Swimming at the 1972 Summer Olympics – Women's 400 metre freestyle

The women's 400 metre freestyle event at the 1972 Olympic Games took place August 30. This swimming event used freestyle swimming, which means that the method of the stroke is not regulated (unlike backstroke, breaststroke, and butterfly events). 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.

Heats
Heat 1

Heat 2

Heat 3

Heat 4

Final
Key: WR = World record