title: Swimming at the 1960 Summer Olympics – Women's 400 metre freestyle
text: # Swimming at the 1960 Summer Olympics – Women's 400 metre freestyle
  
  The women's 400 metre freestyle event at the 1960 Olympic Games took place between August 31 and September 1. This swimming event used freestyle swimming, which means that the method of the stroke is not regulated (unlike backstroke, breaststroke, and butterfly events). Nearly all swimmers use the front crawl or a variant of that stroke. Because an Olympic size swimming pool is 50 metres long, this race consisted of eight lengths of the pool.
  
  ## Medalists
  
  | Gold | Chris von Saltza United States |
  | - | - |
  | Silver | Jane Cederqvist Sweden |
  | Bronze | Tineke Lagerberg Netherlands |
  
  ## Results
  
  ### Heats
  
  Heat 1
  
  | Rank | Athlete | Country | Time |
  | - | - | - | - |
  | 1 | Chris von Saltza | United States | 4:53.6 |
  | 2 | Tineke Lagerberg | Netherlands | 4:57.0 |
  | 3 | Bibbi Segerström | Sweden | 4:57.6 |
  | 4 | Gisela Weiß | Germany | 5:08.6 |
  | 5 | Judy Samuel | Great Britain | 5:08.6 |
  | 6 | Paola Saini | Italy | 5:12.9 |
  | 7 | Kimiko Ezaka | Japan | 5:13.1 |
  | 8 | Eiko Wada | Japan | 5:26.8 |
  
  Heat 2
  
  | Rank | Athlete | Country | Time |
  | - | - | - | - |
  | 1 | Ilsa Konrads | Australia | 4:59.2 |
  | 2 | Corrie Schimmel | Netherlands | 5:00.1 |
  | 3 | Héda Frost | France | 5:00.6 |
  | 4 | Carolyn House | United States | 5:00.7 |
  | 5 | Hillary Wilson | Rhodesia | 5:16.8 |
  | 6 | María Luisa Souza | Mexico | 5:21.3 |
  | 7 | Sigrid Müller | Austria | 5:25.1 |
  
  Heat 3
  
  | Rank | Athlete | Country | Time |
  | - | - | - | - |
  | 1 | Jane Cederqvist | Sweden | 4:55.6 |
  | 2 | Nan Rae | Great Britain | 4:55.7 |
  | 3 | Dawn Fraser | Australia | 4:57.6 |
  | 4 | Ursel Brunner | Germany | 5:05.3 |
  | 5 | Welleda Veschi | Italy | 5:18.3 |
  | 6 | Mária Frank | Hungary | 5:21.9 |
  | 7 | Blanca Barrón | Mexico | 5:26.4 |
  
  ### Final
  
  | Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Notes |
  | - | - | - | - | - |
  | | Chris von Saltza | United States | 4:50.6 | OR |
  | | Jane Cederqvist | Sweden | 4:53.9 | |
  | | Tineke Lagerberg | Netherlands | 4:56.9 | |
  | 4 | Ilsa Konrads | Australia | 4:57.9 | |
  | 5 | Dawn Fraser | Australia | 4:58.5 | |
  | 6 | Nan Rae | Great Britain | 4:59.7 | |
  | 7 | Corrie Schimmel | Netherlands | 5:02.3 | |
  | 8 | Bibbi Segerström | Sweden | 5:02.4 | |
  
  Key: OR = Olympic record
  
  