Swimming at the 2016 Summer Olympics – Women's 400 metre individual medley
| Women's 400 metre individual medley at the Games of the XXXI Olympiad
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| Venue | Olympic Aquatics Stadium | ||||||||||||
| Dates | 6 August 2016 | ||||||||||||
| Competitors | 33 from 23 nations | ||||||||||||
| Winning time | 4:26.36 WR | ||||||||||||
| Medalists | |||||||||||||
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Katinka Hosszú |
 Hungary
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Maya DiRado |
 United States
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Mireia Belmonte |
 Spain
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The women's 400 metre individual medley event at the 2016 Summer Olympics took place on 6 August at the Olympic Aquatics Stadium.
Four years after narrowly missing the podium in London, Hungary's Katinka Hosszú, nicknamed the "Iron Lady", opened her redemptive Games by dominating the 400 m individual medley with a new world record and the first title of her Olympic career. Dominating the race from the very start, she pulled away from the field to a gold-medal finish with a 4:26.36. Hosszú's swim also demolished the world record of 4:28.43, set by China's Ye Shiwen at the previous Games. Trailing behind the leader by almost five seconds, U.S. swimmer Maya DiRado turned ahead of the world-record pace for over half the race, and managed to finish with a silver in 4:31.15. Meanwhile, Spain's Mireia Belmonte rounded out the podium with a bronze in 4:32.39, edging out Great Britain's Hannah Miley (4:32.54) in a tight battle to fourth by 0.15 of a second.
Canada's Emily Overholt finished fifth with a 4:34.70, and was shortly followed by London 2012 runner-up Elizabeth Beisel of the United States (4:34.98). Miley's teammate Aimee Willmott (4:35.04) and Japan's Sakiko Shimizu (4:38.06) rounded out the final.
Reigning Olympic champion Ye Shiwen missed a chance to defend her title in the final, after finishing 27th out of 33 swimmers in the prelims.
Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.
The following records were established during the competition:
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