Swimming at the 2012 Summer Olympics – Women's 400 metre freestyle

Women's 400 metre freestyle at the Games of the XXX Olympiad
Venue	London Aquatics Centre
Date	July 29, 2012 (heats & final)
Competitors	35 from 27 nations
Winning time	4:01.45 OR
Medalists
Camille Muffat   France   Allison Schmitt   United States   Rebecca Adlington   Great Britain

Swimming at the 2012 Summer Olympics
Freestyle
50 m		men		women
100 m		men		women
200 m		men		women
400 m		men		women
800 m				women
1500 m		men
Backstroke
100 m		men		women
200 m		men		women
Breaststroke
100 m		men		women
200 m		men		women
Butterfly
100 m		men		women
200 m		men		women
Individual medley
200 m		men		women
400 m		men		women
Freestyle relay
4×100 m		men		women
4×200 m		men		women
Medley relay
4×100 m		men		women
Marathon
10 km		men		women

The women's 400 metre freestyle event at the 2012 Summer Olympics took place on 29 July at the London Aquatics Centre in London, United Kingdom.^[1]

France's Camille Muffat held off a sprint duel from a hard-charging American Allison Schmitt with every stroke on the final stretch to capture the event's second Olympic title for her nation, since Laure Manaudou topped the podium in 2004. She maintained her powerful lead from the start to edge out Schmitt by 0.32 seconds for the gold medal and a new Olympic record in 4:01.45.^[2][3] Meanwhile, Schmitt could not catch Muffat on a head-to-head duel to finish with an American record of 4:01.77 in the process of a silver.^[4] Great Britain's Rebecca Adlington struggled through the race for her Olympic title defense, but brought out a raucous cheer from a home crowd to earn the bronze in 4:03.01.^[5][6][7]

Denmark's Lotte Friis finished off the podium with a fourth-place time and a national record in 4:03.98, while Italy's Federica Pellegrini, the reigning world record holder, faded to fifth in 4:04.50.^[8] Muffat's teammate Coralie Balmy (4:05.95), Canada's Brittany MacLean (4:06.24) and New Zealand's Lauren Boyle (4:06.25) rounded out the field.^[7]

Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.

World record	Federica Pellegrini (ITA)	3:59.15	Rome, Italy	26 July 2009	[9][10]
Olympic record	Federica Pellegrini (ITA)	4:02.19	Beijing, China	10 August 2008	[11]

The following records were established during the competition:

Date	Event	Name	Nationality	Time	Record
July 29	Final	Camille Muffat	France	4:01.45	OR

Results

Heats

^[12]

Rank	Heat	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	5	4	Camille Muffat	France	4:03.29	Q
2	5	5	Allison Schmitt	United States	4:03.31	Q
3	4	6	Coralie Balmy	France	4:03.56	Q
4	5	2	Lauren Boyle	New Zealand	4:03.63	Q, NR
5	5	6	Lotte Friis	Denmark	4:04.22	Q, NR
6	4	2	Brittany MacLean	Canada	4:05.06	Q, NR
7	4	4	Federica Pellegrini	Italy	4:05.30	Q
8	3	4	Rebecca Adlington	Great Britain	4:05.75	Q
9	5	7	Melania Costa Schmid	Spain	4:06.75
10	3	5	Chloe Sutton	United States	4:07.07
11	4	5	Kylie Palmer	Australia	4:07.27
12	5	3	Bronte Barratt	Australia	4:07.99
13	3	6	Mireia Belmonte García	Spain	4:08.23
14	4	3	Shao Yiwen	China	4:08.41
15	4	1	Andreina Pinto	Venezuela	4:08.45	NR
16	3	7	Éva Risztov	Hungary	4:09.08
17	5	1	Boglárka Kapás	Hungary	4:10.01
18	4	7	Savannah King	Canada	4:10.93
19	3	3	Li Xuanxu	China	4:10.95
20	3	1	Camelia Potec	Romania	4:11.43
21	3	2	Joanne Jackson	Great Britain	4:11.50
22	3	8	Wendy Trott	South Africa	4:11.63
23	2	3	Nina Rangelova	Bulgaria	4:11.71	NR
24	2	5	Kristel Kobrich	Chile	4:12.02
25	5	8	Yelena Sokolova	Russia	4:12.19
26	2	4	Aya Takano	Japan	4:12.33
27	2	2	Julia Hassler	Liechtenstein	4:12.99	NR
28	2	6	Susana Escobar	Mexico	4:14.78
29	2	8	Natthanan Junkrajang	Thailand	4:16.45
30	2	1	Lynette Lim	Singapore	4:18.64
31	4	8	Grainne Murphy	Ireland	4:19.07
32	1	4	Mojca Sagmeister	Slovenia	4:21.55
33	1	5	Andrea Cedron	Peru	4:24.18
34	2	7	Kim Ga-Eul	South Korea	4:43.46
35	1	3	Jennet Sariyeva	Turkmenistan	5:40.29	NR

Final

Podium for the 400m freestyle. L-R: Allison Schmitt (silver), Camille Muffat (gold) and Rebecca Adlington (bronze).

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
	4	Camille Muffat	France	4:01.45	OR
	5	Allison Schmitt	United States	4:01.77	AM
	8	Rebecca Adlington	Great Britain	4:03.01
4	2	Lotte Friis	Denmark	4:03.98	NR
5	1	Federica Pellegrini	Italy	4:04.50
6	3	Coralie Balmy	France	4:05.95
7	7	Brittany MacLean	Canada	4:06.24
8	6	Lauren Boyle	New Zealand	4:06.25

References

1. "Swimming: Results & Schedules". London 2012. NBC Olympics. 29 July 2012. Retrieved 7 July 2013.
2. Norlander, Matt (29 July 2012). "More swim records fall: Muffat in 400 free; van der Burgh in 100 breaststroke". CBS Sports. Retrieved 8 July 2013.
3. Baldwin, Alan (29 July 2012). "Muffat takes on Manaudou's mantle". Reuters. Retrieved 8 July 2013.
4. "Vollmer, van der Burgh break world records at finals". London 2012 (NBC Olympics). 29 July 2012. Retrieved 7 July 2013.
5. Bull, Andy (29 July 2012). "London 2012: Rebecca Adlington takes bronze behind Camille Muffat". Guardian.co.uk. Retrieved 7 July 2013.
6. White, Duncan (29 July 2012). "London 2012 Olympics: Rebecca Adlington wins bronze medal in the 400m freestyle in Aquatics centre". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 7 July 2013.
7. "2012 London Olympics: Camille Muffat Pips Allison Schmitt With Olympic Record in Women's 400 Free". Swimming World Magazine. 29 July 2012. Retrieved 7 July 2013.
8. Rossingh, Danielle (30 July 2012). "Muffat Takes Adlington’s Title to Leave Britain Waiting for Gold". Bloomberg. Retrieved 7 July 2013.
9. Nichols, Peter (30 July 2009). "Brits double up as Jackson and Adlington bag 400 metres freestyle silver and bronze in Rome". Mail Online. Retrieved 8 July 2013.
10. "Torres Can't Lift Relay Team To Medal Stand". Sun-Sentinel. 27 July 2009. Retrieved 8 July 2013.
11. Kitson, Robert (11 August 2008). "Olympics: Rebecca Adlington wins gold for Britain in 400m freestyle". Guardian.co.uk. Retrieved 19 May 2013.
12. "Women's 400m Freestyle – Heats". London 2012. Retrieved 27 July 2012.

External links

• NBC Olympics Coverage