4 × 200 metres Freestyle Relay, Men

An illustration of how standards in this event have improved since the previous Olympics came when the Canadian swam to within a tenth of a second of the Olympic record but found themselves outside the medals and over a length of the pool behind the winners. The Japanese foursome, with 100 metre champion Yasuji Miyazaki in the roster, swam a time over half a minute inside the old world mark, an average of over eight seconds per man.

The USA were a clear second, with the other teams trailing badly. During the Games, the Japanese became the first country to experiment with the use of bottled Oxygen before competition. Roberto Peper, of the sixth placed Argentine team, was to serve as a member of the IOC for over 20 years, until his death in 1999.