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. 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
Results
Heats
Heat 1
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Note |
| 1 | Chris von Saltza | | 4:53.6 | |
| 2 | Tineke Lagerberg | | 4:57.0 | |
| 3 | Bibbi Segerström | | 4:57.6 | |
| 4 | Gisela Weiß | | 5:08.6 | |
| 5 | Judy Samuel | | 5:08.6 | |
| 6 | Paola Saini | | 5:12.9 | |
| 7 | Kimiko Ezaka | | 5:13.1 | |
| 8 | Eiko Wada | | 5:26.8 | |
Heat 2
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Note |
| 1 | Ilsa Konrads | | 4:59.2 | |
| 2 | Corrie Schimmel | | 5:00.1 | |
| 3 | Héda Frost | | 5:00.6 | |
| 4 | Carolyn House | | 5:00.7 | |
| 5 | Hillary Wilson | | 5:16.8 | |
| 6 | María Luisa Souza | | 5:21.3 | |
| 7 | Sigrid Müller | | 5:25.1 | |
Heat 3
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Note |
| 1 | Jane Cederqvist | | 4:55.6 | |
| 2 | Nan Rae | | 4:55.7 | |
| 3 | Dawn Fraser | | 4:57.6 | |
| 4 | Ursel Brunner | | 5:05.3 | |
| 5 | Welleda Veschi | | 5:18.3 | |
| 6 | Mária Frank | | 5:21.9 | |
| 7 | Blanca Barrón | | 5:26.4 | |
Final
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Notes |
| Chris von Saltza | | 4:50.6 | OR |
| Jane Cederqvist | | 4:53.9 | |
| Tineke Lagerberg | | 4:56.9 | |
| 4 | Ilsa Konrads | | 4:57.9 | |
| 5 | Dawn Fraser | | 4:58.5 | |
| 6 | Nan Rae | | 4:59.7 | |
| 7 | Corrie Schimmel | | 5:02.3 | |
| 8 | Bibbi Segerström | | 5:02.4 | |
Key: OR = Olympic record
