Swimming at the 2019 World Aquatics Championships – Women's 400 metre freestyle

The women's 400-metre freestyle competition at the 2019 World Championships was held on 21 July 2019. Ariarne Titmus overcame a .62-second deficit in the last 50 metres to defeat defending champion Katie Ledecky. This was Ledecky's first loss in a major international 400 metre freestyle competition.

Women's 400-metre freestyle at the 2019 World Aquatics Championships
Venue	Nambu University Municipal Aquatics Center
Location	Gwangju, South Korea
Dates	21 July (heats and final)
Competitors	43 from 37 nations
Winning time	3:58.76
Medalists
Ariarne Titmus   Australia   Katie Ledecky   United States   Leah Smith   United States

Records

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

World record	Katie Ledecky (USA)	3:56.46	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	7 August 2016
Competition record	Katie Ledecky (USA)	3:58.34	Budapest, Hungary	23 July 2017

Results

Heats

The heats were held at 11:22.

Rank	Heat	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	5	4	Katie Ledecky	United States	4:01.84	Q
2	4	4	Ariarne Titmus	Australia	4:02.42	Q
3	4	3	Ajna Késely	Hungary	4:03.51	Q
4	4	5	Wang Jianjiahe	China	4:03.97	Q
5	5	5	Leah Smith	United States	4:04.53	Q
6	4	2	Veronika Andrusenko	Russia	4:06.28	Q
7	5	2	Boglárka Kapás	Hungary	4:07.05	Q
8	5	7	Anna Egorova	Russia	4:07.10	Q
9	5	3	Li Bingjie	China	4:07.88
10	5	6	Holly Hibbott	Great Britain	4:07.92
11	4	6	Kiah Melverton	Australia	4:09.56
12	4	8	Emma O'Croinin	Canada	4:09.68
13	3	4	Barbora Seemanová	Czech Republic	4:09.73	NR
14	3	3	Marlene Kahler	Austria	4:10.49
15	4	7	Mireia Belmonte	Spain	4:10.82
16	5	8	Joanna Evans	Bahamas	4:11.06
17	5	0	Erika Fairweather	New Zealand	4:12.30
18	5	9	Valentine Dumont	Belgium	4:12.92
19	3	6	Nguyễn Thị Ánh Viên	Vietnam	4:13.35
20	5	1	Chihiro Igarashi	Japan	4:13.81
21	4	0	Julia Hassler	Liechtenstein	4:13.91
22	2	4	Monique Olivier	Luxembourg	4:14.29	NR
23	3	7	Duné Coetzee	South Africa	4:14.39
24	4	1	Mackenzie Padington	Canada	4:16.06
25	2	6	Laura Lahtinen	Finland	4:16.43	NR
26	3	5	Katja Fain	Slovenia	4:17.57
27	4	9	Diana Durães	Portugal	4:17.87
28	3	0	Gan Ching Hwee	Singapore	4:17.89
29	3	1	Elisbet Gámez	Cuba	4:18.19
30	2	5	Natthanan Junkrajang	Thailand	4:19.00
31	3	8	Nicole Oliva	Philippines	4:20.03
32	3	2	Ryu Ji-won	South Korea	4:21.70
33	2	3	María Álvarez	Colombia	4:22.46
34	2	2	Sara Pastrana	Honduras	4:27.65
35	2	1	Amanda Alfaro	Costa Rica	4:29.91
36	1	3	Talita Te Flan	Ivory Coast	4:34.04
37	2	7	Daila Ismatul	Guatemala	4:34.75
38	3	9	Diana Zlobina	Kazakhstan	4:35.38
39	2	9	Tiana Rabarijaona	Madagascar	4:36.73
40	2	0	Danielle Treasure	Barbados	4:37.22
41	2	8	Raya Embury-Brown	Cayman Islands	4:38.17
42	1	4	Natalia Kuipers	Virgin Islands	4:41.69
43	1	5	Tinatin Kevlishvili	Georgia	4:49.73

Final

The final was held at 20:33.

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
	5	Ariarne Titmus	Australia	3:58.76	OC
	4	Katie Ledecky	United States	3:59.97
	2	Leah Smith	United States	4:01.29
4	3	Ajna Késely	Hungary	4:01.31	NR
5	6	Wang Jianjiahe	China	4:03.67
6	1	Boglárka Kapás	Hungary	4:05.36
7	8	Anna Egorova	Russia	4:06.16
8	7	Veronika Andrusenko	Russia	4:08.60