Swimming at the 2012 Summer Olympics – Men's 400 metre individual medley

The men's 400 metre individual medley event at the 2012 Summer Olympics took place on 28 July at the London Aquatics Centre in London, United Kingdom.^[1]

Men's 400 metre individual medley at the Games of the XXX Olympiad
Venue	London Aquatics Centre
Dates	July 28, 2012 (heats & final)
Competitors	37 from 29 nations
Winning time	4:05.18
Medalists
Ryan Lochte  United States Thiago Pereira  Brazil Kosuke Hagino  Japan
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U.S. Ryan Lochte pulled away from the rest of the field, including double defending champion Michael Phelps, over a wide margin to capture the Olympic title in the event. He rocketed to a strong finish in a sterling textile best of 4:05.18, the second fastest ever behind Phelps' 2008 world record by 1.34 seconds.^[2][3] Meanwhile, Brazil's Thiago Pereira powered home with the silver in a matching South American record of 4:08.86, making him the first swimmer for his nation to claim an Olympic medal in the event, since Ricardo Prado did so in 1984.^[4] Japanese teen Kosuke Hagino smashed an Asian record of 4:08.94 to edge Phelps out of the podium for the bronze.^[5][6]

For the first time since his official debut in 2000, Phelps struggled to a fourth-place finish and denied his seventeenth career medal in 4:09.28. He almost missed the final roster by a small fraction of a second, after posting an eighth-seeded time of 4:13.33 from the morning prelims.^[7][8]

South Africa's Chad le Clos (4:12.42), Hagino's teammate Yuya Horihata (4:13.30), Aussie swimmer Thomas Fraser-Holmes (4:13.49), and Italy's Luca Marin (4:14.89) rounded out the historic finale.^[6] Surprisingly, Hungary's top medal favorite and European champion László Cseh missed the final by seven-hundredths of a second (0.07) with a ninth-place effort (4:13.40).^[9]

Records

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

World record	Michael Phelps (USA)	4:03.84	Beijing, China	10 August 2008	[10][11]
Olympic record	Michael Phelps (USA)	4:03.84	Beijing, China	10 August 2008	[10][11]

Results

Heats

^[12]

Rank	Heat	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	3	4	Kosuke Hagino	Japan	4:10.01	Q, AS
2	5	2	Chad le Clos	South Africa	4:12.24	Q, NR
3	5	4	Ryan Lochte	United States	4:12.35	Q
4	3	6	Thiago Pereira	Brazil	4:12.39	Q
5	5	3	Thomas Fraser-Holmes	Australia	4:12.66	Q
6	5	6	Luca Marin	Italy	4:13.02	Q
7	5	5	Yuya Horihata	Japan	4:13.09	Q
8	4	4	Michael Phelps	United States	4:13.33	Q
9	4	5	László Cseh	Hungary	4:13.40
10	3	1	Gal Nevo	Israel	4:14.77
11	4	2	Yannick Lebherz	Germany	4:15.41
12	3	3	Yang Zhixian	China	4:15.45
13	4	6	Roberto Pavoni	Great Britain	4:15.56
14	4	3	Wang Chengxiang	China	4:15.57
15	4	1	Maksym Shemberev	Ukraine	4:16.63
16	2	4	Ward Bauwens	Belgium	4:16.71	NR
17	4	7	Ioannis Drymonakos	Greece	4:17.04
18	2	6	Raphaël Stacchiotti	Luxembourg	4:17.20	NR
19	5	1	Riaan Schoeman	South Africa	4:17.22
	5	7	Federico Turrini	Italy
21	3	7	Alexander Tikhonov	Russia	4:18.12
22	3	5	Dávid Verrasztó	Hungary	4:18.31
23	4	8	Alec Page	Canada	4:19.17
24	3	2	Joe Roebuck	Great Britain	4:20.24
25	1	5	Bradley Ally	Barbados	4:21.32
26	2	2	Yury Suvorau	Belarus	4:23.06	NR
	2	5	Diogo Carvalho	Portugal
28	2	3	Jung Won-yong	South Korea	4:23.12
29	2	1	Esteban Enderica Salgado	Ecuador	4:24.32	NR
30	2	8	Pedro Pinotes	Angola	4:24.69
31	1	4	Anton Sveinn McKee	Iceland	4:25.06	NR
32	5	8	Daniel Tranter	Australia	4:25.76
33	2	7	Quah Zheng Wen	Singapore	4:26.81
34	1	6	Marko Blaževski	Macedonia	4:32.38
35	1	3	Rafael Alfaro	El Salvador	4:35.80
36	1	2	Ahmed Ghithe Atari	Qatar	5:21.30
	3	8	Taki Mrabet	Tunisia	DSQ

Final

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
	3	Ryan Lochte	United States	4:05.18
	6	Thiago Pereira	Brazil	4:08.86	SA
	4	Kosuke Hagino	Japan	4:08.94	AS
4	8	Michael Phelps	United States	4:09.28
5	5	Chad le Clos	South Africa	4:12.42
6	1	Yuya Horihata	Japan	4:13.30
7	2	Thomas Fraser-Holmes	Australia	4:13.49
8	7	Luca Marin	Italy	4:14.89

References

1. "Swimming: Results & Schedules". London 2012. NBC Olympics. 28 July 2012. Archived from the original on 3 July 2013. Retrieved 7 July 2013.
2. "Ryan Lochte wins medley gold as Michael Phelps finishes fourth". BBC Sport. 28 July 2012. Archived from the original on 8 November 2012. Retrieved 7 July 2013.
3. "Lochte wins 400 IM final for first US gold". ESPN. 28 July 2012. Retrieved 7 July 2013.
4. Carroll, Mary (28 July 2012). "Brazil Starts Olympics With a Gold: Daily". The Rio Times. Retrieved 7 July 2013.
5. Newberry, Paul (28 July 2012). "Lochte wins 400m IM in blowout; Phelps finishes 4th". London 2012. NBC Olympics. Archived from the original on 7 July 2013. Retrieved 7 July 2013.
6. "2012 London Olympics: Ryan Lochte Posts Textile Best, Demolishes Field in 400 IM; Michael Phelps Misses Podium". Swimming World Magazine. 28 July 2012. Archived from the original on 28 January 2013. Retrieved 7 July 2013.
7. Adderly, Esther (28 July 2012). "London 2012: Michael Phelps fourth as Ryan Lochte cruises to victory". The Guardian. Retrieved 7 July 2013.
8. "Slow prelims puts Phelps in unenviable Lane 8 for 400 IM final". CBS Sports. 28 July 2012. Retrieved 7 July 2013.
9. "2012 London Olympics: Kosuke Hagino With Asian Record to Lead 400 IM; Phelps Underperforms". Swimming World Magazine. 28 July 2012. Archived from the original on 2013-05-27. Retrieved 7 July 2013.
10. Bishop, Greg (9 August 2008). "Phelps smashes world record to win gold". The New York Times. Retrieved 14 August 2008.
11. "Opening statement: Phelps grabs gold, WR in 400 IM". ESPN. 10 August 2008. Retrieved 17 May 2013.
12. "Men's 400m Individual Medley – Heats". London2012.com. London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Archived from the original on 5 December 2012. Retrieved 27 July 2012.

External links

• NBC Olympics Coverage