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

The men'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.
U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps broke a new world record of 4:08.26 to claim his first ever Olympic gold medal. Phelps' teammate Erik Vendt added a second silver to the one he earned behind Tom Dolan in Sydney four years earlier, finishing with a time of 4:11.81. Hungary's László Cseh, silver medalist at the 2003 FINA World Championships, held on for bronze in 4:12.15.

## Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.
| World record | Michael Phelps (USA) | 4:08.41 | Long Beach, United States | 7 July 2004 |
| Olympic record | Tom Dolan (USA) | 4:11.76 | Sydney, Australia | 17 September 2000 |
The following new world and Olympic records were set during this competition.
| Date | Event | Name | Nationality | Time | Record |
| August 14 | Final | Michael Phelps | United States | 4:08.26 | WR |

## Results
### Heats

| Rank | Heat | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 5 | 4 | Michael Phelps | United States | 4:13.29 | Q |
| 2 | 4 | 4 | László Cseh | Hungary | 4:14.26 | Q |
| 3 | 3 | 4 | Alessio Boggiatto | Italy | 4:15.78 | Q |
| 4 | 3 | 5 | Jiro Miki | Japan | 4:16.32 | Q |
| 5 | 3 | 7 | Ioannis Kokkodis | Greece | 4:16.56 | Q |
| 6 | 4 | 3 | Oussama Mellouli | Tunisia | 4:16.68 | Q |
| 6 | 5 | 5 | Erik Vendt | United States | 4:16.68 | Q |
| 8 | 5 | 6 | Travis Nederpelt | Australia | 4:16.77 | Q |
| 9 | 4 | 2 | Ioannis Drymonakos | Greece | 4:16.83 | |
| 10 | 4 | 5 | Luca Marin | Italy | 4:16.85 | |
| 11 | 5 | 3 | Justin Norris | Australia | 4:16.90 | |
| 12 | 4 | 7 | Robin Francis | Great Britain | 4:18.34 | |
| 13 | 2 | 2 | Dean Kent | New Zealand | 4:18.55 | |
| 14 | 3 | 6 | Wu Peng | China | 4:19.32 | |
| 15 | 5 | 2 | Brian Johns | Canada | 4:21.10 | |
| 16 | 5 | 7 | Keith Beavers | Canada | 4:21.47 | |
| 17 | 3 | 2 | Thiago Pereira | Brazil | 4:22.06 | |
| 18 | 3 | 3 | Susumu Tabuchi | Japan | 4:22.46 | |
| 19 | 3 | 1 | Lucas Salatta | Brazil | 4:23.01 | |
| 20 | 2 | 1 | Kim Bang-hyun | South Korea | 4:23.05 | NR |
| 21 | 5 | 1 | Igor Berezutskiy | Russia | 4:23.20 | |
| 22 | 2 | 4 | Jeremy Knowles | Bahamas | 4:23.29 | |
| 23 | 4 | 6 | Adrian Turner | Great Britain | 4:23.53 | |
| 24 | 5 | 8 | Alexey Kovrigin | Russia | 4:23.77 | |
| 25 | 2 | 6 | Bradley Ally | Barbados | 4:24.70 | |
| 26 | 4 | 1 | Dmytro Nazarenko | Ukraine | 4:26.15 | |
| 27 | 2 | 7 | Vytautas Janušaitis | Lithuania | 4:26.30 | |
| 28 | 4 | 8 | Liu Weijia | China | 4:27.02 | |
| 29 | 2 | 5 | Yves Platel | Switzerland | 4:28.94 | |
| 30 | 2 | 8 | Guntars Deičmans | Latvia | 4:29.17 | |
| 31 | 3 | 8 | Marko Milenkovič | Slovenia | 4:30.99 | |
| 32 | 1 | 4 | Saša Imprić | Croatia | 4:32.02 | |
| 33 | 1 | 5 | Andrew Mackay | Cayman Islands | 4:32.38 | |
| 34 | 2 | 3 | Miguel Molina | Philippines | 4:33.25 | |
| 35 | 1 | 6 | Lin Yu-an | Chinese Taipei | 4:41.76 | |
| 36 | 1 | 3 | Nikita Polyakov | Uzbekistan | 5:09.66 | |

### Final

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| | 4 | Michael Phelps | United States | 4:08.26 | WR |
| | 1 | Erik Vendt | United States | 4:11.81 | |
| | 5 | László Cseh | Hungary | 4:12.15 | |
| 4 | 3 | Alessio Boggiatto | Italy | 4:12.28 | |
| 5 | 7 | Oussama Mellouli | Tunisia | 4:14.49 | AF |
| 6 | 2 | Ioannis Kokkodis | Greece | 4:18.60 | |
| 7 | 6 | Jiro Miki | Japan | 4:19.97 | |
| 8 | 8 | Travis Nederpelt | Australia | 4:20.08 | |