The women's 400 metre freestyle event at the 1948 Olympic Games

1948 Summer Olympics

The 1948 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XIV Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event which was held in London, England, United Kingdom. After a 12-year hiatus because of World War II, these were the first Summer Olympics since the 1936 Games in Berlin...

 took place between August 5 and 7 at the Empire Pool. This 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 used freestyle swimming

Freestyle swimming

Freestyle is an unregulated swimming style used in swimming competitions according to the rules of FINA. The front crawl stroke is almost universally used during a freestyle race, as this style is generally the fastest...

, which means that the method of the stroke is not regulated (unlike backstroke, breaststroke, and butterfly events). Nearly all swimmers use the front crawl

Front crawl

The front crawl, forward crawl, or freestyle is a swimming stroke usually regarded as the fastest of the four front primary strokes. As such, the front crawl stroke is nearly universally used during a freestyle swimming competition, hence the synonymously used term "freestyle". It is one of two...

 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

Final

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Notes
	Ann Curtis Ann Curtis Ann Curtis is a former competitive swimmer and Olympic Gold Medal winner for the United States. She was coached by Charlie Sava and was a member of the San Francisco Crystal Plunge team. Curtis participated in London’s 1948 Olympic Games winning the gold medal in the 400 m freestyle...		5:17.8	OR
	Karen Margrethe Harup		5:21.2
	Catherine Gibson Catherine Gibson Catherine Brown was a Scottish swimmer. In 2008 she was inducted into the Scottish Sports Hall of Fame.Gibson represented Great Britain at the 1948 Summer Olympic Games, held in London...		5:22.5
4	Fernande Caroen		5:25.3
5	Brenda Helser Brenda Helser Brenda Helser de Morelos is a former competitive freestyle swimmer from the United States who won a gold medal in the 4×100 meter freestyle relay at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London, England....		5:26.0
6	Piedade Coutinho-da Silva Tavares		5:29.4
7	Fritze Carstensen		5:29.4
8	Nancy Lees		5:32.9

Key: OR = Olympic record