Swimming at the 1912 Summer Olympics – Men's 400 metre freestyle

Men's 400 metre freestyle at the Games of the V Olympiad
Venue	Djurgårdsbrunnsviken
Dates	July 11–14
Competitors	26 from 13 nations
Medalists
George Hodgson   Canada   John Hatfield   Great Britain   Harold Hardwick   Australasia

Swimming at the 1912 Summer Olympics
Freestyle
100 m		men		women
400 m		men
1500 m		men
Backstroke
100 m		men
Breaststroke
200 m		men
400 m		men
Freestyle relay
4×100 m				women
4×200 m		men

The men's 400 metre freestyle was a swimming event held as part of the swimming at the 1912 Summer Olympics programme.^[1] It was the third appearance of the event, which had been introduced in 1904. The competition was held from Thursday July 11, 1912 to Sunday July 14, 1912.

Twenty-six swimmers from 13 nations competed.

Records

These were the standing world and Olympic records (in minutes) prior to the 1912 Summer Olympics.

World Record	5:28.4	Béla Las-Torres	Budapest (HUN)	June 5, 1912
Olympic Record	5:36.8	Henry Taylor	London (GBR)	July 16, 1908

In the first heat Harold Hardwick set a new Olympic record with 5:36.0 minutes. In the fifth heat Cecil Healy improved the Olympic record with 5:34.0 minutes. In the first semi-final George Hodgson set a world record with 5:25.4 minutes and in the final he improved his record again with 5:24.4 minutes.

Results

Quarterfinals

The top two in each heat advanced along with the fastest loser overall.

Heat 1

Place	Swimmer	Time	Qual.
1	Harold Hardwick (ANZ)	5:36.0	QS OR
2	Malcolm Champion (ANZ)	5:37.0	QS
3	James Reilly (USA)	6:10.2
4	Nils-Erik Haglund (SWE)	6:23.4
5	Davide Baiardo (ITA)
—	Mario Massa (ITA)	DNF

Heat 2

Place	Swimmer	Time	Qual.
1	Thomas Battersby (GBR)	6:03.6	QS
2	John Johnsen (NOR)	6:14.4	QS
3	Eskil Wedholm (SWE)	6:29.8
—	Pavel Avksentyev (RUS)	DNF

Heat 3

Place	Swimmer	Time	Qual.
1	Max Ritter (GER)	5:44.6	QS
2	Alajos Kenyery (HUN)	5:46.0	QS
3	Nicholas Nerich (USA)	5:50.4	qs
—	Theodore Tartakover (ANZ)	DNF
	David Theander (SWE)	DNF

Heat 4

Place	Swimmer	Time	Qual.
1	Béla Las-Torres (HUN)	5:36.2	QS
2	Henry Taylor (GBR)	5:48.4	QS
—	Nikolay Voronkov (RUS)	DNF

Heat 5

Place	Swimmer	Time	Qual.
1	Cecil Healy (ANZ)	5:34.0	QS OR
2	John Hatfield (GBR)	5:35.6	QS
3	Franz Schuh (AUT)	6:09.4

Heat 6

Place	Swimmer	Time	Qual.
1	George Hodgson (CAN)	5:50.6	QS
2	William Foster (GBR)	5:52.4	QS
3	Oscar Schiele (GER)	5:57.0
4	George Godfrey (RSA)	6:30.6
5	Harry Hedegaard (DEN)	7:07.8

Semifinals

The top two from each heat and the faster of the two third place swimmers advanced.

Semifinal 1

Place	Swimmer	Time	Qual.
1	George Hodgson (CAN)	5:25.4	QF WR
2	John Hatfield (GBR)	5:25.6	QF
3	William Foster (GBR)	5:49.0
4	Nicholas Nerich (USA)	5:51.0
5	Thomas Battersby (GBR)	5:51.2
6	John Johnsen (NOR)
—	Max Ritter (GER)	DNS

Semifinal 2

Place	Swimmer	Time	Qual.
1	Harold Hardwick (ANZ)	5:31.0	QF
2	Béla Las-Torres (HUN)	5:34.8	QF
3	Cecil Healy (ANZ)	5:37.8	qf
4	Malcolm Champion (ANZ)	5:38.0
5	Henry Taylor (GBR)	5:48.2
—	Alajos Kenyery (HUN)	DNS

Final

Place	Swimmer	Time
1	George Hodgson (CAN)	5:24.4 WR
2	John Hatfield (GBR)	5:25.8
3	Harold Hardwick (ANZ)	5:31.2
4	Cecil Healy (ANZ)	5:37.8
5	Béla Las-Torres (HUN)	5:42.0

References

Notes

• Bergvall, Erik (ed.) (1913). Adams-Ray, Edward (trans.)., ed. The Official Report of the Olympic Games of Stockholm 1912. Stockholm: Wahlström & Widstrand. 
• Wudarski, Pawel (1999). "Wyniki Igrzysk Olimpijskich" (in Polish). Retrieved 29 January 2007.