# Swimming at the 1960 Summer Olympics – Men's 400 metre freestyle

The men's 400 metre freestyle event at the 1960 Olympic Games took place between August 30 and 31. This swimming event used freestyle swimming, which means that the method of the stroke is not regulated (unlike backstroke, breaststroke, and butterfly events). Nearly all swimmers use the front crawl or a variant of that stroke. Because an Olympic-size swimming pool is 50 metres long, this race consisted of eight lengths of the pool.

## Medalists

| Gold | Murray Rose Australia |
| Silver | Tsuyoshi Yamanaka Japan |
| Bronze | John Konrads Australia |

## Results
### Heats

Six heats were held; the fastest eight swimmers advanced to the Finals. The swimmers that advanced are highlighted.

#### Heat One

| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time |
| 1 | Tsuyoshi Yamanaka | Japan | 4:21.0 |
| 2 | Hans-Joachim Klein | Germany | 4:31.6 |
| 3 | Veljko Rogošić | Yugoslavia | 4:39.5 |
| 4 | Tamás Hornyánszky | Hungary | 4:46.2 |
| 5 | Helmut Ilk | Austria | 4:58.1 |
| 6 | Karl Fridlin | Switzerland | 5:02.3 |

#### Heat Two

| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time |
| 1 | John Konrads | Australia | 4:24.3 |
| 2 | József Katona | Hungary | 4:29.5 |
| 3 | Richard Campion | Great Britain | 4:32.3 |
| 4 | Sven-Göran Johansson | Sweden | 4:35.6 |
| 5 | Kari Haavisto | Finland | 4:36.0 |
| 6 | Jean Pommat | France | 4:46.5 |
| - | Leonid Kolesnikov | Soviet Union | DNF |

#### Heat Three

| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time |
| 1 | Ian Black | Great Britain | 4:21.9 |
| 2 | Makoto Fukui | Japan | 4:26.7 |
| 3 | Jerzy Tracz | Poland | 4:38.6 |
| 4 | Per-Olof Ericsson | Sweden | 4:41.2 |
| 5 | Ilkka Suvanto | Finland | 4:42.1 |
| 6 | Raúl Guzmán | Mexico | 4:42.2 |
| 7 | Eduardo de Sousa | Portugal | 4:51.6 |

#### Heat Four

| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time |
| 1 | Murray Rose | Australia | 4:22.5 |
| 2 | Aubrey Bürer | South Africa | 4:31.9 |
| 3 | Paolo Galletti | Italy | 4:36.6 |
| 4 | Milan Jeger | Yugoslavia | 4:41.4 |
| 5 | Zakaria Nasution | Indonesia | 4:54.0 |
| 6 | Amiram Trauber | Israel | 4:58.6 |
| 7 | Robert Chenaux | Puerto Rico | 5:24.6 |

#### Heat Five

| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time |
| 1 | Murray McLachlan | South Africa | 4:25.9 |
| 2 | Gene Lenz | United States | 4:29.2 |
| 3 | Jean-Pascal Curtillet | France | 4:36.5 |
| 4 | Rubén Roca | Cuba | 4:41.3 |
| 5 | José Cossio | Spain | 4:50.1 |
| 6 | Fong Seow Jit | Malaya | 5:07.3 |

#### Heat Six

| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time |
| 1 | Alan Somers | United States | 4:19.2 |
| 2 | Mauricio Ocampo | Mexico | 4:35.3 |
| 3 | Gerhard Hetz | Germany | 4:38.4 |
| 4 | Bana Sailani | Philippines | 4:40.2 |
| 5 | Jan Lutomski | Poland | 4:42.8 |
| 6 | Massimo Rosi | Italy | 4:45.1 |
| 7 | Hans-Ulrich Dürst | Switzerland | 4:52.5 |

### Final

| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Notes |
| | Murray Rose | Australia | 4:18.3 | OR |
| | Tsuyoshi Yamanaka | Japan | 4:21.4 | |
| | John Konrads | Australia | 4:21.8 | |
| 4 | Ian Black | Great Britain | 4:21.8 | |
| 5 | Alan Somers | United States | 4:22.0 | |
| 6 | Murray McLachlan | South Africa | 4:26.3 | |
| 7 | Gene Lenz | United States | 4:26.8 | |
| 8 | Makoto Fukui | Japan | 4:29.6 | |
Key: OR = Olympic record