Swimming at the 1996 Summer Olympics – Women's 400 metre individual medley

Women's 400 metre individual medley at the Games of the XXVI Olympiad
Venue	Georgia Tech Aquatic Center
Date	20 July 1996 (heats & finals)
Competitors	31 from 24 nations
Winning time	4:39.18 NR
Medalists
Michelle Smith  Ireland Allison Wagner  United States Krisztina Egerszegi  Hungary

The women's 400 metre individual medley event at the 1996 Summer Olympics took place on 20 July at the Georgia Tech Aquatic Center in Atlanta, United States.

Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.

World record	Petra Schneider (GDR)	4:36.10	Guayaquil, Ecuador	1 August 1982
Olympic record	Petra Schneider (GDR)	4:36.29	Moscow, Soviet Union	26 July 1980

Results

Heats

Rule: The eight fastest swimmers advance to final A (Q), while the next eight to final B (q).

Rank	Heat	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	4	4	Krisztina Egerszegi	Hungary	4:43.09	Q
2	4	3	Emma Johnson	Australia	4:43.45	Q
3	3	5	Michelle Smith	Ireland	4:43.79	Q
4	4	5	Allison Wagner	United States	4:44.06	Q
5	4	1	Beatrice Căşlaru	Romania	4:44.66	Q
6	3	2	Whitney Metzler	United States	4:44.74	Q
7	2	3	Sabine Herbst	Germany	4:45.36	Q
8	2	7	Lourdes Becerra	Spain	4:45.54	Q, NR
9	2	5	Joanne Malar	Canada	4:47.85	q
10	3	3	Fumie Kurotori	Japan	4:48.51	q
11	4	7	Nancy Sweetnam	Canada	4:48.56	q
12	3	7	Hideko Hiranaka	Japan	4:49.32	q
13	4	2	Hana Černá	Czech Republic	4:49.43	q, NR
14	2	6	Elli Overton	Australia	4:49.82	q
15	3	1	Pavla Chrástová	Czech Republic	4:51.35	q
16	1	4	Yseult Gervy	Belgium	4:53.11	q, NR
17	3	4	Chen Yan	China	4:53.87
18	2	4	Wu Yanyan	China	4:54.07
19	4	8	Sarah Hardcastle	Great Britain	4:54.64
20	3	8	Britta Vestergaard	Denmark	4:55.03
21	3	6	Cathleen Rund	Germany	4:55.30
22	1	7	Carolyn Adel	Suriname	4:55.48	NR
23	1	5	Mirjana Boševska	Macedonia	4:55.57
24	2	2	Anna Wilson	New Zealand	4:55.72
25	1	1	Aikaterini Sarakatsani	Greece	4:56.32	NR
26	4	6	Darya Shmeleva	Russia	4:57.06
27	1	3	Praphalsai Minpraphal	Thailand	4:58.33
28	1	2	Lee Ji-hyun	South Korea	4:59.52
29	1	6	Hsieh Shu-tzu	Chinese Taipei	5:01.70
30	2	8	Martina Nemec	Austria	5:02.52
31	2	1	Nadège Cliton	France	5:06.46

Finals

Final B

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
9	4	Joanne Malar	Canada	4:46.34
10	2	Hana Černá	Czech Republic	4:46.78	NR
11	3	Nancy Sweetnam	Canada	4:47.55
12	5	Fumie Kurotori	Japan	4:47.98
13	6	Hideko Hiranaka	Japan	4:48.72
14	7	Elli Overton	Australia	4:50.73
15	8	Yseult Gervy	Belgium	4:52.89
16	1	Pavla Chrástová	Czech Republic	4:56.23

Final A

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
	3	Michelle Smith	Ireland	4:39.18	NR
	6	Allison Wagner	United States	4:42.03
	4	Krisztina Egerszegi	Hungary	4:42.53
4	1	Sabine Herbst	Germany	4:43.78
5	5	Emma Johnson	Australia	4:44.02
6	2	Beatrice Câșlaru	Romania	4:44.91
7	8	Lourdes Becerra	Spain	4:45.17	NR
8	7	Whitney Metzler	United States	4:46.20

External links

• Official Report
• USA Swimming