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

The men's 400 metre individual medley event at the 1988 Summer Olympics took place between 20–21 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 | Tamás Darnyi (HUN) | 4:15.42 | Strasbourg, France | 19 August 1987 |
| Olympic record | Alex Baumann (CAN) | 4:17.41 | Los Angeles, United States | 30 July 1984 |
The following records were established during the competition:
| Date | Round | Name | Nation | Time | Record |
| 20 September | Heat 5 | Tamás Darnyi | Hungary | 4:16.55 | OR |
| 21 September | Final A | Tamás Darnyi | Hungary | 4:14.75 | WR |

## Results
### Heats

Rule: The eight fastest swimmers advance to final A (Q), while the next eight to final B (q).
| Rank | Heat | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 5 | Tamás Darnyi | Hungary | 4:16.55 | Q, OR |
| 2 | 3 | Patrick Kühl | East Germany | 4:18.60 | Q |
| 3 | 5 | Stefano Battistelli | Italy | 4:20.43 | Q |
| 4 | 4 | David Wharton | United States | 4:20.84 | Q |
| 5 | 4 | József Szabó | Hungary | 4:20.85 | Q |
| 6 | 4 | Jens-Peter Berndt | West Germany | 4:20.93 | Q |
| 7 | 5 | Peter Bermel | West Germany | 4:22.78 | Q |
| 8 | 5 | Luca Sacchi | Italy | 4:23.37 | Q |
| 9 | 3 | Christophe Bordeau | France | 4:23.46 | q |
| 10 | 3 | Jeff Kostoff | United States | 4:24.10 | q |
| 11 | 5 | Jon Kelly | Canada | 4:24.62 | q |
| 12 | 3 | Robert Bruce | Australia | 4:25.15 | q |
| 13 | 3 | Mikhail Zubkov | Soviet Union | 4:25.30 | q |
| 14 | 5 | Rob Woodhouse | Australia | 4:25.60 | q |
| 15 | 5 | Charalambos Papanikolaou | Greece | 4:26.72 | q |
| 16 | 4 | Paul Brew | Great Britain | 4:27.22 | q |
| 17 | 4 | Yoshiyuki Mizumoto | Japan | 4:28.11 | |
| 18 | 3 | Laurent Journet | France | 4:29.03 | |
| 19 | 2 | Ondřej Bureš | Czechoslovakia | 4:29.62 | |
| 20 | 3 | Salvador Vassallo | Puerto Rico | 4:30.37 | |
| 21 | 2 | Javier Careaga | Mexico | 4:30.71 | |
| 22 | 2 | Rui Borges | Portugal | 4:30.79 | |
| 23 | 5 | Michael Meldrum | Canada | 4:31.74 | |
| 24 | 2 | Renato Ramalho | Brazil | 4:31.95 | |
| 25 | 3 | Takahiro Fujimoto | Japan | 4:33.03 | |
| 26 | 2 | Diogo Madeira | Portugal | 4:35.00 | |
| 27 | 4 | Martín López-Zubero | Spain | 4:35.68 | |
| 28 | 2 | Lee Jae-soo | South Korea | 4:40.46 | |
| 29 | 1 | Jonathan Sakovich | Guam | 4:44.78 | |
| 30 | 2 | René Concepcion | Philippines | 4:48.00 | |
| 31 | 1 | Sultan Al-Otaibi | Kuwait | 4:50.16 | |
| 32 | 1 | Julian Bolling | Sri Lanka | 4:53.61 | |
| | 2 | Desmond Koh | Singapore | DSQ | |
| | 4 | John Davey | Great Britain | DSQ | |
| | 4 | Jan Bidrman | Sweden | DNS | |

### Finals
#### Final B

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time |
| 9 | 5 | Jeff Kostoff | United States | 4:22.95 |
| 10 | 4 | Christophe Bordeau | France | 4:23.39 |
| 11 | 6 | Robert Bruce | Australia | 4:24.33 |
| 12 | 3 | Jon Kelly | Canada | 4:25.02 |
| 13 | 2 | Mikhail Zubkov | Soviet Union | 4:25.44 |
| 14 | 7 | Rob Woodhouse | Australia | 4:26.14 |
| 15 | 8 | Paul Brew | Great Britain | 4:26.77 |
| 16 | 1 | Charalambos Papanikolaou | Greece | 4:27.95 |

#### Final A

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| | 4 | Tamás Darnyi | Hungary | 4:14.75 | WR |
| | 6 | David Wharton | United States | 4:17.36 | |
| | 3 | Stefano Battistelli | Italy | 4:18.01 | |
| 4 | 2 | József Szabó | Hungary | 4:18.15 | |
| 5 | 5 | Patrick Kühl | East Germany | 4:18.44 | |
| 6 | 7 | Jens-Peter Berndt | West Germany | 4:21.71 | |
| 7 | 8 | Luca Sacchi | Italy | 4:23.23 | |
| 8 | 1 | Peter Bermel | West Germany | 4:24.02 | |