Swimming at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Men's 400 metre individual medley

The men's 400 metre individual medley event at the 2008 Olympic Games took place on 9–10 August at the Beijing National Aquatics Center in Beijing, China.^[1]

Men's 400 metre individual medley at the Games of the XXIX Olympiad
Medal winners
Venue	Beijing National Aquatics Center
Dates	August 9 (heats) August 10 (final)
Competitors	29 from 22 nations
Winning time	4:03.84 WR
Medalists
Michael Phelps  United States László Cseh  Hungary Ryan Lochte  United States
← 2004 2012 →

U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps blasted a new world record to defend his title in the event, and more importantly, claim his first Olympic gold, seventh career, and ninth overall. Phelps expected to get a major challenge from teammate Ryan Lochte, but he pulled away from the field on the breaststroke leg, and then opened up his lead on the freestyle leg to a strong finish in 4:03.84, more than a second faster than his world record from the U.S. Olympic Trials.^[2][3] Hungary's László Cseh earned his first ever Olympic silver medal at these Games, in a European record of 4:06.16. Lochte, who fought off a challenge against Phelps, faded towards the end of the race with a bronze in 4:08.09.^[4]

Italian tandem Alessio Boggiatto (4:12.16) and Luca Marin (4:12.47) earned fourth and fifth spots with only 0.31 seconds apart from each other. Hungary's Gergő Kis (4:12.84), Canada's Brian Johns (4:13.38), and Brazil's Thiago Pereira (4:15.40) rounded out the finale.^[4]

Records

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

World record	Michael Phelps (USA)	4:05.25	Omaha, United States	29 June 2008	[5]
Olympic record	Michael Phelps (USA)	4:08.26	Athens, Greece	14 August 2004	—

The following new world and Olympic records were set during this competition.

Date	Event	Name	Nationality	Time	Record
August 9	Heat 4	Michael Phelps	United States	4:07.82	OR
August 10	Final	Michael Phelps	United States	4:03.84	WR

Results

Heats

Rank	Heat	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	4	4	Michael Phelps	United States	4:07.82	Q, OR
2	2	4	László Cseh	Hungary	4:09.26	Q
3	4	5	Luca Marin	Italy	4:10.22	Q
4	3	4	Ryan Lochte	United States	4:10.33	Q
5	4	3	Gergő Kis	Hungary	4:10.66	Q
6	2	3	Alessio Boggiatto	Italy	4:10.68	Q
7	3	7	Brian Johns	Canada	4:11.41	Q, NR
8	3	5	Thiago Pereira	Brazil	4:11.74	Q
9	4	2	Keith Beavers	Canada	4:12.75
10	2	1	Bradley Ally	Barbados	4:14.01	NR
11	2	8	Gal Nevo	Israel	4:14.03	NR
12	3	3	Riaan Schoeman	South Africa	4:14.09
13	3	1	Andrey Krylov	Russia	4:14.55
14	4	6	Travis Nederpelt	Australia	4:15.37
15	2	2	Dinko Jukić	Austria	4:15.48	NR
16	2	7	Alexander Tikhonov	Russia	4:16.49
17	2	5	Thomas Haffield	Great Britain	4:16.76
18	2	6	Vasileios Demetis	Greece	4:18.40
19	3	6	Euan Dale	Great Britain	4:18.60
20	4	8	Vadym Lepskyy	Ukraine	4:20.96
21	3	8	Omar Pinzón	Colombia	4:22.31
22	4	7	Pierre Henri	France	4:22.41
23	1	4	Nikša Roki	Croatia	4:22.44
24	3	2	Javier Núñez	Spain	4:22.69
25	4	1	Romanos Alyfantis	Greece	4:23.41
26	1	6	Dmitriy Gordiyenko	Kazakhstan	4:25.20
27	1	2	Vasilii Danilov	Kyrgyzstan	4:29.20
28	1	3	Deniz Nazar	Turkey	4:30.80
29	1	5	Hocine Haciane	Andorra	4:32.00

Final

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
	4	Michael Phelps	United States	4:03.84	WR
	5	László Cseh	Hungary	4:06.16	EU
	6	Ryan Lochte	United States	4:08.09
4	7	Alessio Boggiatto	Italy	4:12.16
5	3	Luca Marin	Italy	4:12.47
6	2	Gergő Kis	Hungary	4:12.84
7	1	Brian Johns	Canada	4:13.38
8	8	Thiago Pereira	Brazil	4:15.40