# Swimming at the 2000 Summer Olympics – Men's 400 metre freestyle

The men's 400 metre freestyle event at the 2000 Summer Olympics took place on 16 September at the Sydney International Aquatic Centre in Sydney, Australia.
At only 17 years of age, Australia's overwhelming favourite Ian Thorpe, dubbed by his fans as the "Thorpedo", made his Olympic debut by claiming the first gold medal for the host nation at these Games, winning by 2.81 seconds. Cheered by a massive home crowd and rocketed to the chants of "Thorpie" by his swimming fans, Thorpe maintained a strong lead from start to finish before hitting the wall first in a new world record of 3:40.59.
Massimiliano Rosolino earned a silver medal for Italy in a European record of 3:43.40, finishing almost three seconds behind Thorpe. Meanwhile, U.S. swimmer Klete Keller (another 17-year-old) stormed home from last place in the 200 m lap to wrest a bronze in 3:47.00, an American record, edging out Rosolino's teammate Emiliano Brembilla (3:47.01) by a hundredth of a second (0.01).
Romania's Dragoș Coman finished fifth with a national record of 3:47.38, and was followed in the sixth spot by another U.S. swimmer Chad Carvin in 3:47.58. Aussie Grant Hackett (3:48.22) and South Africa's Ryk Neethling (3:48.52) rounded out the finale within three-tenths of a second (0.30) apart.
Acknowledging a massive roar of the home crowd, Thorpe also cracked Yevgeny Sadovyi's 1992 Olympic record by 0.35 seconds to lead the final of six heats, and pick up a top-seeded time of 3:44.65 in the morning prelims.

## Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.
| World record | Ian Thorpe (AUS) | 3:41.33 | Sydney, Australia | 13 May 2000 |
| Olympic record | Yevgeny Sadovyi (EUN) | 3:45.00 | Barcelona, Spain | 29 July 1992 |
The following new world and Olympic records were set during this competition.
| Date | Event | Name | Nationality | Time | Record |
| 16 September | Heat 6 | Ian Thorpe | Australia | 3:44.65 | OR |
| 16 September | Final | Ian Thorpe | Australia | 3:40.59 | WR |

## Results
### Heats

| Rank | Heat | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 6 | 4 | Ian Thorpe | Australia | 3:44.65 | Q, OR |
| 2 | 4 | 3 | Massimiliano Rosolino | Italy | 3:45.65 | Q, NR |
| 3 | 4 | 4 | Ryk Neethling | South Africa | 3:48.08 | Q |
| 4 | 6 | 3 | Emiliano Brembilla | Italy | 3:48.41 | Q |
| 5 | 5 | 5 | Chad Carvin | United States | 3:48.42 | Q |
| 6 | 6 | 5 | Klete Keller | United States | 3:48.62 | Q |
| 7 | 5 | 3 | Dragoș Coman | Romania | 3:48.77 | Q, NR |
| 8 | 5 | 4 | Grant Hackett | Australia | 3:48.91 | Q |
| 9 | 5 | 2 | Heiko Hell | Germany | 3:50.80 | |
| 10 | 4 | 5 | Paul Palmer | Great Britain | 3:51.06 | |
| 11 | 4 | 1 | Masato Hirano | Japan | 3:51.42 | AS |
| 12 | 6 | 8 | Nicolas Rostoucher | France | 3:51.80 | NR |
| 13 | 5 | 6 | James Salter | Great Britain | 3:52.01 | |
| 14 | 6 | 7 | Alexei Filipets | Russia | 3:52.21 | |
| 15 | 6 | 6 | Rick Say | Canada | 3:52.72 | |
| 16 | 4 | 7 | Igor Snitko | Ukraine | 3:52.97 | |
| 17 | 4 | 2 | Luiz Lima | Brazil | 3:53.87 | |
| 18 | 4 | 6 | Jacob Carstensen | Denmark | 3:54.14 | |
| 19 | 5 | 7 | Vlastimil Burda | Czech Republic | 3:54.40 | |
| 20 | 5 | 8 | Spyridon Gianniotis | Greece | 3:54.96 | |
| 21 | 6 | 2 | Mark Johnston | Canada | 3:54.99 | |
| 22 | 4 | 8 | Dmitry Koptur | Belarus | 3:55.26 | |
| 23 | 5 | 1 | Ricardo Monasterio | Venezuela | 3:55.35 | |
| 24 | 3 | 6 | Torwai Sethsothorn | Thailand | 3:56.68 | |
| 25 | 3 | 3 | Jin Hao | China | 3:57.22 | |
| 26 | 3 | 8 | Damian Alleyne | Barbados | 3:58.12 | |
| 27 | 2 | 4 | Woo Chul | South Korea | 3:58.31 | |
| 28 | 3 | 5 | Jorge Carral Armella | Mexico | 3:58.34 | |
| 29 | 3 | 4 | Jonathan Duncan | New Zealand | 3:58.52 | |
| 30 | 2 | 2 | Mark Kwok Kin Ming | Hong Kong | 3:58.94 | NR |
| 31 | 3 | 2 | Zoltán Szilágyi | Hungary | 3:59.40 | |
| 32 | 2 | 5 | Agustín Fiorilli | Argentina | 3:59.44 | |
| 33 | 6 | 1 | Igor Chervynskiy | Ukraine | 3:59.84 | |
| 34 | 2 | 3 | Petar Stoychev | Bulgaria | 3:59.94 | |
| 35 | 3 | 7 | Jure Bučar | Slovenia | 4:00.19 | |
| 36 | 2 | 1 | Miguel Mendoza | Philippines | 4:00.66 | NR |
| 37 | 1 | 2 | Sng Ju Wei | Singapore | 4:01.34 | NR |
| 38 | 2 | 8 | Victor Rogut | Moldova | 4:01.42 | |
| 39 | 2 | 7 | Aytekin Mindan | Turkey | 4:01.46 | |
| 40 | 1 | 5 | Giancarlo Zolezzi | Chile | 4:01.51 | |
| 41 | 1 | 4 | Li Yun-lun | Chinese Taipei | 4:03.10 | |
| 42 | 3 | 1 | Hannes Kalteis | Austria | 4:03.66 | |
| 43 | 2 | 6 | Dieung Manggang | Malaysia | 4:03.77 | |
| 44 | 1 | 6 | Hani Elteir | Egypt | 4:04.23 | |
| 45 | 1 | 3 | Ivan Ivanov | Kyrgyzstan | 4:09.33 | |
| 46 | 1 | 7 | Marcelino López | Nicaragua | 4:18.89 | |

### Final

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| | 4 | Ian Thorpe | Australia | 3:40.59 | WR |
| | 5 | Massimiliano Rosolino | Italy | 3:43.40 | EU |
| | 7 | Klete Keller | United States | 3:47.00 | AM |
| 4 | 6 | Emiliano Brembilla | Italy | 3:47.01 | |
| 5 | 1 | Dragoș Coman | Romania | 3:47.38 | NR |
| 6 | 2 | Chad Carvin | United States | 3:47.58 | |
| 7 | 8 | Grant Hackett | Australia | 3:48.22 | |
| 8 | 3 | Ryk Neethling | South Africa | 3:48.52 | |