The men's 400 metre freestyle event at the 2001 World Aquatics Championships took place 22 July. Both the heats and final were held on 22 July.
In the final, Australian swimmer
Ian Thorpe
Ian James Thorpe, (born 13 October 1982) is an Australian retired swimmer who specialised in freestyle, but also competed in backstroke and the individual medley. He has won five Olympic gold medals, the most won by any Australian along wit ...
broke his own
world record
A world record is usually the best global and most important performance that is ever recorded and officially verified in a specific skill, sport, or other kind of activity. The book ''Guinness World Records'' and other world records organization ...
with a time of 3:40.17, bettering his previous record of 3:40.59 and successfully defending his world title. At the 200 metre mark in this race, Thorpe was over a second outside world record pace but had a split of 53.78 in the last 100 metres to break the record.
This was the first of six gold medals he would win, and the first of four world records he would set at these championships.
Records
Prior to the competition, the existing world and championship records were as follows.
The following record was established during the competition:
Results
Final
Key: WR = World record
Preliminaries
''Note: 37 swimmers were in the event.''
References
External links
Results from swimrankings.net Retrieved 2010-01-21
{{DEFAULTSORT:Swimming at the 2001 World Aquatics Championships - Men's 400 Metre Freestyle
Swimming at the 2001 World Aquatics Championships