Women's 400 metre freestyle at the Games of the XXI Olympiad
Medalists
Petra Thümer  East Germany Shirley Babashoff  United States Shannon Smith  Canada
← 1972 1980 →

Swimming at the 1976 Summer Olympics
Freestyle
100 m	men	women
200 m	men	women
400 m	men	women
800 m		women
1500 m	men
Backstroke
100 m	men	women
200 m	men	women
Breaststroke
100 m	men	women
200 m	men	women
Butterfly
100 m	men	women
200 m	men	women
Individual medley
400 m	men	women
Freestyle relay
4 × 100 m		women
4 × 200 m	men
Medley relay
4 × 100 m	men	women
v t e

The women's 400 metre freestyle event for the 1976 Summer Olympics was held in Montreal. The event took place on 20 July.^[1]

Heat 1

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Notes
1	Rebecca Perrott	New Zealand	4:15.71	Q, OR
2	Regina Jäger	East Germany	4:20.05
3	Tracey Wickham	Australia	4:24.44
4	Carine Verbauwen	Belgium	4:26.27
5	María Pérez	Venezuela	4:38.93
6	María París	Costa Rica	4:40.35
7	Vilborg Sverrisdóttir	Iceland	4:48.28

Heat 2

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Notes
1	Brenda Borgh	United States	4:17.20	Q
2	Wendy Quirk	Canada	4:19.69
3	Wendy Lee	Canada	4:20.16
4	Laura Bortolotti	Italy	4:29.71
5	Antonia Real	Spain	4:30.37
6	Fernanda Pérez	Colombia	4:45.73
7	Karen Robertson	Hong Kong	5:03.90

Heat 3

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Notes
1	Annelies Maas	Netherlands	4:17.16	Q
2	Kathy Heddy	United States	4:19.34	Q
3	Susan Barnard	Great Britain	4:30.05
4	Maria Guimarães	Brazil	4:32.63
5	Linda Faber	Netherlands	4:36.98
6	Susana Coppo	Argentina	4:57.41

Heat 4

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Notes
1	Shirley Babashoff	United States	4:16.07	Q
2	Shannon Smith	Canada	4:16.70	Q
3	Sabine Kahle	East Germany	4:19.34	Q
4	Irina Vlasova	Soviet Union	4:21.19
5	Ratchaneewan Bulakul	Thailand	4:32.98
6	Susan Edmondson	Great Britain	4:33.33
7	Diana Hatler	Puerto Rico	4:49.73

Heat 5

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Notes
1	Petra Thümer	East Germany	4:17.20	Q
2	Rosemary Milgate	Australia	4:21.20
3	Jenny Turrall	Australia	4:21.33
4	Allison Calder	New Zealand	4:23.64
5	Eleonora Pandini	Italy	4:34.69
6	Myriam Mizouni	Tunisia	4:43.11
7	Georgina Osorio	Panama	4:49.80

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Notes
	Petra Thümer	East Germany	4:09.89	WR
	Shirley Babashoff	United States	4:10.46
	Shannon Smith	Canada	4:14.60
4	Rebecca Perrott	New Zealand	4:14.76
5	Kathy Heddy	United States	4:15.50
6	Brenda Borgh	United States	4:17.43
7	Annelies Maas	Netherlands	4:17.44
8	Sabine Kahle	East Germany	4:20.42

• Official Olympic Report