Swimming at the 1952 Summer Olympics – Men's 400 metre freestyle
The men's 400 metre freestyle event at the 1952 Olympic Games took place between 28 and 30 July at the Swimming Stadium. This swimming event used freestyle swimming, which means that the method of the stroke is not regulated. Nearly all swimmers use the front crawl or a variant of that stroke. Because an Olympic-size swimming pool is 50 metres long, this race consisted of eight lengths of the pool.Medalists
At the conclusion of the race, Boiteux's father jumped into the pool to congratulate his son.Results
Heats
Heat 1
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Note |
| 1 | Jack Wardrop | | 4:43.7 | |
| 2 | Yasuo Tanaka | | 4:44.3 | |
| 3 | Gotfryd Gremlowski | | 4:49.0 | |
| 4 | Jo Bernardo | | 4:53.5 | |
| 5 | Pentti Ikonen | | 4:55.7 | |
| 6 | Geoffrey Marks | | 5:15.2 | |
| 7 | Georg Mascetti | | 5:31.2 | |
Heat 2
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Note |
| 1 | Hironoshin Furuhashi | | 4:43.3 | |
| 2 | Viktor Drobinsky | | 4:56.5 | |
| 3 | Neo Chwee Kok | | 4:57.5 | |
| 4 | Eduardo Priggione | | 5:12.1 | |
| 5 | Walter Bardgett | | 5:18.0 | |
| 6 | Sonny Monteiro | | 5:21.6 | |
Heat 3
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Note |
| 1 | Jimmy McLane | | 4:46.5 | |
| 2 | Dennis Ford | | 4:50.2 | |
| 3 | Allen Gilchrist | | 4:52.5 | |
| 4 | Enrique Granados | | 4:53.7 | |
| 5 | Federico Zwanck | | 4:56.4 | |
| 6 | Ricardo Esperard | | 5:09.5 | |
| 7 | Walter Schneider | | 5:27.3 | |
Heat 4
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Note |
| 1 | Jean Boiteux | | 4:45.1 | |
| 2 | Graham Johnston | | 4:52.3 | |
| 3 | Anatoly Raznochintsev | | 4:56.8 | |
| 4 | Peter Steinwender | | 5:03.6 | |
| 5 | Peter Head | | 5:04.2 | |
| 6 | Cheung Kin Man | | 5:11.4 | |
Heat 5
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Note |
| 1 | György Csordás | | 4:45.7 | |
| 2 | Ford Konno | | 4:47.9 | |
| 3 | Joris Tjebbes | | 4:54.4 | |
| 4 | Carlos Alberto Bonacich | | 5:06.3 | |
| 5 | Per Olsen | | 5:08.6 | |
| 6 | Pentti Paatsalo | | 5:09.3 | |
| 7 | Robert Cook | | 5:15.4 | |
Heat 6
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Note |
| 1 | Per-Olof Östrand | | 4:38.6 | |
| 2 | Gusztáv Kettesi | | 4:53.0 | |
| 3 | Garrick Agnew | | 4:55.5 | |
| 4 | Roar Woldum | | 5:14.4 | |
| 5 | Einari Aalto | | 5:15.8 | |
Heat 7
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Note |
| 1 | Tetsuo Okamoto | | 4:46.1 | |
| 2 | John Marshall | | 4:46.8 | |
| 3 | Gerry McNamee | | 4:53.5 | |
| 4 | Alfredo Yantorno | | 4:54.5 | |
| 5 | Ronald Burns | | 4:55.2 | |
| 6 | Nguyễn Văn Phan | | 5:36.5 | |
Heat 8
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Note |
| 1 | Wayne Moore | | 4:43.2 | |
| 2 | Peter Duncan | | 4:44.0 | |
| 3 | Yoshio Tanaka | | 4:54.0 | |
| 4 | Angelo Romani | | 5:05.1 | |
| 5 | René Million | | 5:07.0 | |
| 6 | Fernando Madeira | | 5:08.6 | |
| 7 | Muhammad Ramzan | | 5:45.7 | |
Final
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Notes |
| Jean Boiteux | | 4:30.7 | OR |
| Ford Konno | | 4:31.3 | |
| Per-Olof Östrand | | 4:35.2 | |
| 4 | Peter Duncan | | 4:37.9 | |
| 5 | Jack Wardrop | | 4:39.9 | |
| 6 | Wayne Moore | | 4:40.1 | |
| 7 | Jimmy McLane | | 4:40.3 | |
| 8 | Hironoshin Furuhashi | | 4:42.1 | |
Key: OR = Olympic record
