The women's 400 metre freestyle event at the 1960 Olympic Games took place between 31 August and 1 September. This swimming event used freestyle swimming, which means that the method of the stroke is not regulated (unlike backstroke, breaststroke, and butterfly events). Nearly all swimmers use the front crawl or a variant of that stroke. Because an Olympic size swimming pool is 50 metres long, this race consisted of eight lengths of the pool.
Results
Heats Heat 1 Rank Athlete Country Time Note 1 Chris von Saltza 4:53.6 2 Tineke Lagerberg 4:57.0 3 Bibbi Segerström 4:57.6 4 Gisela Weiß 5:08.6 5 Judy Samuel 5:12.9 6 Paola Saini 5:13.1 7 Kimiko Ezaka 5:26.8 8 Eiko Wada 5:26.8
Heat 2 Rank Athlete Country Time Note 1 Ilsa Konrads 4:59.2 2 Corrie Schimmel 5:00.1 3 Héda Frost 5:00.6 4 Carolyn House 5:00.7 5 Hillary Wilson 5:16.8 6 María Luisa Souza 5:21.3 7 Sigrid Müller 5:25.1
Heat 3 Rank Athlete Country Time Note 1 Jane Cederqvist 4:55.6 2 Nan Rae 4:55.7 3 Dawn Fraser 4:57.6 4 Ursel Brunner 5:05.3 5 Welleda Veschi 5:18.3 6 Mária Frank 5:21.9 7 Blanca Barrón 5:26.4
Final
Rank Athlete Country Time Notes Chris von Saltza 4:50.6 OR Jane Cederqvist 4:53.9 Tineke Lagerberg 4:56.9 4 Ilsa Konrads 4:57.9 5 Dawn Fraser 4:58.5 6 Nan Rae 4:59.7 7 Corrie Schimmel 5:02.3 8 Bibbi Segerström 5:02.4
Key: OR = Olympic record
References