Competitors 42 from 35 nations Start date 2008 | Winning time 4:03.22 End date August 11, 2008 | |
Venue Beijing National Aquatics Center Location Beijing National Aquatics Center, Beijing, China | ||
The women's 400 metre freestyle event at the 2008 Olympic Games took place on 10–11 August at the Beijing National Aquatics Center in Beijing, China.
Rebecca Adlington became Great Britain's first female gold medalist in swimming in 48 years. She posted an outside-record time of 4:03.22 to hold off U.S. swimmer Katie Hoff in the final 50 metres with a 1.46-second deficit. Hoff added a silver to her hardware from the 400 m individual medley just a day earlier, in 4:03.29. Adlington's teammate Joanne Jackson earned a bronze in 4:03.52, handing an entire medal haul for Team GB in the pool.
France's Coralie Balmy narrowly missed the podium by eight hundredths of a second (0.08), finishing in fourth place at 4:03.60. Italy's world record holder and top favorite Federica Pellegrini earned a fifth spot in a time of 4:04.56, holding off Romania's Camelia Potec to sixth by 0.10 of a second (4:04.66). Australia's Bronte Barratt (4:05.05) and defending Olympic champion Laure Manaudou (4:11.26).
Notable swimmers missed out the top 8 final, featuring Poland's Otylia Jędrzejczak, silver medalist in Athens four years earlier, Hoff's teammate Kate Ziegler, and South Africa's Wendy Trott, who broke a new African record (4:08.38) in the heats.
Earlier in the prelims, Pellegrini, Hoff, Jackson, and Adlington broke one of the oldest Olympic records in the book as they each went under the time of 4:03.85, which had stood since Janet Evans won the gold medal in the event at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul.
Records
Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows:
The following new world and Olympic records were set during this competition.