# Swimming at the 1988 Summer Olympics – Men's 400 metre freestyle

The men's 400 metre freestyle event at the 1988 Summer Olympics took place on 23 September at the Jamsil Indoor Swimming Pool in Seoul, South Korea.

## Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.
| World record | Artur Wojdat (POL) | 3:47.38 | Orlando, United States | 25 March 1988 |
| Olympic record | Thomas Fahrner (FRG) | 3:50.91 | Los Angeles, United States | 2 August 1984 |
The following records were established during the competition:
| Date | Round | Name | Nationality | Time | Record |
| 23 September | Heat 5 | Mariusz Podkościelny | Poland | 3:49.51 | OR |
| 23 September | Final A | Uwe Daßler | East Germany | 3:46.95 | WR |

## Results
### Heats

Rule: The eight fastest swimmers advance to final A (Q), while the next eight to final B (q).
Note: All eight swimmers who qualified for the Olympic final swam faster than the Olympic record time.
| Rank | Heat | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 5 | Mariusz Podkościelny | Poland | 3:49.51 | Q, OR |
| 2 | 5 | Stefan Pfeiffer | West Germany | 3:49.52 | Q |
| 3 | 7 | Artur Wojdat | Poland | 3:49.68 | Q |
| 4 | 7 | Uwe Daßler | East Germany | 3:49.90 | Q |
| 5 | 6 | Kevin Boyd | Great Britain | 3:50.01 | Q |
| 6 | 6 | Anders Holmertz | Sweden | 3:50.06 | Q |
| 7 | 7 | Duncan Armstrong | Australia | 3:50.64 | Q |
| 8 | 6 | Matt Cetlinski | United States | 3:50.82 | Q |
| 9 | 6 | Ian Brown | Australia | 3:51.09 | q |
| 10 | 5 | Rainer Henkel | West Germany | 3:51.50 | q, WD |
| 11 | 7 | Dan Jorgensen | United States | 3:52.64 | q |
| 12 | 6 | Giorgio Lamberti | Italy | 3:53.29 | q, WD |
| 13 | 5 | Valter Kalaus | Hungary | 3:53.44 | q |
| 14 | 5 | Jörg Hoffmann | East Germany | 3:53.78 | q |
| 15 | 6 | Carlos Scanavino | Uruguay | 3:54.86 | q |
| 16 | 4 | Salvador Vassallo | Puerto Rico | 3:55.30 | q |
| 17 | 7 | Turlough O'Hare | Canada | 3:55.35 | q |
| 18 | 6 | Zoltán Szilágyi | Hungary | 3:56.29 | q |
| 19 | 7 | Roberto Gleria | Italy | 3:56.33 | |
| 20 | 5 | Darjan Petrič | Yugoslavia | 3:56.94 | |
| 21 | 4 | Henrik Jangvall | Sweden | 3:57.41 | |
| 22 | 4 | Daniel Serra | Spain | 3:57.46 | |
| 23 | 5 | Cristiano Michelena | Brazil | 3:57.79 | |
| 24 | 4 | Tony Day | Great Britain | 3:57.91 | |
| 25 | 4 | Alberto Bottini | Switzerland | 3:57.92 | |
| 26 | 5 | Gary Vandermeulen | Canada | 3:57.99 | |
| 27 | 7 | Aleksandr Bazhanov | Soviet Union | 3:58.74 | |
| 28 | 3 | Igor Majcen | Yugoslavia | 3:58.90 | |
| 29 | 7 | Jean-Marie Arnould | Belgium | 3:59.91 | |
| 30 | 6 | Franck Iacono | France | 4:00.04 | |
| 31 | 4 | Claus Christensen | Denmark | 4:00.46 | |
| 32 | 4 | Yoshiyuki Mizumoto | Japan | 4:02.02 | |
| 33 | 3 | David Castro | Brazil | 4:02.48 | |
| 34 | 3 | Ignacio Escamilla | Mexico | 4:03.16 | |
| 35 | 3 | Carlos Romo | Mexico | 4:04.02 | |
| 36 | 3 | Jeffrey Ong | Malaysia | 4:04.57 | |
| 37 | 3 | Ragnar Guðmundsson | Iceland | 4:05.12 | |
| 38 | 4 | Shigeo Ogata | Japan | 4:05.68 | |
| 39 | 3 | Yang Wook | South Korea | 4:05.81 | |
| 40 | 2 | Wu Ming-hsun | Chinese Taipei | 4:06.66 | |
| 41 | 2 | Jonathan Sakovich | Guam | 4:06.89 | |
| 42 | 3 | Kwon Soon-kun | South Korea | 4:08.02 | |
| 43 | 2 | Richard Sam Bera | Indonesia | 4:08.70 | |
| 44 | 2 | Desmond Koh | Singapore | 4:15.54 | |
| 45 | 2 | Arthur Li Kai Yien | Hong Kong | 4:18.50 | |
| 46 | 2 | Julian Bolling | Sri Lanka | 4:18.88 | |
| 47 | 1 | Bassam Al-Ansari | United Arab Emirates | 4:39.36 | |
| 48 | 1 | Émile Lahoud | Lebanon | 4:47.09 | |
| 49 | 1 | Mohamed Bin Abid | United Arab Emirates | 4:47.28 | |

### Finals
#### Final B

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time |
| 9 | 6 | Jörg Hoffmann | East Germany | 3:52.13 |
| 10 | 3 | Valter Kalaus | Hungary | 3:53.24 |
| 11 | 1 | Turlough O'Hare | Canada | 3:54.33 |
| 12 | 2 | Carlos Scanavino | Uruguay | 3:54.36 |
| 13 | 4 | Ian Brown | Australia | 3:54.63 |
| 14 | 5 | Dan Jorgensen | United States | 3:55.34 |
| 15 | 7 | Salvador Vassallo | Puerto Rico | 3:55.39 |
| 16 | 8 | Zoltán Szilágyi | Hungary | 3:56.00 |

#### Final A

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| | 6 | Uwe Daßler | East Germany | 3:46.95 | WR |
| | 1 | Duncan Armstrong | Australia | 3:47.15 | OC |
| | 3 | Artur Wojdat | Poland | 3:47.34 | NR |
| 4 | 8 | Matt Cetlinski | United States | 3:48.09 | |
| 5 | 4 | Mariusz Podkościelny | Poland | 3:48.59 | |
| 6 | 5 | Stefan Pfeiffer | West Germany | 3:49.96 | |
| 7 | 2 | Kevin Boyd | Great Britain | 3:50.16 | |
| 8 | 7 | Anders Holmertz | Sweden | 3:51.04 | |