2024 AUSTRALIAN OPEN CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Wednesday, April 17th – Saturday, April 20th
- Prelims at 10am local (8pm previous night ET), Finals at 6pm local (4am ET)
- Gold Coast Aquatic Centre, Queensland, Australia
- LCM (50m)
- Non-Olympic Qualifying Event
- Women’s Races to Watch/Men’s Races to Watch
- Meet Central
- Final Start List
- Live Results (also available via Meet Mobile: “2024 Australian Open Championships”)
- Australian Channel 9 Livestream / YouTube Livestream
MEN’S 400 FREESTYLE — FINAL
- World Record – 3:40.07, Paul Biedermann (2009)
- Australian Record – 3:40.08, Ian Thorpe (2002)
- Commonwealth Record – 3:40.08, Ian Thorpe (2002)
- Australian Olympic QT – 3:45.43
GOLD – Elijah Winnington, 3:41.41
SILVER – Sam Short, 3:41.64
BRONZE – Kim Woomin, 3:45.12
Elijah Winnington and Sam Short posted the fastest two times in the World so far this season in the men’s 400 freestyle on night 1 of the Australian Open Championships as Winnington swam a 3:41.41 and Short was just behind in a 3:41.64. Those are the fastest two times this year by over a second.
Top 5 Times In The World This Season
- Elijah Winnington, AUS, 3:41.41 (April 2024)
- Sam Short, AUS, 3:41.64 (April 2024)
- Woomin Kim, KOR, 3:42.71 (2024 Worlds)
- Lucas Martens, GER, 3:42.96 (2024 Worlds)
- Guilherme Costa, BRA, 3:44.22 (2024 Worlds)
The previous top time in the world this season stood at a 3:42.71 from Woomin Kim of South Korea who swam that time to win the event at the 2024 World Championships in Doha in February. Notably, Winnington finished just behind Kim in a 3:42.86. Winnington now leads the way *for the moment* with the Paris Olympics approaching this summer.
It is important to note that today’s meet was not an Olympic selection meet as Australian Trials are in June.
Finishing behind Winnington was Sam Short, who won the 2023 World Championship title in the event in a 3:40.68, a time that stands as his personal best time. Winnington and Short won back-to-back World titles in the event for Australia as Winnington won the 2022 World title in a 3:41.22, a time that still stands as his personal best before Short won the title in a 2023.
For both swimmers, today’s swims were their fastest swim since winning their respective World Titles. Neither swimmer had been under the 3:42 mark since their World titles in 2022 and 2023.
nothing more on SS brand than the phelps stans turning this into a chat about what phelps woulda done
I love how this article is about Sam and Elijah but the American commenters here ignore that and go to talk about themselves and dream about Michael Phelps could’ve/should’ve had the WR😂
if i had a dollar for every ‘Merican on the internet saying that phelps would have the 1500m lcm world record if he swam it
Hafnoui, Maartens and Woomin will be strong in Paris but I think Short and Winnington might have the edge. The heats will be brutal and will take 3.44 or 3.45 to qualify. The Australians look better at doing what’s needed in the heats whilst holding something in reserve. I expect a winning time of 3.39.
Watch the winning time be 3:41 hahaha
I agree, these boys are getting close to the WR and now going 3.41 in a domestic meet without a full taper – I too can see a 3.39 in Paris.
Remember too this is an outdoor pool, at night in mid-Autumn……
What does that mean?
I think he means conditions were far from perfect for such fast swimming.
Why have the American men been so uncompetitive in the 200/400 free for the last 5 or 6 years? And if you took Finke out of the picture, it would be that way all the way up to the 1500.
Arguably, they’ve been uncompetitive in the 400 for 30-40 years. The 90s were pretty bleak.
USA has been good most Olympic years for awhile bc honestly besides a few studs the worlds best has been stuck around 3:43-45 until pretty recently. Luka is the best chance the US has now to break into the low 3:40 range
Smith 400 free Medal in Tokyo was pretty much unexpected.. that final was overall bad..Hafnaoui gold time would not even medal on 2022 World..
But Current Situation of US on 400 free seems much worse.. you had smith medal, Vanderkay medal, Jensen, Keller.. But DiCarlo 1984 win was just because Salkinov was not there
In fairness, Lochte and Phelps probably could have been pretty competitive in these events in the 2004-2012 range had they focused on them. Given how he was swimming in Beijing, Phelps probably wins the 400 free if he swam it instead of the 400 IM. It would have been a lot closer, but he would likely have been the favorite given what he did in the 200 free and 400 IM.
I do not know If Phelps could beat Park 3:41 at Beijing.. a 3:43 maybe?
Also, Do not know if anyone could beat 2004 Thorpe and 2012 Yang..
Yeah. That’s why I only said competitive. Park/Phelps in the 400 free in 2008 would have been a great race. Given what Phelps did to Park in the 200 and how good he was in the IM, I wouldn’t discount him going 340-341.
2004 thorpe was not a fast thorpe. U mean 2002 thorpe
Interestingly, Phelps and bowman set a goal of 3:39.0 during the lead up to Beijing if he was going to swim it and had the splits at 52.0-56.0-56.0-55.0 going out in like 1:48.0 and coming back in 1:51.0
https://swimswam.com/beyond-the-8-golds-michael-phelps-goal-times-for-the-2008-beijing-olympics/
https://swimswam.com/beyond-the-8-golds-michael-phelps-goal-times-for-the-2008-beijing-olympics/#comment-804317
I think Phelps could have had a shot at going sub-3:40, but in order to do so he needed to race the 400 a lot more than he ever did. The only year he really attempted it was 2005, and he flopped in that event at worlds, going 3:50. I am guessing part of the problem is that he simply didn’t race that event enough.
Obviously, the 2008-era Phelps was incredible in the 200 free, and also the 400 IM. But getting the pacing right in the 400 free is not an automatic.
Also, there are a lot of people who have a great freestyle at the end of the 400 IM, who don’t manage to do that well… Read more »
Phelps absolutely would have beaten Park in Beijing lmao. He dusted him in the 200 free two days after winning the 400 IM by 2.3 seconds.
Phelps tried the 400 free at worlds and failed completely. You’re delusional
Dude he went 3:46 in 2003 while not prioritizing it at all. 2005 was a big off year for him in a lot of ways. He went 1:55 in the 200 fly that year and 18 months later was going 1:52.0 lol
Had he actually focused on racing the 400 free more often and replaced the 400 IM with it he would definitely would have won in it in Beijing. He obviously had much greater speed than Park and comparable aerobic fitness.
Phelps did try the 400, he got 18th at worlds in 05.
I always wondered what the heck happened to Phelps in the 400 free at the 2005 worlds. He obviously wasn’t at his best that year (he usually wasn’t at his best the year after the Olympics), but I wouldn’t have thought he would do as badly as he did. He went 3:47 at the world trials, but then only went 3:50 in the prelims at worlds.
but I guess a silver medal is not competitive according to the OP. I wonder where he or she is from?
I guess it doesn’t matter that much since the US gets the most medals out of any country on the planet.
And DiCarlo got beat by a guy in the consoles
Correct: Thomas Fahrner!
When Keller got Bronze in 2000, he was 7 seconds behind Thorpe . (3:47 vs 3:40). I remember people were excited by Keller’s result at the Olympic trials (which I think was also 3:47) because his final 50 was very fast, nearly as fast as Thorpe’s final 50. That, plus he was new on the scene and only 17 or 18 years old. So that gave the USA middle distance some hope. But there was still a huge gap. Thorpe had already been at least 3:41 at that point.
Things got a little better after that; Thorpe slowed down and the US swimmers got a bit faster. But I tend to discount the 2008-2009 era (and not just Paul… Read more »
we have a few guys that can go under 1:45. So, by saying uncompetitive you must mean winning a medal? I’d say we have a 800 free relay that will be ready to get on that podium in the Summer.
Wouldn’t say that about the 200 anymore. Foster, Smith, Hobson, and Mitchell/Julian/Alexy/Guiliano give us arguably a better relay than the Aussies
Our 400 freestyle depth is a complete joke right now. For gods sake Tunisia has more depth than we do in that event.
I agree that USA has a better relay than Aus but why are you including Alexy? His PB is a 1:53 as far as I can see. MOC is faster than that.
he just went a 1:29 in SCY and he’s a way better LCM swimmer
200scy is totally different from 200LCM
Alexy is a better LCM swimmer than an SCY swimmer buddy
Until its not
Yeah conversions don’t work like that. Maybe wait til he’s faster than the women before handing him a spot in the relay
The 200scy means 8 lengths of the pool. If a swimmer uses 15 yds underwater then he will swim about 10 yds on the surface. That means 120 yds underwater and only 80yds on the surface. The 100 lcm is 2 lengths of a 50m pool (50m = 55yds) and thus a swimmer will swim 15×2 = 30yds underwater and 80yds on the surface. So, the 100lcm = 200scy on the surface, but there is a big discrepancy underwater (30yds in the 100lcm vs 120yds in the 200scy). However, if a very good 100lcm swimmer can swim 120yds underwater fairly well, then he should be able to swim a very good time in the 200scy.
I’d love to see a medal count of US men’s 200/400 free compared to any other US medal count, maybe like for the last 10 Olympics+World Championships. I’d do it myself but I’m lazy.
Historical record don’t matter
What matters is what we do this time around
Unless the whole topic of conversation is recent historic results.
I’ll wait to see what the aussies do in the 200 this week before assuming US has a better relay. Their top swimmers are going really fast. I don’t know if they have 4 or not.
Winnington, Fast, Crush…. what are some other fast swimmers that we have heard of with gansta last names? I know a few but they arent coming to mind.
Stubblety-Cook and Torepe-Ormsby conquer them all
https://www.worldaquatics.com/athletes/1132738/shaun-champion
and the winner is …
Montana CHAMPAGNE | Results | World Aquatics Official
Meanwhile, male contingent of USA Swimming are stuck in the Dark Ages.
Why cant US go this fast?
I believe these are the 3rd and 5th fastest in season times ever