The men's 400 metre freestyle was a swimming

Swimming (sport)

Swimming is a sport governed by the Fédération Internationale de Natation .-History: Competitive swimming in Europe began around 1800 BCE, mostly in the form of the freestyle. In 1873 Steve Bowyer introduced the trudgen to Western swimming competitions, after copying the front crawl used by Native...

 event held as part of the swimming at the 1912 Summer Olympics

Swimming at the 1912 Summer Olympics

At the 1912 Summer Olympics, nine swimming events were contested. Swimming events were held in a 100 m course built in Stockholm harbor. For the first time, women's events were part of the Olympic swimming program. The competitions were held from Saturday July 6, 1912 to Friday July 12, 1912...

 programme. It was the third appearance of the event, which had been introduced in 1904. The competition was held from Thursday July 11, 1912 to Sunday July 14, 1912.

Twenty-six swimmers from 13 nations competed.

Records

These were the standing world and Olympic records (in minutes) prior to the 1912 Summer Olympics.

World Record	5:28.4	Béla Las-Torres Béla Las-Torres Béla von Las-Torres was a Hungarian freestyle swimmer who competed in the 1908 Summer Olympics and 1912 Summer Olympics.He was born in Budapest and died in Castelnuovo, Italy....	Budapest Budapest Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...  (HUN Hungary Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The... )	June 5, 1912
Olympic Record	5:36.8	Henry Taylor Henry Taylor (swimmer) Henry Taylor was a British freestyle swimmer who competed in the 1906 Summer Olympics, in the 1908 Summer Olympics, in the 1912 Summer Olympics, and in the 1920 Summer Olympics. He served in the Royal Navy during the First World War, and continued to swim competitively until 1926...	London London London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...  (GBR Great Britain Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles... )	July 16, 1908

In the first heat Harold Hardwick

Harold Hardwick

Harold Hampton Hardwick was a versatile Australian sports star of the early 20th century - an Olympic gold-medal swimmer, national heavyweight boxing champion and a state representative rugby union player...

 set a new Olympic record with 5:36.0 minutes. In the fifth heat Cecil Healy

Cecil Healy

Cecil Patrick Healy was an Australian freestyle swimmer of the 1900s and 1910s, who won silver in the 100m freestyle at the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm. He also won gold in the 4x200m freestyle relay...

 improved the Olympic record with 5:34.0 minutes. In the first semi-final George Hodgson

George Hodgson

George Ritchie Hodgson was a Canadian swimmer of the early 20th century, and considered by many to be the greatest swimmer in Canadian history.He was born and died in Montreal....

set a world record with 5:25.4 minutes and in the final he improved his record again with 5:24.4 minutes.

Quarterfinals

The top two in each heat advanced along with the fastest loser overall.

Heat 1

Place	Swimmer	Time	Qual.
1		5:36.0	QS OR
2		5:37.0	QS
3		6:10.2
4		6:23.4
5
—		DNF

Heat 2

Place	Swimmer	Time	Qual.
1		6:03.6	QS
2		6:14.4	QS
3		6:29.8
—		DNF

Heat 3

Place	Swimmer	Time	Qual.
1		5:44.6	QS
2		5:46.0	QS
3		5:50.4	qs
—		DNF
		DNF

Heat 4

Place	Swimmer	Time	Qual.
1		5:36.2	QS
2		5:48.4	QS
—		DNF

Heat 5

Place	Swimmer	Time	Qual.
1		5:34.0	QS OR
2		5:35.6	QS
3		6:09.4

Heat 6

Place	Swimmer	Time	Qual.
1		5:50.6	QS
2		5:52.4	QS
3		5:57.0
4		6:30.6
5		7:07.8

Semifinals

The top two from each heat and the faster of the two third place swimmers advanced.

Semifinal 1

Place	Swimmer	Time	Qual.
1		5:25.4	QF WR
2		5:25.6	QF
3		5:49.0
4		5:51.0
5		5:51.2
6
—		DNS

Semifinal 2

Place	Swimmer	Time	Qual.
1		5:31.0	QF
2		5:34.8	QF
3		5:37.8	qf
4		5:38.0
5		5:48.2
—		DNS

Final

Place	Swimmer	Time
1		5:24.4 WR
2		5:25.8
3		5:31.2
4		5:37.8
5		5:42.0