Swimming at the 1980 Summer Olympics – Women's 400 metre individual medley

Women's 400 metre individual medley at the Games of the XXII Olympiad
Venue	Swimming Pool at the Olimpiysky Sports Complex
Date	26 July
Competitors	16 from 11 nations
Winning time	4:36.29 WR
Medalists
Petra Schneider  East Germany Sharron Davies  Great Britain Agnieszka Czopek  Poland

Swimming at the 1980 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
Freestyle relay
4 × 100 m		women
4 × 200 m	men
Medley relay
4 × 100 m	men	women

The women's 400 metre individual medley event at the 1980 Summer Olympics was held on 26 July at the Swimming Pool at the Olimpiysky Sports Complex.^[1]

The eventual gold medal winner, Petra Schneider, later admitted that her performance was aided by the use of steroids as part of the East German state-run doping programme.^[2]

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.

World record	Tracy Caulkins (USA)	4:40.83	West Berlin, West Germany	23 August 1978
Olympic record	Ulrike Tauber (GDR)	4:42.77	Montreal, Canada	24 July 1976

The following records were established during the competition:

Date	Event	Name	Nationality	Time	Record
26 July	Final	Petra Schneider	East Germany	4:36.29	WR

Rank	Heat	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	3	Petra Schneider	East Germany	4:46.53	Q
2	3	Agnieszka Czopek	Poland	4:49.04	Q
3	3	Magdalena Białas	Poland	4:51.59	Q
4	2	Ulrike Tauber	East Germany	4:51.97	Q
5	2	Grit Slaby	East Germany	4:52.01	Q
6	1	Sharron Davies	Great Britain	4:52.38	Q
7	1	Olga Klevakina	Soviet Union	4:55.99	Q
8	2	Sonya Dangalakova	Bulgaria	4:56.26	Q
9	2	Christel Fechner	Belgium	4:56.92
10	3	Ann-Sofi Roos	Sweden	4:57.13
11	3	Lisa Curry	Australia	5:01.58
12	1	Sarah Kerswell	Great Britain	5:03.75
13	1	Mariana Paraschiv	Romania	5:04.56
14	3	Irinel Panulescu	Romania	5:07.74
15	3	Catherine Bohan	Ireland	5:21.82
16	1	Maria Pia Ayora	Peru	5:27.19
	1	Klára Gulyás	Hungary	DNS
	2	Michelle Ford	Australia
	2	Lisa Forrest	Australia
	2	Susanne Nielsson	Denmark

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
	Petra Schneider	East Germany	4:36.29	WR
	Sharron Davies	Great Britain	4:46.83
	Agnieszka Czopek	Poland	4:48.17
4	Grit Slaby	East Germany	4:48.54
5	Ulrike Tauber	East Germany	4:49.18
6	Sonya Dangalakova	Bulgaria	4:49.25
7	Olga Klevakina	Soviet Union	4:50.91
8	Magdalena Białas	Poland	4:53.30