The men's 400 metre freestyle event at the

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

took place on 28 July at the

London Aquatics Centre The London Aquatics Centre is an indoor facility with two swimming pools and a diving pool in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford, London. The centre, designed by architect Zaha Hadid as one of the main venues of the 2012 Summer Olymp ...

London, United Kingdom London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. Sun Yang made a historic milestone to become China's first ever male gold medalist in swimming, as he continued to build another Asian supremacy for the event, together with an Olympic record. He held off South Korea's defending champion

Park Tae-hwan Park Tae-hwan (, ; born September 27, 1989) is a South Korean competitive Swimming (sport), swimmer who is an Olympic gold medalist and world champion. He has four Olympic medals, five world titles, and 20 Asian Games medals. He won a gold me ...

on the final stretch to effortlessly secure the gold medal in a sterling time of 3:40.14, cutting off

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 ...

's 2000 Olympic record by nearly half a second. Meanwhile, Park ended a dramatic day with a silver medal in his pocket at 3:42.06. Earlier in the prelims, he was disqualified for an immediate false start from heat three, but reinstated in the final after the Korean Swimming Federation filed an appeal. U.S. swimmer

Peter Vanderkaay Peter William Vanderkaay (born February 12, 1984) is an American former competition swimmer who specialized in middle-distance freestyle events and is a four-time Olympic medalist. He was a member of the United States Olympic team in 2004, 2008, ...

added a second individual bronze and fourth career medal to his Olympic hardware in 3:44.69. China's

Hao Yun Hao Yun (; born 23 June 1995 in Hebei) is a Chinese swimmer. At the 2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held fro ...

(3:46.02), Vanderkaay's teammate

Conor Dwyer Conor James Dwyer (born January 10, 1989) is a former American competition swimmer and Olympic gold medalist. He competed in freestyle and medley events, and won a gold medal as a member of the winning U.S. 4×200-meter freestyle relay team a ...

(3:46.39), Hungary's

Gergő Kis Gergő Szabolcs Kis (born 19 January 1988, in Tapolca) is a Hungarian freestyle swimmer. Kis participated in the 2004 Summer Olympics in the men's 1500 m freestyle, ranking 23rd in the heats. In the 2006 European Junior Swimming Champi ...

(3:47.03), Great Britain's

David Carry David Robert Carry (born 8 October 1981) is a Scottish former competition swimmer who represented Great Britain in the Olympics, FINA world championships and the European championships, and Scotland in the Commonwealth Games. He competed interna ...

(3:48.62), and Australia's

Ryan Napoleon Ryan Napoleon (born 26 May 1990) is an Australian freestyle swimmer and Commonwealth Games medallist. Career Youth Swimming Napoleon won gold in the 4×200m freestyle relay, silver in the 4×100m medley relay and bronze in the 100m butterfly ...

(3:49.25) also vied for an Olympic medal to round out the championship field. Notable swimmers missed the final roster including Canada's Ryan Cochrane, who was bumped out of the lineup to ninth (3:47.26) after Park's disqualification had been overturned; and Biedermann, who struggled to keep his form with a thirteenth-place effort in the prelims (3:48.50).

Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows. The following records were established during the competition:

Results

Heats

Final

References

External links

NBC Olympics Coverage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Swimming at the 2012 Summer Olympics - Men's 400 metre freestyle Men's 00400 metre freestyle Men's events at the 2012 Summer Olympics