400-Meter Freestyle
Updated February 21, 2017 | Factmonster Staff 
| 1896 | Paul Neumann, Austria | 8:12.60 | 1 |
| 1904 | Charles Daniels, United States | 6:16.20 | 2 |
| 1906 | Otto Sheff, Austria | 6:23.80 | |
| 1908 | Henry Taylor, Great Britain | 5:36.80 | |
| 1912 | George Hodgson, Canada | 5:24.40 | |
| 1920 | Norman Ross, United States | 5:26.80 | |
| 1926 | John Weissmuller, United States | 5:04.20 | |
| 1928 | Albert Zorilla, Argentina | 5:01.60 | |
| 1932 | Clarence Crabbe, United States | 4:48.40 | |
| 1936 | Jack Medica, United States | 4:44.50 | |
| 1948 | William Smith, United States | 4:41.00 | |
| 1952 | Jean Boiteux, France | 4:30.70 | |
| 1956 | Murray Rose, Australia | 4:27.30 | |
| 1960 | Murray Rose, Australia | 4:18.30 | |
| 1964 | Don Schollander, United States | 4:12.20 | |
| 1968 | Mike Burton, United States | 4:09.00 | |
| 1972 | Bradford Cooper, Australia | 4:00.27 | 3 |
| 1976 | Brian Goodell, United States | 3:51.93 | |
| 1980 | Vladimir Salnikov, USSR | 3:51.31 | |
| 1984 | George DiCarlo, United States | 3:51.23 | |
| 1988 | Uwe Dassier, East Germany | 3:46.95 | |
| 1992 | Evgueni Sadovyi, Unified Team | 3:45.00 | 4 |
| 1996 | Danyon Loader, New Zealand | 3:47.97 | |
| 2000 | Ian Thorpe, Australia | 3:40.59 | 4 |
| 2004 | Ian Thorpe, Australia | 3:43.10 | |
| 2008 | Taehwan Park, South Korea | 3:41.86 |
1. 500 meters.
2. 440 yards.
3. Rich DeMont, United States, won but was disqualified following day for medical reasons.
4. World record.
