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

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.

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
← 1908 1920 →

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