The men's 400 metre individual medley event at the 2008 Olympic Games took place on 9–10 August at the Beijing National Aquatics Center in Beijing, China.

U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps blasted a new world record to defend his title in the event, and more importantly, claim his first Olympic gold, seventh career, and ninth overall. Phelps expected to get a major challenge from teammate Ryan Lochte, but he pulled away from the field on the breaststroke leg, and then opened up his lead on the freestyle leg to a strong finish in 4:03.84, more than a second faster than his world record from the U.S. Olympic Trials. Hungary's László Cseh earned his first ever Olympic silver medal at these Games, in a European record of 4:06.16. Lochte, who fought off a challenge against Phelps, faded towards the end of the race with a bronze in 4:08.09.

Italian tandem Alessio Boggiatto (4:12.16) and Luca Marin (4:12.47) earned fourth and fifth spots with only 0.31 seconds apart from each other. Hungary's Gergő Kis (4:12.84), Canada's Brian Johns (4:13.38), and Brazil's Thiago Pereira (4:15.40) rounded out the finale.

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.

Date Event Name Nationality Time Record August 9 Heat 4 Michael Phelps 4:07.82 August 10 Final Michael Phelps 4:03.84

Results

Heats Rank Heat Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 1 4 4 Michael Phelps 4:07.82 Q, OR 2 2 4 László Cseh 4:09.26 Q 3 4 5 Luca Marin 4:10.22 Q 4 3 4 Ryan Lochte 4:10.33 Q 5 4 3 Gergő Kis 4:10.66 Q 6 2 3 Alessio Boggiatto 4:10.68 Q 7 3 7 Brian Johns 4:11.41 Q, NR 8 3 5 Thiago Pereira 4:11.74 Q 9 4 2 Keith Beavers 4:12.75 10 2 1 Bradley Ally 4:14.01 NR 11 2 8 Gal Nevo 4:14.03 NR 12 3 3 Riaan Schoeman 4:14.09 13 3 1 Andrey Krylov 4:14.55 14 4 6 Travis Nederpelt 4:15.37 15 2 2 Dinko Jukić 4:15.48 NR 16 2 7 Alexander Tikhonov 4:16.49 17 2 5 Thomas Haffield 4:16.76 18 2 6 Vasileios Demetis 4:18.40 19 3 6 Euan Dale 4:18.60 20 4 8 Vadym Lepskyy 4:20.96 21 3 8 Omar Pinzón 4:22.31 22 4 7 Pierre Henri 4:22.41 23 1 4 Nikša Roki 4:22.44 24 3 2 Javier Núñez 4:22.69 25 4 1 Romanos Alyfantis 4:23.41 26 1 6 Dmitriy Gordiyenko 4:25.20 27 1 2 Vasilii Danilov 4:29.20 28 1 3 Deniz Nazar 4:30.80 29 1 5 Hocine Haciane 4:32.00

Final Rank Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 4 Michael Phelps 4:03.84 5 László Cseh 4:06.16 EU 6 Ryan Lochte 4:08.09 4 7 Alessio Boggiatto 4:12.16 5 3 Luca Marin 4:12.47 6 2 Gergő Kis 4:12.84 7 1 Brian Johns 4:13.38 8 8 Thiago Pereira 4:15.40

References

External links Official Olympic Report