# Swimming at the 1972 Summer Olympics – Men's 400 metre individual medley

The men's 400 metre individual medley event at the 1972 Summer Olympics took place August 30. This swimming event used medley swimming. Because an Olympic size swimming pool is 50 metres long, this race consisted of eight lengths of the pool. The first two lengths were swum using the butterfly stroke, the second pair with the backstroke, the third pair of lengths in breaststroke, and the final two were freestyle. Unlike other events using freestyle, swimmers could not use butterfly, backstroke, or breaststroke for the freestyle leg; most swimmers use the front crawl in freestyle events.

## Final with controversial margin

The final was won by Gunnar Larsson, who succeeded over second-placed Tim McKee by two thousandths of a second. This margin in effect brought about a change in the competition, so that no swimming competition henceforward would have to be decided by a margin less than a hundredth of a second.

## Medalists

| Gold | Gunnar Larsson Sweden |
| Silver | Tim McKee United States |
| Bronze | András Hargitay Hungary |

## Results
### Heats

Heat 1
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time |
| 1 | András Hargitay | Hungary | 4:37.51 |
| 2 | Christian Lietzmann | East Germany | 4:44.47 |
| 3 | Roger van Hamburg | Netherlands | 4:50.70 |
| 4 | José Luis Prado | Mexico | 4:54.49 |
| 5 | Barry Prime | Great Britain | 4:57.77 |
| 6 | Jairulla Jaitulla | Philippines | 5:05.48 |
Heat 2
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time |
| 1 | Gunnar Larsson | Sweden | 4:34.99 |
| 2 | John McConnochie | New Zealand | 4:49.89 |
| 3 | Valentyn Partyka | Soviet Union | 4:50.03 |
| 4 | David Brumwell | Canada | 4:52.41 |
| 5 | Jiro Sasaki | Japan | 4:53.65 |
| 6 | Antônio Azevedo | Brazil | 4:57.27 |
| 7 | Hsu Tung-hsiung | Chinese Taipei | 5:09.56 |
Heat 3
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time |
| 1 | Steve Furniss | United States | 4:39.33 |
| 2 | Ricardo Marmolejo | Mexico | 4:45.20 |
| 3 | Bertram Türpe | East Germany | 4:46.55 |
| 4 | Neil Martin | Australia | 4:49.85 |
| 5 | Csaba Sós | Hungary | 4:52.89 |
| 6 | Sverre Kile | Norway | 4:59.72 |
| 7 | Guðmundur Gíslason | Iceland | 5:03.54 |
Heat 4
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time |
| 1 | Tim McKee | United States | 4:40.78 |
| 2 | Graham Windeatt | Australia | 4:42.16 |
| 3 | Mikhail Sukharev | Soviet Union | 4:43.13 |
| 4 | Hans-Joachim Geisler | West Germany | 4:48.57 |
| 5 | Mauro Calligaris | Italy | 4:52.02 |
| 6 | Mike Holthaus | West Germany | 4:58.19 |
Heat 5
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time |
| 1 | Bengt Gingsjö | Sweden | 4:38.05 |
| 2 | Gary Hall | United States | 4:38.95 |
| 3 | Wolfram Sperling | East Germany | 4:42.75 |
| 4 | Jorge Delgado Jr. | Ecuador | 4:45.25 |
| 5 | Bruce Featherston | Australia | 4:47.33 |
| 6 | Zbigniew Pacelt | Poland | 4:55.38 |

### Final

| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Notes |
| | Gunnar Larsson | Sweden | 4:31.98(1) | OR |
| | Tim McKee | United States | 4:31.98(3) | OR |
| | András Hargitay | Hungary | 4:32.70 | |
| 4 | Steve Furniss | United States | 4:35.44 | |
| 5 | Gary Hall, Sr. | United States | 4:37.38 | |
| 6 | Bengt Gingsjö | Sweden | 4:37.96 | |
| 7 | Graham Windeatt | Australia | 4:40.39 | |
| 8 | Wolfram Sperling | East Germany | 4:40.66 | |
Key: OR = Olympic record