Swimming at the 2000 Summer Olympics – Women's 400 metre individual medley


The women's 400 metre individual medley event at the 2000 Summer Olympics took place on 16 September at the Sydney International Aquatic Centre in Sydney, Australia.
Yana Klochkova blasted the world record to become Ukraine's first ever Olympic gold medalist in swimming. She pulled away from the rest of the field to hit the wall first with a blistering time of 4:33.59. Her spectacular swim shattered the previous global standard of 4:34.79, set by China's Chen Yan from the 1997 Chinese City Games in Shanghai, and lopped three seconds off an old, drug-tainted 1980 Olympic record from former East Germany's Petra Schneider. Japan's Yasuko Tajima kept the pressure on all the way and took the silver in 4:35.96. Storming from fifth at the halfway turn, Beatrice Câșlaru raced to bronze with a Romanian record of 4:37.18 on the rear of a dominant breaststroke leg.
For the first time in Olympic history, Kaitlin Sandeno shut out the medal podium for the Americans with a fourth-place time of 4:41.03. Germany's Nicole Hetzer finished fifth in 4:43.56, while Sandeno's teammate Maddy Crippen, swimming outside in lane eight, earned a sixth spot in 4:44.63. Canada's Joanne Malar and Aussie favorite Jennifer Reilly rounded out the historic finale.

Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.
The following new world and Olympic records were set during this competition.
DateEventNameNationalityTimeRecord
16 SeptemberFinalYana Klochkova4:33.59

Results

Heats

RankHeatLaneNameNationalityTimeNotes
144Yana Klochkova4:37.64Q, NR
224Yasuko Tajima4:40.35Q
345Kaitlin Sandeno4:40.89Q
435Beatrice Câșlaru4:41.04Q
546Jennifer Reilly4:41.51Q
634Joanne Malar4:42.65Q
725Nicole Hetzer4:43.23Q
843Maddy Crippen4:44.00Q
936Hana Černá4:44.11
1027Oxana Verevka4:45.07
1123Chen Yan4:45.65
1226Rachel Harris4:46.02
1322Helen Norfolk4:46.42NR
1437Lourdes Becerra4:47.50
1547Federica Biscia4:47.56NR
1632Sabine Herbst4:47.79
1728Mirjana Boševska4:48.08NR
1842Yseult Gervy4:48.31
1933Liu Yin4:50.33
2021Artemis Dafni4:53.52
2114Georgina Bardach4:54.31NR
2231Carolyn Adel4:57.90
2341Lee Ji-hyun4:58.94
2415Jana Korbasová4:59.05
2548Sia Wai Yen4:59.18
2638Adi Bichman5:06.72
2713Alexandra Zertsalova5:09.03
2816Nguyen Thi Huong5:26.56

Final