# Swimming at the 2004 Summer Olympics – Women's 400 metre freestyle

The women's 400 metre freestyle event at the 2004 Olympic Games was contested at the Olympic Aquatic Centre of the Athens Olympic Sports Complex in Athens, Greece on August 15.
France's Laure Manaudou won the gold medal in this event, with a European record time of 4:05.34. The silver medal was awarded to Poland's Otylia Jędrzejczak, who finished behind Manaudou by half a second (0.50), in an outstanding time of 4:05.84. U.S. swimmer Kaitlin Sandeno, who earned a silver in the 400 m individual medley on the previous day, fought off a challenge from Romania's Camelia Potec in the final lap to take a bronze by two tenths of a second (0.20), clocking at 4:06.19.

## Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.
| World record | Janet Evans (USA) | 4:03.85 | Seoul, South Korea | 22 September 1988 |
| Olympic record | Janet Evans (USA) | 4:03.85 | Seoul, South Korea | 22 September 1988 |

## Results
### Heats

| Rank | Heat | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 5 | 3 | Laure Manaudou | France | 4:06.76 | Q |
| 2 | 4 | 5 | Otylia Jędrzejczak | Poland | 4:07.11 | Q |
| 3 | 3 | 4 | Camelia Potec | Romania | 4:07.39 | Q |
| 4 | 3 | 5 | Ai Shibata | Japan | 4:07.63 | Q |
| 5 | 4 | 1 | Rebecca Cooke | Great Britain | 4:08.18 | Q |
| 6 | 4 | 3 | Kaitlin Sandeno | United States | 4:08.22 | Q |
| 7 | 3 | 6 | Linda Mackenzie | Australia | 4:08.46 | Q |
| 8 | 5 | 5 | Sachiko Yamada | Japan | 4:09.10 | Q |
| 9 | 3 | 2 | Claudia Poll | Costa Rica | 4:09.75 | |
| 10 | 4 | 2 | Kalyn Keller | United States | 4:09.83 | |
| 11 | 5 | 7 | Simona Păduraru | Romania | 4:10.39 | |
| 12 | 5 | 4 | Hannah Stockbauer | Germany | 4:10.46 | |
| 13 | 5 | 6 | Elka Graham | Australia | 4:11.67 | |
| 14 | 5 | 1 | Pang Jiaying | China | 4:11.81 | |
| 15 | 4 | 4 | Éva Risztov | Hungary | 4:12.08 | |
| 16 | 5 | 2 | Brittany Reimer | Canada | 4:12.33 | |
| 17 | 4 | 6 | Chen Hua | China | 4:12.67 | |
| 18 | 4 | 7 | Erika Villaécija | Spain | 4:13.03 | |
| 19 | 5 | 8 | Monique Ferreira | Brazil | 4:13.75 | |
| 20 | 3 | 1 | Zoi Dimoschaki | Greece | 4:13.96 | |
| 21 | 3 | 3 | Joanne Jackson | Great Britain | 4:14.89 | |
| 22 | 2 | 6 | Cecilia Biagioli | Argentina | 4:16.42 | |
| 23 | 3 | 7 | Arantxa Ramos | Spain | 4:16.52 | |
| 24 | 2 | 3 | Anja Čarman | Slovenia | 4:17.79 | |
| 25 | 4 | 8 | Daria Parshina | Russia | 4:18.24 | |
| 26 | 2 | 7 | Kristel Köbrich | Chile | 4:18.68 | |
| 27 | 2 | 2 | Vesna Stojanovska | Macedonia | 4:19.39 | |
| 28 | 2 | 5 | Janelle Atkinson | Jamaica | 4:20.00 | |
| 29 | 1 | 6 | Paola Duguet | Colombia | 4:20.69 | |
| 30 | 3 | 8 | Kristýna Kyněrová | Czech Republic | 4:21.12 | |
| 31 | 2 | 1 | Rebecca Linton | New Zealand | 4:21.58 | |
| 32 | 2 | 8 | Ha Eun-ju | South Korea | 4:21.65 | |
| 33 | 1 | 4 | Golda Marcus | El Salvador | 4:22.27 | |
| 34 | 1 | 5 | Pilin Tachakittiranan | Thailand | 4:23.62 | |
| 35 | 1 | 7 | Özlem Yasemin Taşkın | Turkey | 4:24.08 | |
| 36 | 1 | 3 | Ivanka Moralieva | Bulgaria | 4:25.92 | |
| 37 | 1 | 2 | Anita Galić | Croatia | 4:26.09 | |
| 38 | 2 | 4 | Olga Beresnyeva | Ukraine | 4:26.30 | |

### Final

| Rank | Lane | Swimmer | Nation | Time | Notes |
| | 4 | Laure Manaudou | France | 4:05.34 | EU |
| | 5 | Otylia Jędrzejczak | Poland | 4:05.84 | |
| | 7 | Kaitlin Sandeno | United States | 4:06.19 | |
| 4 | 3 | Camelia Potec | Romania | 4:06.34 | |
| 5 | 6 | Ai Shibata | Japan | 4:07.51 | |
| 6 | 8 | Sachiko Yamada | Japan | 4:10.91 | |
| 7 | 1 | Linda Mackenzie | Australia | 4:10.92 | |
| 8 | 2 | Rebecca Cooke | Great Britain | 4:11.35 | |