Swimming at the 1972 Summer Olympics – Men's 400 metre individual medley

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Swimming at the
1972 Summer Olympics
Sample picture of the event (unofficial)
Freestyle
100 mmenwomen
200 mmenwomen
400 mmenwomen
800 mwomen
1500 mmen
Backstroke
100 mmenwomen
200 mmenwomen
Breaststroke
100 mmenwomen
200 mmenwomen
Butterfly
100 mmenwomen
200 mmenwomen
Individual medley
200 mmenwomen
400 mmenwomen
Freestyle relay
4×100 mmenwomen
4×200 mmen
Medley relay
4×100 mmenwomen
  • v
  • t

The men's 400 metre individual medley event at the 1972 Summer Olympics took place August 30.[1] This swimming event used medley swimming. Because an Olympic size swimming pool is 50 metres long, this race consisted of eight lengths of the pool. The first two lengths were swum using the butterfly stroke, the second pair with the backstroke, the third pair of lengths in breaststroke, and the final two were freestyle. Unlike other events using freestyle, swimmers could not use butterfly, backstroke, or breaststroke for the freestyle leg; most swimmers use the front crawl in freestyle events.

Final with controversial margin[]

The final was won by Gunnar Larsson, who succeeded over second-placed Tim McKee by two thousandths of a second.[2] This margin in effect brought about a change in the competition, so that no swimming competition henceforward would have to be decided by a margin less than a hundredth of a second.[3]

Medalists[]

Gold Gunnar Larsson
 Sweden
Silver Tim McKee
 United States
Bronze András Hargitay
 Hungary

Results[]

Heats[]

Heat 1

Rank Athlete Country Time Notes
1 András Hargitay  Hungary 4:37.51
2 Christian Lietzmann  East Germany 4:44.47
3 Roger van Hamburg  Netherlands 4:50.70
4 José Luis Prado  Mexico 4:54.49
5 Barry Prime  Great Britain 4:57.77
6 Jairulla Jaitulla  Philippines 5:05.48

Heat 2

Rank Athlete Country Time Notes
1 Gunnar Larsson  Sweden 4:34.99
2 John McConnochie  New Zealand 4:49.89
3 Valentyn Partyka  Soviet Union 4:50.03
4 David Brumwell  Canada 4:52.41
5 Jiro Sasaki  Japan 4:53.65
6 Antônio Azevedo  Brazil 4:57.27
7 Hsu Tung-hsiung  Chinese Taipei 5:09.56

Heat 3

Rank Athlete Country Time Notes
1 Steve Furniss  United States 4:39.33
2 Ricardo Marmolejo  Mexico 4:45.20
3 Bertram Türpe  East Germany 4:46.55
4 Neil Martin  Australia 4:49.85
5 Csaba Sós  Hungary 4:52.89
6 Sverre Kile  Norway 4:59.72
7 Gudmunður Gíslason  Iceland 5:03.54

Heat 4

Rank Athlete Country Time Notes
1 Tim McKee  United States 4:40.78
2 Graham Windeatt  Australia 4:42.16
3 Mikhail Sukharev  Soviet Union 4:43.13
4 Hans-Joachim Geisler  West Germany 4:48.57
5 Mauro Calligaris  Italy 4:52.02
6 Mike Holthaus  West Germany 4:58.19

Heat 5

Rank Athlete Country Time Notes
1 Bengt Gingsjö  Sweden 4:38.05
2 Gary Hall  United States 4:38.95
3 Wolfram Sperling  East Germany 4:42.75
4 Jorge Delgado Jr.  Ecuador 4:45.25
5 Bruce Featherston  Australia 4:47.33
6 Zbigniew Pacelt  Poland 4:55.38

Final[]

Rank Athlete Country Time Notes
1 Gunnar Larsson  Sweden 4:31.98(1) OR
2 Tim McKee  United States 4:31.98(3) OR
3 András Hargitay  Hungary 4:32.70
4 Steve Furniss  United States 4:35.44
5 Gary Hall, Sr.  United States 4:37.38
6 Bengt Gingsjö  Sweden 4:37.96
7 Graham Windeatt  Australia 4:40.39
8 Wolfram Sperling  East Germany 4:40.66

Key: OR = Olympic record

References[]

  1. ^ "Swimming at the 1972 Munich Summer Games: Men's 400 metres Individual Medley". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 26 November 2016.
  2. ^ "August 9, 2008." SwimmersWorld.com. Retrieved 2012-05-01.
  3. ^ "Munich 1972." Swedish Olympic Committee, 2008. Retrieved 2012-05-01.
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