Swimming at the 1996 Summer Olympics – Women's 400 metre freestyle

The women's 400 metre freestyle event at the 1996 Summer Olympics took place on 22 July at the Georgia Tech Aquatic Center in Atlanta, United States.^[1]

Women's 400 metre freestyle at the Games of the XXVI Olympiad
Venue	Georgia Tech Aquatic Center
Date	22 July 1996 (heats & finals)
Competitors	40 from 35 nations
Winning time	4:07.25 NR
Medalists
Michelle Smith  Ireland Dagmar Hase  Germany Kirsten Vlieghuis  Netherlands
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Records

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

World record	Janet Evans (USA)	4:03.85	Seoul, South Korea	22 September 1988
Olympic record	Janet Evans (USA)	4:03.85	Seoul, South Korea	22 September 1988

Results

Heats

Rule: The eight fastest swimmers advance to final A (Q), while the next eight to final B (q).^[2]

Rank	Heat	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	5	5	Kerstin Kielgaß	Germany	4:08.99	Q
2	5	4	Michelle Smith	Ireland	4:09.00	Q, NR
3	4	6	Kirsten Vlieghuis	Netherlands	4:11.04	Q
4	4	4	Dagmar Hase	Germany	4:11.17	Q
5	4	5	Carla Geurts	Netherlands	4:11.18	Q
6	3	4	Claudia Poll	Costa Rica	4:12.07	Q
7	4	3	Cristina Teuscher	United States	4:12.20	Q
8	5	3	Eri Yamanoi	Japan	4:13.40	Q
9	3	5	Janet Evans	United States	4:13.60	q, WD
10	3	2	Emma Johnson	Australia	4:14.13	q
11	4	7	Sarah Hardcastle	Great Britain	4:14.50	q
12	3	6	Suzu Chiba	Japan	4:16.07	q
13	5	8	Dionne Bainbridge	New Zealand	4:16.47	q
14	5	7	Carla Negrea	Romania	4:16.89	q
15	3	3	Hayley Lewis	Australia	4:17.02	q
16	3	7	Lin Chi-chan	Chinese Taipei	4:17.18	q, NR
17	5	1	Sandra Cam	Belgium	4:17.35	q
18	5	2	Irene Dalby	Norway	4:19.34
19	4	8	Itziar Esparza	Spain	4:19.45
20	3	8	Andrea Schwartz	Canada	4:19.46
21	4	1	Olga Šplíchalová	Czech Republic	4:20.04
22	2	1	Mirjana Boševska	Macedonia	4:21.27	NR
23	2	4	Nadezhda Chemezova	Russia	4:21.33
24	1	6	Laëtitia Choux	France	4:21.39
25	1	4	Britt Raaby	Denmark	4:21.46
26	1	7	Ravee Intporn-Udom	Thailand	4:21.93	NR
27	3	1	Martina Moravcová	Slovakia	4:22.10
28	2	3	Alicia Barrancos	Argentina	4:22.11
29	5	6	Chen Yan	China	4:22.55
30	2	8	Carolyn Adel	Suriname	4:22.66	NR
31	2	6	Jeong Eun-na	South Korea	4:23.35
32	1	1	Martina Nemec	Austria	4:23.72
33	2	2	Paula Harmokivi	Finland	4:23.84
34	1	5	Antonia Machaira	Greece	4:24.05
35	2	7	Chantal Strasser	Switzerland	4:24.49
36	1	3	Maritza Chiaway	Peru	4:27.11
37	2	5	Ana Alegria	Portugal	4:27.19
38	1	2	Judit Kiss	Hungary	4:29.80
39	1	8	Marina Zarma	Cyprus	4:32.15
	4	2	Malin Nilsson	Sweden	DNS

Finals

^[3]

Final B

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
9	5	Sarah Hardcastle	Great Britain	4:14.13
10	8	Sandra Cam	Belgium	4:14.94
11	1	Lin Chi-chan	Chinese Taipei	4:15.74	NR
12	4	Emma Johnson	Australia	4:15.79
13	3	Suzu Chiba	Japan	4:16.60
14	6	Dionne Bainbridge	New Zealand	4:16.79
15	7	Hayley Lewis	Australia	4:16.92
16	2	Carla Negrea	Romania	4:17.08

Final A

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
	5	Michelle Smith	Ireland	4:07.25	NR
	6	Dagmar Hase	Germany	4:08.30
	3	Kirsten Vlieghuis	Netherlands	4:08.70	NR
4	4	Kerstin Kielgaß	Germany	4:09.83
5	7	Claudia Poll	Costa Rica	4:10.00	NR
6	2	Carla Geurts	Netherlands	4:10.06
7	8	Eri Yamanoi	Japan	4:11.68
8	1	Cristina Teuscher	United States	4:14.21