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

The women's 400 metre individual medley event at the 2004 Olympic Games was contested at the Olympic Aquatic Centre of the Athens Olympic Sports Complex in Athens, Greece on August 14.
World record holder Yana Klochkova of Ukraine successfully defended her Olympic title in this event, outside the record time of 4:34.83. U.S. swimmer Kaitlin Sandeno, who finished behind Klochkova by 0.12 of a second, earned a silver medal, in an American record time of 4:34.95. Georgina Bardach, on the other hand, won Argentina's first Olympic bronze medal in swimming, breaking a South American record of 4:37.51. South Korea's Nam Yoo-sun and Greece's Vasiliki Angelopoulou became the first female swimmers for their respective nation to reach an Olympic final, finishing outside the medals in seventh and eighth place, respectively. Romania's Beatrice Câșlaru, who won a bronze medal in Sydney, finished only in fourteenth place on the morning's preliminary heats.

## Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.
| World record | Yana Klochkova (UKR) | 4:33.59 | Sydney, Australia | 16 September 2000 |
| Olympic record | Yana Klochkova (UKR) | 4:33.59 | Sydney, Australia | 16 September 2000 |

## Results
### Heats

| Rank | Heat | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 4 | 4 | Yana Klochkova | Ukraine | 4:38.36 | Q |
| 2 | 4 | 5 | Kaitlin Sandeno | United States | 4:40.21 | Q |
| 3 | 2 | 5 | Georgina Bardach | Argentina | 4:41.20 | Q |
| 3 | 3 | 4 | Éva Risztov | Hungary | 4:41.20 | Q |
| 5 | 2 | 6 | Nicole Hetzer | Germany | 4:41.74 | Q |
| 6 | 4 | 6 | Joanna Melo | Brazil | 4:42.01 | Q |
| 7 | 4 | 1 | Vasiliki Angelopoulou | Greece | 4:44.90 | Q, NR |
| 8 | 2 | 1 | Nam Yoo-sun | South Korea | 4:45.16 | Q |
| 9 | 2 | 2 | Helen Norfolk | New Zealand | 4:45.21 | |
| 10 | 4 | 2 | Misa Amano | Japan | 4:45.61 | |
| 11 | 3 | 6 | Elizabeth Warden | Canada | 4:46.27 | |
| 12 | 2 | 3 | Lara Carroll | Australia | 4:46.32 | |
| 13 | 3 | 3 | Anja Klinar | Slovenia | 4:46.66 | |
| 14 | 4 | 3 | Beatrice Câșlaru | Romania | 4:46.94 | |
| 15 | 4 | 7 | Zsuzsanna Jakabos | Hungary | 4:47.21 | |
| 16 | 3 | 1 | Alessia Filippi | Italy | 4:47.26 | |
| 17 | 2 | 4 | Katie Hoff | United States | 4:47.49 | |
| 18 | 3 | 7 | Teresa Rohmann | Germany | 4:48.51 | |
| 19 | 3 | 5 | Jennifer Reilly | Australia | 4:49.04 | |
| 20 | 4 | 8 | Lin Man-hsu | Chinese Taipei | 4:52.22 | |
| 21 | 2 | 7 | Yana Martynova | Russia | 4:52.96 | |
| 22 | 1 | 4 | Nimitta Thaveesupsoonthorn | Thailand | 5:00.06 | |
| 23 | 1 | 5 | Ana Dangalakova | Bulgaria | 5:01.00 | |
| 24 | 1 | 3 | Sabria Dahane | Algeria | 5:10.20 | |
| | 3 | 2 | Zhang Tianyi | China | DSQ | |

### Final

| Rank | Lane | Swimmer | Nation | Time | Notes |
| | 4 | Yana Klochkova | Ukraine | 4:34.83 | |
| | 5 | Kaitlin Sandeno | United States | 4:34.95 | AM |
| | 3 | Georgina Bardach | Argentina | 4:37.51 | SA |
| 4 | 6 | Éva Risztov | Hungary | 4:39.29 | |
| 5 | 7 | Joanna Melo | Brazil | 4:40.00 | NR |
| 6 | 2 | Nicole Hetzer | Germany | 4:40.20 | |
| 7 | 8 | Nam Yoo-sun | South Korea | 4:50.35 | |
| 8 | 1 | Vasiliki Angelopoulou | Greece | 4:50.85 | |