Swimming at the 1988 Summer Olympics – Men's 400 metre individual medley
The men's 400 metre individual medley event at the 1988 Summer Olympics took place between 20–21 September at the Jamsil Indoor Swimming Pool in Seoul, South Korea.Records
Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.
The following records were established during the competition:
| Date | Round | Name | Nation | Time | Record |
| 20 September | Heat 5 | Tamás Darnyi | | 4:16.55 | |
| 21 September | Final A | Tamás Darnyi | | 4:14.75 | |
Results
Heats
Rule: The eight fastest swimmers advance to final A, while the next eight to final B.
| Rank | Heat | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 5 | Tamás Darnyi | | 4:16.55 | Q, |
| 2 | 3 | Patrick Kühl | | 4:18.60 | Q |
| 3 | 5 | Stefano Battistelli | | 4:20.43 | Q |
| 4 | 4 | David Wharton | | 4:20.84 | Q |
| 5 | 4 | József Szabó | | 4:20.85 | Q |
| 6 | 4 | Jens-Peter Berndt | | 4:20.93 | Q |
| 7 | 5 | Peter Bermel | | 4:22.78 | Q |
| 8 | 5 | Luca Sacchi | | 4:23.37 | Q |
| 9 | 3 | Christophe Bordeau | | 4:23.46 | q |
| 10 | 3 | Jeff Kostoff | | 4:24.10 | q |
| 11 | 5 | Jon Kelly | | 4:24.62 | q |
| 12 | 3 | Robert Bruce | | 4:25.15 | q |
| 13 | 3 | Mikhail Zubkov | | 4:25.30 | q |
| 14 | 5 | Rob Woodhouse | | 4:25.60 | q |
| 15 | 5 | Charalambos Papanikolaou | | 4:26.72 | q |
| 16 | 4 | Paul Brew | | 4:27.22 | q |
| 17 | 4 | Yoshiyuki Mizumoto | | 4:28.11 | |
| 18 | 3 | Laurent Journet | | 4:29.03 | |
| 19 | 2 | Ondřej Bureš | | 4:29.62 | |
| 20 | 3 | Salvador Vassallo | | 4:30.37 | |
| 21 | 2 | Javier Careaga | | 4:30.71 | |
| 22 | 2 | Rui Borges | | 4:30.79 | |
| 23 | 5 | Michael Meldrum | | 4:31.74 | |
| 24 | 2 | Renato Ramalho | | 4:31.95 | |
| 25 | 3 | Takahiro Fujimoto | | 4:33.03 | |
| 26 | 2 | Diogo Madeira | | 4:35.00 | |
| 27 | 4 | Martín López-Zubero | | 4:35.68 | |
| 28 | 2 | Lee Jae-soo | | 4:40.46 | |
| 29 | 1 | Jonathan Sakovich | | 4:44.78 | |
| 30 | 2 | René Concepcion | | 4:48.00 | |
| 31 | 1 | Sultan Al-Otaibi | | 4:50.16 | |
| 32 | 1 | Julian Bolling | | 4:53.61 | |
| 2 | Desmond Koh | | | |
| 4 | John Davey | | | |
| 4 | Jan Bidrman | | | |
Finals
Final B
Final A
