| | Event type

400 metres Freestyle, Women

Date	31 July – 2 August 1952
Status	Olympic
Location	Helsingin Uimastadion, Helsinki
Participants	33 from 17 countries

The 400m Freestyle was destined to be a clash between Hungary, the USA and Denmark. The return of world record holder Ragnhild Hveger-Andersen, after a sixteen year Olympic absence, added to the talents of European champion Grete Andersen meant that Denmark would be well represented whilst a trio of talented Hungarians and the American pairing of Evelyn Kawamoto and Carolyn Green could not be discounted. For nearly 300 metres the impossible seemed about to happened as Hveger-Andersen, at 32 and coming back from a 7 year retirement, held off her younger rivals but her early efforts were in vain as four swimmers passed her. The gold medal was decided between two Hungarians, Valéria Gyenge and Éva Novák, with Gyenge edging her more experienced team-mate for the victory.

Pos	Swimmer	NOC	R1	SF	Final
1	Valéria Gyenge	HUN	5:22.6 (1 h3)	5:16.9 (1 h2)	5:12.1 (1)	Gold
2	Éva Novák	HUN	5:19.1 (1 h5)	5:21.3 (2 h1)	5:13.7 (2)	Silver
3	Evelyn Kawamoto	USA	5:16.6 (1 h4)	5:21.2 (1 h1)	5:14.6 (3)	Bronze
4	Carolyn Green	USA	5:23.8 (2 h3)	5:18.3 (2 h2)	5:16.5 (4)
5	Ragnhild Hveger	DEN	5:19.6 (1 h2)	5:19.5 (4 h2)	5:16.9 (5)
6	Éva Székely	HUN	5:20.9 (2 h2)	5:19.3 (3 h2)	5:17.9 (6)
7	Ana María Schultz	ARG	5:26.1 (1 h1)	5:22.0 (3 h1)	5:24.0 (7)
8	Greta Andersen	DEN	5:21.3 (2 h5)	5:22.1 (4 h1)	5:27.0 (8)
9	Joan Harrison	RSA	5:21.8 (3 h4)	5:23.1 (5 h1)	–
10	Judy-Joy Davies	AUS	5:21.2 (3 h2)	5:25.6 (6 h1)	–
11	Daphne Wilkinson	GBR	5:16.6 (2 h4)	5:27.2 (5 h2)	–
12	Delia Meulenkamp	USA	5:21.4 (4 h2)	5:27.9 (6 h2)	–
13	Piedade Coutinho-Tavares	BRA	5:26.9 (3 h5)	5:28.5 (7 h1)	–
14	Denise Norton	AUS	5:28.5 (4 h5)	5:30.9 (7 h2)	–
15	Huguette Peeters	BEL	5:29.8 (2 h1)	5:36.5 (8 h2)	–
16	Ingegärd Fredin	SWE	5:28.7 (4 h4)	– (DNS h1)	–
17	Mette Ove Petersen	DEN	5:30.6 (3 h1)	–	–
18	Grace Wood	GBR	5:31.2 (4 h1)	–	–
19	Lillian Preece	GBR	5:32.1 (5 h2)	–	–
20	Ginette Jany	FRA	5:32.6 (5 h4)	–	–
21	Marianne Lundquist	SWE	5:34.4 (5 h5)	–	–
22	Colette Thomas	FRA	5:36.8 (3 h3)	–	–
23	Elisabeth Rechlin	GER	5:38.0 (4 h3)	–	–
24	Sybille Verckist	BEL	5:40.1 (6 h2)	–	–
25	Josette Arène	FRA	5:44.1 (6 h5)	–	–
26	Irma Heijting-Schuhmacher	NED	5:45.2 (6 h4)	–	–
27	Hannie Termeulen	NED	5:45.5 (5 h3)	–	–
28	Sadako Yamashita	JPN	5:48.4 (7 h4)	–	–
29	Kay McNamee	CAN	5:50.5 (5 h1)	–	–
30	Gladys Priestley	CAN	5:52.7 (6 h3)	–	–
31	Ritva Järvinen	FIN	5:53.5 (7 h2)	–	–
32	Cynthia Eager	HKG	5:55.8 (7 h3)	–	–
33	Misako Tamura	JPN	5:59.0 (7 h5)	–	–
34	Geertje Wielema	NED	6:02.6 (6 h1)	–	–
DNS	Arati Saha	IND	– (DNS h1)	–	–

Round One (31 July 1952 — 10:00)

Fastest 16 advanced to the semi-finals.

Heat One

Pos	Lane	Swimmer	NOC	Time
1	3	Ana María Schultz	ARG	– (–) –	5:26.1	Q
2	2	Huguette Peeters	BEL	– (–) –	5:29.8	Q
3	4	Mette Ove Petersen	DEN	– (–) –	5:30.6
4	6	Grace Wood	GBR	– (–) –	5:31.2
5	7	Kay McNamee	CAN	– (–) –	5:50.5
6	5	Geertje Wielema	NED	– (–) –	6:02.6
DNS	1	Arati Saha	IND	– (–) –	–

Heat Two

Pos	Lane	Swimmer	NOC	Time
1	1	Ragnhild Hveger	DEN	– (–) –	5:19.6	Q
2	4	Éva Székely	HUN	– (–) –	5:20.9	Q
3	6	Judy-Joy Davies	AUS	– (–) –	5:21.2	Q
4	7	Delia Meulenkamp	USA	– (–) –	5:21.4	Q
5	3	Lillian Preece	GBR	– (–) –	5:32.1
6	5	Sybille Verckist	BEL	– (–) –	5:40.1
7	2	Ritva Järvinen	FIN	– (–) –	5:53.5

Heat Three

Pos	Lane	Swimmer	NOC	Time
1	4	Valéria Gyenge	HUN	– (–) –	5:22.6	Q
2	5	Carolyn Green	USA	– (–) –	5:23.8	Q
3	6	Colette Thomas	FRA	– (–) –	5:36.8
4	1	Elisabeth Rechlin	GER	– (–) –	5:38.0
5	7	Hannie Termeulen	NED	– (–) –	5:45.5
6	3	Gladys Priestley	CAN	– (–) –	5:52.7
7	2	Cynthia Eager	HKG	– (–) –	5:55.8

Heat Four

Pos	Lane	Swimmer	NOC	Time
1	7	Evelyn Kawamoto	USA	– (–) –	5:16.6	QOR
2	5	Daphne Wilkinson	GBR	– (–) –	5:16.6	Q=OR
3	6	Joan Harrison	RSA	– (–) –	5:21.8	Q
4	3	Ingegärd Fredin	SWE	– (–) –	5:28.7	Q
5	2	Ginette Jany	FRA	– (–) –	5:32.6
6	4	Irma Heijting-Schuhmacher	NED	– (–) –	5:45.2
7	1	Sadako Yamashita	JPN	– (–) –	5:48.4

Heat Five

Pos	Lane	Swimmer	NOC	Time
1	4	Éva Novák	HUN	– (–) –	5:19.1	Q
2	7	Greta Andersen	DEN	– (–) –	5:21.3	Q
3	6	Piedade Coutinho-Tavares	BRA	– (–) –	5:26.9	Q
4	3	Denise Norton	AUS	– (–) –	5:28.5	Q
5	1	Marianne Lundquist	SWE	– (–) –	5:34.4
6	5	Josette Arène	FRA	– (–) –	5:44.1
7	2	Misako Tamura	JPN	– (–) –	5:59.0

Semi-Finals (1 August 1952 — 10:00)

Fastest eight advanced to the final.

Heat One

Pos	Lane	Swimmer	NOC	Time
1	4	Evelyn Kawamoto	USA	– (–) –	5:21.2	Q
2	5	Éva Novák	HUN	– (–) –	5:21.3	Q
3	7	Ana María Schultz	ARG	– (–) –	5:22.0	Q
4	6	Greta Andersen	DEN	– (–) –	5:22.1	Q
5	2	Joan Harrison	RSA	– (–) –	5:23.1
6	3	Judy-Joy Davies	AUS	– (–) –	5:25.6
7	1	Piedade Coutinho-Tavares	BRA	– (–) –	5:28.5
DNS	8	Ingegärd Fredin	SWE	– (–) –	–

Heat Two

Pos	Lane	Swimmer	NOC	Time
1	2	Valéria Gyenge	HUN	– (–) –	5:16.9	Q
2	7	Carolyn Green	USA	– (–) –	5:18.3	Q
3	3	Éva Székely	HUN	– (–) –	5:19.3	Q
4	5	Ragnhild Hveger	DEN	– (–) –	5:19.5	Q
5	4	Daphne Wilkinson	GBR	– (–) –	5:27.2
6	6	Delia Meulenkamp	USA	– (–) –	5:27.9
7	1	Denise Norton	AUS	– (–) –	5:30.9
8	8	Huguette Peeters	BEL	– (–) –	5:36.5

Final (2 August 1952 — 17:00)

Pos	Lane	Swimmer	NOC	100 m	200 m	300 m	Time
1	4	Valéria Gyenge	HUN	1:13.3 (=4) 1:20.9 (3)	2:34.2 (4) 1:19.3 (2)	3:53.5 (1) 1:18.6 (2)	5:12.1	OR
2	7	Éva Novák	HUN	1:13.8 (7) 1:19.8 (1)	2:33.6 (3) 1:22.1 (5)	3:55.7 (3) 1:18.0 (1)	5:13.7
3	2	Evelyn Kawamoto	USA	1:12.7 (2) 1:20.2 (2)	2:32.9 (2) 1:22.0 (4)	3:54.9 (2) 1:19.7 (3)	5:14.6
4	5	Carolyn Green	USA	1:12.8 (3) 1:21.5 (5)	2:34.3 (5) 1:21.9 (3)	3:56.2 (=5) 1:20.3 (4)	5:16.5
5	6	Ragnhild Hveger	DEN	1:11.7 (1) 1:21.1 (4)	2:32.8 (1) 1:23.4 (6)	3:56.2 (=5) 1:20.7 (5)	5:16.9
6	3	Éva Székely	HUN	1:13.4 (6) 1:23.8 (8)	2:37.2 (8) 1:18.6 (1)	3:55.8 (4) 1:22.1 (6)	5:17.9
7	1	Ana María Schultz	ARG	1:13.3 (=4) 1:22.9 (7)	2:36.2 (6) 1:24.2 (7)	4:00.4 (7) 1:23.6 (7)	5:24.0
8	8	Greta Andersen	DEN	1:14.5 (8) 1:22.0 (6)	2:36.5 (7) 1:26.0 (8)	4:02.5 (8) 1:24.5 (8)	5:27.0