Swimming at the 2024 Summer Olympics – Women's 400 metre freestyle

Women's 400 metre freestyle at the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad
Paris La Défense Arena after it was converted to a swimming pool for the swimming events
Venue	Paris La Défense Arena
Dates	27 July 2024 (Heats and Final)
Competitors	21 from 15 nations
Winning time	3:57.49
Medalists
Ariarne Titmus  Australia Summer McIntosh  Canada Katie Ledecky  United States
← 2020 2028 →

The women's 400 metre freestyle event at the 2024 Summer Olympics was held on 27 July at Paris La Défense Arena, which was converted to a swimming pool for the swimming events.^[1] Since an Olympic size swimming pool is 50 metres long, each competitor had to swim eight lengths of the pool.

Australia's defending Olympic champion Ariarne Titmus, Canada's Summer McIntosh and the US' Katie Ledecky were the favourites going into the event. In the final, Titmus led from beginning to end to claim Australia's first gold of the Games, while McIntosh won silver and Ledecky won bronze. Isabel Marie Gose set a new German national record of 4:02.14 to finish in fifth.

Background

Ariarne Titmus of Australia was the defending champion in the event, while the US' Katie Ledecky was runner up at the previous Olympics. Ledecky also held the Olympic record of 3:56.46 from Rio 2016 and won the event at the 2022 World Championships.^[a] Early in 2023, Canadian Summer McIntosh broke the world record in the event, and at the 2023 World Championships, Titmus finished first with another new world record of 3:55.38.^[2][3] SwimSwam and Swimming World both listed Titmus, McIntosh and Ledecky as the main contenders for the event, and both opined that Titmus was most likely to win.^[2][4] SwimSwam also stated that the race "was touted as one of the most high-profile races of the Olympics".^[5]

Qualification

Further information: Swimming at the 2024 Summer Olympics – Qualification

Each National Olympic Committee (NOC) was permitted to enter a maximum of two qualified athletes in each individual event, but only if both of them had attained the Olympic Qualifying Time (OQT).^[6] For this event, the OQT was 4:07.90. World Aquatics then considered athletes qualifying through universality; NOCs were given one event entry for each gender, which could be used by any athlete regardless of qualification time, providing the spaces had not already been taken by athletes from that nation who had achieved the OQT.^[6][7] Finally, the rest of the spaces were filled by athletes who had met the Olympic Consideration Time (OCT), which was 4:09.14 for this event.^[6] In total, 19 athletes qualified through achieving the OQT, three athletes qualified through universality places and one athlete qualified through achieving the OCT.^[7]

Top 10 fastest qualification times^[7]

Swimmer	Country	Time	Competition
Ariarne Titmus	Australia	03:55:38	2023 World Aquatics Championships
Summer McIntosh	Canada	03:56:08	2024 Canadian Olympic Trials
Katie Ledecky	United States	03:58:35	2024 United States Olympic Trials
Erika Fairweather	New Zealand	03:59:44	2024 World Aquatics Championships
Li Bingjie	China	04:01:62	2024 World Aquatics Championships
Paige Madden	United States	04:02:08	2024 United States Olympic Trials
Isabel Marie Gose	Germany	04:02:39	2024 World Aquatics Championships
Maria Fernanda Costa	Brazil	04:02:86	2024 World Aquatics Championships
Gabrielle Roncatto	Brazil	04:04:18	2024 World Aquatics Championships
Jamie Perkins	Australia	04:04:38	2024 Australian Olympic Trials

Heats

Three heats (preliminary rounds) took place on 27 July 2024, starting at 11:12.^[b][8] The swimmers with the best eight times in the heats advanced to the final.^[9] Leonie Märtens won the first heat but did not qualify for the final, while New Zealand's Erika Fairweather won the second heat to qualify as third seed, and Katie Ledecky won the final heat to qualify as first seed.^[10]

Results^[8]

Rank	Heat	Lane	Swimmer	Nation	Time	Notes
1	3	5	Katie Ledecky	United States	4:02.19	Q
2	3	4	Ariarne Titmus	Australia	4:02.46	Q
3	2	5	Erika Fairweather	New Zealand	4:02.55	Q
4	2	4	Summer McIntosh	Canada	4:02.65	Q
5	2	2	Jamie Perkins	Australia	4:03.30	Q
6	2	3	Paige Madden	United States	4:03.34	Q
7	2	6	Maria Fernanda Costa	Brazil	4:03.47	Q
8	3	6	Isabel Marie Gose	Germany	4:03.83	Q
9	3	3	Li Bingjie	China	4:03.96
10	3	7	Liu Yaxin	China	4:04.39
11	3	1	Waka Kobori	Japan	4:08.02
12	2	1	Valentine Dumont	Belgium	4:08.25
13	3	8	Ajna Késely	Hungary	4:08.90
14	1	4	Leonie Märtens	Germany	4:09.62
15	2	8	Anastasiya Kirpichnikova	France	4:10.32
16	3	2	Gabrielle Roncatto	Brazil	4:10.46
17	2	7	Eve Thomas	New Zealand	4:11.86
18	1	5	Agostina Hein	Argentina	4:14.24
19	1	6	Anastasiya Zelinskaya	Uzbekistan	4:31.71
20	1	2	Natalia Kuipers	Virgin Islands	4:33.46
21	1	3	Karin Belbeisi	Jordan	4:37.30

Final

External videos
Women's 400 metre freestyle final

The final took place at 20:52 on 27 July.^[11] Ariarne Titmus led from the beginning to the end of the race.^[12] McIntosh was within 0.35 seconds of Titmus at halfway, but Titmus extended her lead to the finish to win with a time of 3:57.49. McIntosh finished second with 3:58.37 and Ledecky third with 4:00.86.^[13] Titmus' gold was Australia's first gold of the Games.^[14] Kieran Pender of The Guardian wrote that the race was "almost dull" with Titmus leading the way,^[15] while Steve Keating from Reuters said that it was not as exciting as anticipated.^[12] Isabel Marie Gose set a new national record for Germany with 4:02.14, 0.25 seconds faster than her previous record.^[5]

Results^[11]

Rank	Lane	Swimmer	Nation	Time	Notes
	5	Ariarne Titmus	Australia	3:57.49
	6	Summer McIntosh	Canada	3:58.37
	4	Katie Ledecky	United States	4:00.86
4	3	Erika Fairweather	New Zealand	4:01.12
5	8	Isabel Marie Gose	Germany	4:02.14	NR
6	7	Paige Madden	United States	4:02.26
7	1	Maria Fernanda Costa	Brazil	4:03.53
8	2	Jamie Perkins	Australia	4:04.96

Statistics^[16]

Name	100 metre split	200 metre split	300 metre split	Time	Stroke rate (strokes/min)
Ariarne Titmus	00:56.92	01:56.97	02:56.92	3:57.49	43.8
Summer McIntosh	00:57.03	01:57.32	02:57.48	3:58.37	44.1
Katie Ledecky	00:57.69	01:58.52	02:59.51	4:00.86	47.4
Erika Fairweather	00:57.65	01:58.98	03:01.16	4:01.12	42.8
Isabel Marie Gose	00:58.17	01:59.19	03:00.75	4:02.14	48.1
Paige Madden	00:57.77	01:59.19	03:31.42	4:02.26	42.5
Maria Fernanda Costa	00:58.25	02:00.27	03:02.90	4:03.53	42.4
Jamie Perkins	00:58.19	01:59.92	03:02.56	4:04.96	42.1

Notes

1. Titmus did not enter the 2022 World Championships.
2. All times are Central European Summer Time (UTC+2)

References

1. Burgaud, Florian (22 July 2024). "From concert hall and rugby stadium to Olympic swimming pool arena in a matter of weeks, the metamorphosis of the Paris La Défense Arena is complete". olympics.com. International Olympic Committee (IOC). Archived from the original on 4 August 2024. Retrieved 1 February 2025.
2. Miller, Nicole (24 July 2024). "2024 Olympic Games Previews: 3-Way Battle of the Century Shaping Up in the Women's 400 Free". SwimSwam. Archived from the original on 28 July 2024. Retrieved 1 February 2025.
3. Smirnova, Lena (24 July 2024). "Paris 2024 swimming showdown: Katie Ledecky vs. Titmus and McIntosh in 400m freestyle battle". olympics.com. International Olympic Committee (IOC). Archived from the original on 28 July 2024. Retrieved 1 February 2025.
4. Rieder, David (21 July 2024). "Olympic Swimming Predictions, Day One: Ariarne Titmus Favored in Loaded 400 Freestyle". Swimming World. Archived from the original on 26 January 2025. Retrieved 1 February 2025.
5. Race, Retta (27 July 2024). "Isabel Gose Lowers Own German Record In 400 Free In Paris". SwimSwam. Archived from the original on 26 December 2024. Retrieved 1 February 2025.
6. "Paris 2024 – Swimming Info". World Aquatics. 5 April 2022. Archived from the original on 8 February 2023. Retrieved 12 November 2022.
7. Entries list - Swimming, World Aquatics, archived from the original on 12 July 2024, retrieved 18 December 2024
8. "Results" (PDF). olympics.com. International Olympic Committee. Archived from the original (PDF) on 29 July 2024. Retrieved 18 December 2024.
9. "Olympic swimming rules: How can swimmers qualify for finals and win medals - format explained". olympics.com. International Olympic Committee (IOC). 24 July 2024. Archived from the original on 21 August 2024. Retrieved 7 May 2024.
10. Wild, Mark (27 July 2024). "2024 Paris Olympics: Day 1 Prelims Live Recap". SwimSwam. Archived from the original on 20 December 2024. Retrieved 1 February 2025.
11. "Results" (PDF). olympics.com. International Olympic Committee. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 September 2024. Retrieved 18 December 2024.
12. Keating, Steve (27 July 2024). "Swimming: Not quite 'Race of the Century' but Ariarne Titmus still golden". Reuters. Retrieved 1 February 2025.
13. Kaufman, Sophie (28 July 2024). "2024 Olympics: Day 1 Finals Live Recap". SwimSwam. Archived from the original on 20 December 2024. Retrieved 1 February 2025.
14. "Titmus wins 400m freestyle for Australia's first gold of Paris 2024 | Olympic Games highlights". olympics.com. International Olympic Committee (IOC). Archived from the original on 4 February 2025. Retrieved 1 February 2024.
15. Pender, Kieran (28 July 2024). "Tick, tick … boom: how 'goofy girl' Ariarne Titmus became an Olympic great". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on 2 August 2024. Retrieved 1 February 2025.
16. Bodard, Simon; Decron, Nathan; Dernoncourt, Eric; Hui, Pierre; Jambu, Clément; Loisel, Camille; Pla, Robin; Raineteau, Yannis. "Jeux Olympiques 2024: Analyses de course des Finales" (PDF). French Swimming Federation. Archived (PDF) from the original on 28 August 2024. Retrieved 17 December 2024.