Swimming at the 1988 Summer Olympics – Men's 400 metre freestyle

Men's 400 metre freestyle
at the Games of the XXIV Olympiad
Venue Jamsil Indoor Swimming Pool
Date 23 September 1988 (heats & finals)
Competitors 49 from 33 nations
Winning time 3:46.95 WR
Medalists
1st place, gold medalist(s) Uwe Daßler  East Germany
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Duncan Armstrong  Australia
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Artur Wojdat  Poland

The men's 400 metre freestyle event at the 1988 Summer Olympics took place on 23 September at the Jamsil Indoor Swimming Pool in Seoul, South Korea.

Records

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

World record Artur Wojdat (POL) 3:47.38 Orlando, United States 25 March 1988
Olympic record Thomas Fahrner (FRG) 3:50.91 Los Angeles, United States 2 August 1984

The following records were established during the competition:

Date Round Name Nationality Time Record
23 September Heat 5 Mariusz Podkościelny  Poland 3:49.51 OR
23 September Final A Uwe Daßler  East Germany 3:46.95 WR

Results

Heats

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

Note: All eight swimmers who qualified for the Olympic final swam faster than the Olympic record time.

Rank Heat Name Nationality Time Notes
1 5 Mariusz Podkościelny  Poland 3:49.51 Q, OR
2 5 Stefan Pfeiffer  West Germany 3:49.52 Q
3 7 Artur Wojdat  Poland 3:49.68 Q
4 7 Uwe Daßler  East Germany 3:49.90 Q
5 6 Kevin Boyd  Great Britain 3:50.01 Q
6 6 Anders Holmertz  Sweden 3:50.06 Q
7 7 Duncan Armstrong  Australia 3:50.64 Q
8 6 Matt Cetlinski  United States 3:50.82 Q
9 6 Ian Brown  Australia 3:51.09 q
10 5 Rainer Henkel  West Germany 3:51.50 q, WD
11 7 Dan Jorgensen  United States 3:52.64 q
12 6 Giorgio Lamberti  Italy 3:53.29 q, WD
13 5 Valter Kalaus  Hungary 3:53.44 q
14 5 Jörg Hoffmann  East Germany 3:53.78 q
15 6 Carlos Scanavino  Uruguay 3:54.86 q
16 4 Salvador Vassallo  Puerto Rico 3:55.30 q
17 7 Turlough O'Hare  Canada 3:55.35 q
18 6 Zoltán Szilágyi  Hungary 3:56.29 q
19 7 Roberto Gleria  Italy 3:56.33
20 5 Darjan Petrič  Yugoslavia 3:56.94
21 4 Henrik Jangvall  Sweden 3:57.41
22 4 Daniel Serra  Spain 3:57.46
23 5 Cristiano Michelena  Brazil 3:57.79
24 4 Tony Day  Great Britain 3:57.91
25 4 Alberto Bottini  Switzerland 3:57.92
26 5 Gary Vandermeulen  Canada 3:57.99
27 7 Aleksandr Bazhanov  Soviet Union 3:58.74
28 3 Igor Majcen  Yugoslavia 3:58.90
29 7 Jean-Marie Arnould  Belgium 3:59.91
30 6 Franck Iacono  France 4:00.04
31 4 Claus Christensen  Denmark 4:00.46
32 4 Yoshiyuki Mizumoto  Japan 4:02.02
33 3 David Castro  Brazil 4:02.48
34 3 Ignacio Escamilla  Mexico 4:03.16
35 3 Carlos Romo  Mexico 4:04.02
36 3 Jeffrey Ong  Malaysia 4:04.57
37 3 Ragnar Guðmundsson  Iceland 4:05.12
38 4 Shigeo Ogata  Japan 4:05.68
39 3 Yang Wook  South Korea 4:05.81
40 2 Wu Ming-hsun  Chinese Taipei 4:06.66
41 2 Jonathan Sakovich  Guam 4:06.89
42 3 Kwon Soon-kun  South Korea 4:08.02
43 2 Richard Sam Bera  Indonesia 4:08.70
44 2 Desmond Koh  Singapore 4:15.54
45 2 Arthur Li Kai Yien  Hong Kong 4:18.50
46 2 Julian Bolling  Sri Lanka 4:18.88
47 1 Bassam Al-Ansari  United Arab Emirates 4:39.36
48 1 Émile Lahoud  Lebanon 4:47.09
49 1 Mohamed Bin Abid  United Arab Emirates 4:47.28

Finals

Final B

Rank Lane Name Nationality Time Notes
9 6 Jörg Hoffmann  East Germany 3:52.13
10 3 Valter Kalaus  Hungary 3:53.24
11 1 Turlough O'Hare  Canada 3:54.33
12 2 Carlos Scanavino  Uruguay 3:54.36
13 4 Ian Brown  Australia 3:54.63
14 5 Dan Jorgensen  United States 3:55.34
15 7 Salvador Vassallo  Puerto Rico 3:55.39
16 8 Zoltán Szilágyi  Hungary 3:56.00

Final A

Rank Lane Name Nationality Time Notes
1st place, gold medalist(s) 6 Uwe Daßler  East Germany 3:46.95 WR
2nd place, silver medalist(s) 1 Duncan Armstrong  Australia 3:47.15 OC
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) 3 Artur Wojdat  Poland 3:47.34 NR
4 8 Matt Cetlinski  United States 3:48.09
5 4 Mariusz Podkościelny  Poland 3:48.59
6 5 Stefan Pfeiffer  West Germany 3:49.96
7 2 Kevin Boyd  Great Britain 3:50.16
8 7 Anders Holmertz  Sweden 3:51.04