| | Event type

400 metres Freestyle, Women

Date	22 July 1980
Status	Olympic
Location	Plavatelny basseyn, Sportivny kompleks Olimpiysky, Moskva
Participants	19 from 12 countries

Australian Tracey Wickham had won the 1978 World Championships, setting a world record of 4:06.28, breaking the mark of 4:07.66 set by American Kim Linehan in qualifying for the US world’s team. Neither was in Moscow, Linehan ousted by the Jimmy Carter-led boycott. Wickham qualified for the 1980 Australian Olympic team, but elected not to compete because of financial problems (she came back in 1981). This was never a problem for East Germany’s state-supported swimmers and without Wickham and Linehan, they swept the medals in this event, as they had done in the 100 and 200 freestyles. The final was paced by Petra Schneider through 300 metres but Ines Diers came on in the final 100 for the gold medal in a time of 4:08.76, Carmela Schmidt winning bronze, which she would later repeat in the 200 free. Nine days later at the US Nationals, Linehan won in 4:07.77, followed by Sippy Woodhead in 4:08.17.

Pos	Swimmer	NOC	R1	Final
1	Ines Diers	GDR	4:13.98 (1 h2)	4:08.76 (1)	Gold
2	Petra Schneider	GDR	4:14.49 (2 h3)	4:09.16 (2)	Silver
3	Carmela Schmidt	GDR	4:13.01 (1 h1)	4:10.86 (3)	Bronze
4	Michelle Ford	AUS	4:13.90 (1 h3)	4:11.65 (4)
5	Irina Aksyonova	URS	4:14.39 (2 h2)	4:14.40 (5)
6	Annelies Maas	NED	4:13.12 (2 h1)	4:15.79 (6)
7	Reggie de Jong	NED	4:15.07 (3 h2)	4:15.95 (7)
8	Olga Klevakina	URS	4:18.13 (4 h2)	4:19.18 (8)
9	Oksana Komissarova	URS	4:18.61 (3 h3)	–
10	Pascale Verbauwen	BEL	4:18.98 (3 h1)	–
11	Sharron Davies	GBR	4:19.99 (4 h1)	–
12	Sofia Dara	GRE	4:20.32 (5 h1)	–
13	Rosemary Brown	AUS	4:21.36 (6 h1)	–
14	Roberta Felotti	ITA	4:21.94 (4 h3)	–
15	Jackie Willmott	GBR	4:22.32 (5 h3)	–
16	Nikole Schrepfer	SUI	4:28.40 (5 h2)	–
17	Natalia Mas	ESP	4:29.81 (6 h2)	–
18	María Pia Ayora	PER	4:46.90 (6 h3)	–
19	Soad Fezzani	LBA	5:16.17 (7 h2)	–
DNS	Klára Gulyás	HUN	– (DNS h3)	–

Round One (22 July 1980 — 10:00)

Fastest eight advanced to the final.

Heat One

Pos	Lane	Swimmer	NOC	100 m	200 m	300 m	Time
1	3	Carmela Schmidt	GDR	1:00.86 (1) 1:04.00 (2)	2:04.86 (1) 1:04.31 (2)	3:09.17 (1) 1:03.84 (2)	4:13.01	Q
2	4	Annelies Maas	NED	1:01.35 (2) 1:03.99 (1)	2:05.34 (2) 1:04.09 (1)	3:09.43 (2) 1:03.69 (1)	4:13.12	Q
3	1	Pascale Verbauwen	BEL	1:03.16 (6) 1:05.08 (3)	2:08.24 (5) 1:06.12 (3)	3:14.36 (4) 1:04.62 (3)	4:18.98
4	5	Sharron Davies	GBR	1:02.12 (3) 1:05.74 (5)	2:07.86 (4) 1:06.49 (5)	3:14.35 (3) 1:05.64 (5)	4:19.99
5	6	Sofia Dara	GRE	1:02.73 (5) 1:06.31 (6)	2:09.04 (6) 1:06.35 (4)	3:15.39 (6) 1:04.93 (4)	4:20.32
6	2	Rosemary Brown	AUS	1:02.35 (4) 1:05.36 (4)	2:07.71 (3) 1:06.87 (6)	3:14.58 (5) 1:06.78 (6)	4:21.36

Heat Two

Pos	Lane	Swimmer	NOC	100 m	200 m	300 m	Time
1	4	Ines Diers	GDR	1:02.28 (2) 1:04.84 (3)	2:07.12 (2) 1:03.62 (1)	3:10.74 (1) 1:03.24 (2)	4:13.98	Q
2	5	Irina Aksyonova	URS	1:02.09 (1) 1:04.79 (2)	2:06.88 (1) 1:04.87 (3)	3:11.75 (3) 1:02.64 (1)	4:14.39	Q
3	3	Reggie de Jong	NED	1:02.46 (3) 1:04.75 (1)	2:07.21 (3) 1:03.94 (2)	3:11.15 (2) 1:03.92 (3)	4:15.07	Q
4	6	Olga Klevakina	URS	1:02.65 (4) 1:05.08 (4)	2:07.73 (4) 1:05.57 (4)	3:13.30 (4) 1:04.83 (4)	4:18.13	Q
5	7	Nikole Schrepfer	SUI	1:03.08 (5) 1:07.58 (6)	2:10.66 (5) 1:08.86 (5)	3:19.52 (5) 1:08.88 (5)	4:28.40
6	2	Natalia Mas	ESP	1:03.79 (6) 1:07.52 (5)	2:11.31 (6) 1:09.12 (6)	3:20.43 (6) 1:09.38 (6)	4:29.81
7	1	Soad Fezzani	LBA	1:12.89 (7) 1:21.17 (7)	2:34.06 (7) 1:21.95 (7)	3:56.01 (7) 1:20.16 (7)	5:16.17

Heat Three

Pos	Lane	Swimmer	NOC	100 m	200 m	300 m	Time
1	5	Michelle Ford	AUS	1:02.00 (2) 1:03.93 (2)	2:05.93 (2) 1:04.10 (1)	3:10.03 (2) 1:03.87 (1)	4:13.90	Q
2	4	Petra Schneider	GDR	1:00.47 (1) 1:03.70 (1)	2:04.17 (1) 1:05.33 (3)	3:09.50 (1) 1:04.99 (3)	4:14.49	Q
3	3	Oksana Komissarova	URS	1:02.82 (4) 1:05.53 (3)	2:08.35 (3) 1:05.29 (2)	3:13.64 (3) 1:04.97 (2)	4:18.61
4	2	Roberta Felotti	ITA	1:03.14 (5) 1:05.78 (4)	2:08.92 (5) 1:06.40 (4)	3:15.32 (4) 1:06.62 (5)	4:21.94
5	6	Jackie Willmott	GBR	1:02.30 (3) 1:06.37 (5)	2:08.67 (4) 1:07.40 (5)	3:16.07 (5) 1:06.25 (4)	4:22.32
6	1	María Pia Ayora	PER	1:07.41 (6) 1:12.39 (6)	2:19.80 (6) 1:14.05 (6)	3:33.85 (6) 1:13.05 (6)	4:46.90
DNS	7	Klára Gulyás	HUN	– (–) –	– (–) –	– (–) –	–

Final (22 July 1980 — 20:00)

Pos	Lane	Swimmer	NOC	100 m	200 m	300 m	Time
1	6	Ines Diers	GDR	1:01.12 (4) 1:02.65 (2)	2:03.77 (2) 1:02.77 (1)	3:06.54 (2) 1:02.22 (1)	4:08.76	OR
2	7	Petra Schneider	GDR	59.57 (1) 1:01.49 (1)	2:01.06 (1) 1:04.06 (4)	3:05.12 (1) 1:04.04 (6)	4:09.16
3	4	Carmela Schmidt	GDR	1:00.97 (2) 1:03.26 (4)	2:04.23 (4) 1:03.73 (2)	3:07.96 (=3) 1:02.90 (3)	4:10.86
4	3	Michelle Ford	AUS	1:01.31 (5) 1:02.76 (3)	2:04.07 (3) 1:03.89 (3)	3:07.96 (=3) 1:03.69 (4)	4:11.65
5	2	Irina Aksyonova	URS	1:01.09 (3) 1:05.44 (7)	2:06.53 (6) 1:05.09 (5)	3:11.62 (6) 1:02.78 (2)	4:14.40
6	5	Annelies Maas	NED	1:01.36 (6) 1:04.28 (5)	2:05.64 (5) 1:05.45 (7)	3:11.09 (5) 1:04.70 (8)	4:15.79
7	1	Reggie de Jong	NED	1:01.75 (7) 1:04.88 (6)	2:06.63 (7) 1:05.27 (6)	3:11.90 (7) 1:04.05 (7)	4:15.95
8	8	Olga Klevakina	URS	1:02.34 (8) 1:06.22 (8)	2:08.56 (8) 1:06.78 (8)	3:15.34 (8) 1:03.84 (5)	4:19.18