The women's 400 metre individual medley event at the
2016 Summer Olympics took place on 6 August at the
Olympic Aquatics Stadium.
Summary
Four years after narrowly missing the podium in London, Hungary's
Katinka Hosszú
Katinka Hosszú (; born 3 May 1989) is a Hungarian competitive swimmer specialized in individual medley events. She is a three-time Olympic champion and a nine-time long-course world champion. She is owner of a Budapest based swim school and swi ...
, nicknamed the "Iron Lady", opened her redemptive Games by dominating the 400 m individual medley with a new world record and the first title of her Olympic career. Dominating the race from the very start, she pulled away from the field to a gold-medal finish with a 4:26.36. Hosszú's swim also demolished the world record of 4:28.43, set by China's
Ye Shiwen at the previous Games. Trailing the leader by almost five seconds, U.S. swimmer
Maya DiRado turned ahead of the world-record pace for over half the race, and managed to finish with a silver in 4:31.15. Meanwhile, Spain's
Mireia Belmonte rounded out the podium with a bronze in 4:32.39, edging out Great Britain's
Hannah Miley (4:32.54) in a tight battle to fourth by 0.15 of a second.
Canada's
Emily Overholt finished fifth with a 4:34.70, and was shortly followed by London 2012 runner-up
Elizabeth Beisel of the United States (4:34.98). Miley's teammate
Aimee Willmott
Aimee Willmott (born 26 February 1993) is an English competitive swimmer who has represented Great Britain at the Olympic Games, FINA world championships and European championships, and England in the Commonwealth Games. She was the 2018 Comm ...
(4:35.04) and Japan's
Sakiko Shimizu (4:38.06) rounded out the final.
[
Reigning Olympic champion Ye Shiwen missed a chance to defend her title in the final, after finishing twenty-seventh out of thirty-three swimmers in the prelims.]Mikee Cojuangco-Jaworski
Mikaela María Antonia "Mikee" de los Reyes Cojuangco-Jaworski (born February 26, 1974) is a Filipino sports official, equestrienne, model, former actress and television host. She was a gold medalist at the 2002 Asian Games in Busan, South Kor ...
, Philippines, IOC member, and the gifts were presented by Husain al-Musallam, First Vice President of the FINA
FINA (french: Fédération internationale de natation, en, International Swimming Federation, link=yes) (to be renamed as World Aquatics by ) is the international federation recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for administer ...
.
Records
Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.
The following records were established during the competition:
Competition format
The competition consisted of two rounds: heats and a final. The swimmers with the best 8 times in the heats advanced to the final. Swim-offs were used as necessary to break ties for advancement to the next round.[
]
Results
Heats
Final
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Swimming at the 2016 Summer Olympics - Women's 400 metre individual medley
Women's 00400 metre individual medley
Olympics
2016 in women's swimming
Women's events at the 2016 Summer Olympics