MEN’S 400 FREESTYLE – PRELIMS
- World Record: 3:40.07 — Paul Biedermann, GER (2009)
- World Junior Record: 3:44.31 — Petar Mitsin, BUL (2023)
- Olympic Record: 3:40.14 — Sun Yang, CHN (2012)
- 2021 Winning Time: 3:43.36 – Ahmed Hafnaoui, TUN
- 2021 Time to Advance to Finals: 3:45.68
Top 8
- Lukas Martens(GER) – 3:44.13
- Guilherme Costa (BRA) – 3:44.23
- Fei Liwei (CHN) – 3:44.60
- Elijah Winnington (AUS) – 3:44.87
- Samuel Short (AUS) – 3:44.88
- Aaron Shackell (USA) – 3:45.45
- Kim Woomin (KOR) – 3:45.52
- Oliver Klemet (GER) – 3:45.75
2020 Tokyo bronze medalist Kieran Smith of the US will not swim in the final of the 400 freestyle tonight after swimming the 11th fastest time of the morning, touching in a 3:46.47. This means that none of the three medalists from the Tokyo Games will be swimming tonight and only 1 finalist from Tokyo will swim tonight.
The podium tonight for the event will not feature anyone who stood on the podium in Tokyo. Tokyo gold medalist Ahmed Hafnaoui of Tunisia had an explosive outside smoke three years ago but is not swimming this week. He had previously said his status for Paris was uncertain after an undisclosed injury back in May. 2020 Tokyo silver medalist Jack McLoughlin of Australia retired in 2022.
The only returning finalist from Tokyo is Australia’s Elijah Winnington. Winnington was 7th in Tokyo in a 3:45.20 and swam the 4th fastest time this morning with a 3:44.87.
Smith entered the meet with a season best of a 3:45.76, a time that would have *almost* made the final if he had replicated it this morning in prelims. It took a 3:45.75 to make tonight’s final.
Despite Smith’s miss, the Americans will still be represented tonight as Aaron Shackell had the 6th fastest swim of the morning with a 3:45.45. This is Shackell’s first Olympic Games and now will swim in his first Olympic final.
smith has such a silky stroke. will be a shame if we don’t see him again in finals. swimming from an outside lane it looked like he left his run a bit late as he was finishing real good
I think Kieran might need a change of scenery, training-wise. It’s obviously insanely hard to improve when you’re 1:45 and 3:43, but he hasn’t really at any point in the last 3 years looked as good as he did in Tokyo.
not super surprising that this event looks a lot different than tokyo. It’s progressed a lot since then and it’s not because a bunch of veterans dropped 2-4 seconds over the last three years
4 second PB for Aaron tonight!!! Let’s get on the podium
did shackell do a pb?
yes he did, only 0.01s
by .01
By 0.01 I think
I was afraid Aubock was about to drown. Poor fellow.
He has got to be one of the most inconsistent swimmers I have ever seen
Shaine would like a word
It is kind of crazy that only 1 out of 8 finalist is returning, surely that won’t happen in any other event?
This was always in the realm of possibility. He was pretty heavily relying on the wake of Shackell at Trials to snatch that 2nd spot and hasn’t looked on form for years.
Hopefully Shackell puts up a crazy swim today. A medal might not be in the realm of possibility, but would be nice to him get into 3:44 range.
totally spot on