The women'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.

Australia's Stephanie Rice pulled away to a strong finish on the freestyle leg, as she claimed an Olympic gold medal in the event. She established a sterling time of 4:29.45 to slash 1.67 seconds off the world record, set by Katie Hoff from the U.S. Olympic Trials. Zimbabwe's Kirsty Coventry also went under a world record, but earned her first silver at these Games, in an African record of 4:29.89. Meanwhile, Hoff did not match her stellar performance from the trials, as she settled only for the bronze in 4:31.71.

Rising American teenager Elizabeth Beisel finished outside the medals in fourth place at 4:34.24, holding off Italy's Alessia Filippi (4:34.34) to fifth by exactly a tenth of a second (0.10). Great Britain's Hannah Miley (4:39.44), Russia's Yana Martynova (4:40.04), and China's Li Xuanxu (4:42.13) 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 10 Final Stephanie Rice 4:29.45

Results

Heats Rank Heat Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 1 3 4 Elizabeth Beisel 4:34.55 Q 2 5 4 Katie Hoff 4:34.63 Q3 3 5 Alessia Filippi 4:35.11 Q 4 4 Stephanie Rice Q 5 3 3 Yana Martynova 4:36.25 Q, NR 6 4 3 Li Xuanxu 4:36.35 Q 7 4 5 Kirsty Coventry 4:36.43 Q 8 5 5 Hannah Miley 4:36.56 Q 9 4 7 Katarzyna Baranowska 4:36.95 NR 10 4 1 Kathryn Meaklim 4:37.11 NR 11 3 7 Maiko Fujino 4:37.35 12 5 3 Katinka Hosszú 4:37.55 13 5 2 Zsuzsanna Jakabos 4:37.86 14 5 7 Mireia Belmonte García 4:37.91 15 3 6 Keri-Anne Payne 4:38.69 16 5 8 Anja Klinar 4:38.90 17 2 3 Joanna Melo 4:40.18 18 2 7 Sara Nordenstam 4:40.28 NR 19 4 6 Camille Muffat 4:40.29 20 3 8 Tanya Hunks 4:40.63 21 5 1 Jessica Pengelly 4:41.04 22 3 1 Samantha Hamill 4:41.89 23 5 6 Joanne Andraca 4:43.88 24 3 2 Helen Norfolk 4:44.22 25 2 5 Liu Jing 4:44.96 26 2 1 Jördis Steinegger 4:45.15 27 4 2 Saori Haruguchi 4:45.22 28 1 3 Nam Yoo-sun 4:46.74 29 4 8 Alexa Komarnycky 4:46.98 30 2 8 Susana Escobar 4:47.32 NR 31 2 6 Svetlana Karpeeva 4:50.22 32 1 6 Quah Ting Wen 4:51.25 NR 33 2 2 Katharina Schiller 4:51.52 34 1 4 Lew Yih Wey 4:55.83 35 1 5 Anna-Liisa Põld 4:58.21 36 2 4 Georgina Bardach 5:00.87 37 1 7 Nimitta Thaveesupsoonthorn 5:02.18 1 2 Maroua Mathlouthi

Final Rank Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 6 Stephanie Rice 4:29.45 1 Kirsty Coventry 4:29.89 AF 5 Katie Hoff 4:31.71 4 4 Elizabeth Beisel 4:34.24 5 3 Alessia Filippi 4:34.34 NR 6 8 Hannah Miley 4:39.44 7 2 Yana Martynova 4:40.04 8 7 Li Xuanxu 4:42.13

References

External links Official Olympic Report