 | 42.4 |
| Kim Woo-min | 00:52.50 | 01:48.71 | 02:45.87 | 3:42.50 | 40.0 |
| Samuel Short | 00:53.34 | 01:49.11 | 02:46.22 | 3:42.64 | 44.6 |
| Guilherme Costa | 00:53.61 | 01:50.25 | 02:47.27 | 3:42.76 | 46.8 |
| Fei Liwei | 00:53.23 | 01:50.29 | 02:47.96 | 3:44.24 | 36.4 |
| Oliver Klemet | 00:54.32 | 01:51.22 | 02:48.93 | 3:46.59 | 45.5 |
| Aaron Shackell | 00:53.81 | 01:51.66 | 02:49.71 | 3:47.00 | 38.6 |