Swimming at the 2011 World Aquatics Championships – Men's 400 metre individual medley
The men's 400 metre individual medley competition of the swimming events was held on July 31 with the semifinals and the final.Records
Prior to the competition, the existing world and championship records were as follows.
| Name | Nation | Time | Location | Date |
| World record | Michael Phelps | | 4:03.84 | Beijing | August 10, 2008 |
| Championship record | Michael Phelps | | 4:06.22 | Melbourne | April 1, 2007 |
Results
Heats
34 swimmers participated in 5 heats.
| Rank | Heat | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 5 | 4 | Ryan Lochte | | 4:11.89 | Q |
| 2 | 5 | 3 | Yuya Horihata | | 4:13.68 | Q |
| 3 | 3 | 3 | Huang Chaosheng | | 4:14.07 | Q |
| 4 | 4 | 4 | Tyler Clary | | 4:14.98 | Q |
| 5 | 3 | 7 | Ioannis Drymonakos | | 4:15.01 | Q |
| 5 | 5 | 5 | Dávid Verrasztó | | 4:15.01 | Q |
| 7 | 4 | 5 | Wang Chengxiang | | 4:16.45 | Q |
| 8 | 4 | 3 | Roberto Pavoni | | 4:16.48 | Q |
| 9 | 4 | 7 | Riaan Schoeman | | 4:16.53 | |
| 10 | 4 | 6 | Joseph Roebuck | | 4:16.95 | |
| 11 | 5 | 6 | Yannick Lebherz | | 4:17.31 | |
| 12 | 4 | 1 | Dinko Jukić | | 4:17.36 | |
| 13 | 5 | 1 | Thomas Fraser-Holmes | | 4:18.49 | |
| 14 | 3 | 1 | Diogo Carvalho | | 4:18.68 | |
| 15 | 2 | 4 | Jung Won-Yong | | 4:18.98 | |
| 16 | 2 | 3 | Taki M'rabet | | 4:18.99 | |
| 17 | 5 | 7 | Maksym Shemberev | | 4:19.29 | |
| 18 | 4 | 2 | Luca Marin | | 4:19.48 | |
| 19 | 3 | 6 | Federico Turrini | | 4:19.50 | |
| 20 | 4 | 8 | Raphael Stacchiotti | | 4:20.64 | NR |
| 21 | 5 | 8 | Andrew Ford | | 4:20.87 | |
| 22 | 3 | 4 | László Cseh | | 4:22.26 | |
| 23 | 5 | 2 | Gal Nevo | | 4:25.96 | |
| 24 | 2 | 2 | Nuttapong Ketin | | 4:26.41 | |
| 25 | 3 | 2 | Mitch Larkin | | 4:26.91 | |
| 26 | 2 | 1 | Aleksey Derlyugov | | 4:27.19 | |
| 27 | 2 | 5 | Pedro Pinotes | | 4:28.81 | |
| 28 | 3 | 8 | Ezequiel Trujillo Aviles | | 4:30.85 | |
| 29 | 2 | 7 | Morad Berrada | | 4:31.97 | |
| 30 | 2 | 8 | Diego Castillo | | 4:32.39 | |
| 31 | 1 | 4 | Marko Blazevski | | 4:32.96 | |
| 32 | 1 | 5 | Rafael Alfaro | | 4:35.84 | |
| 33 | 2 | 6 | Võ Thái Nguyên | | 4:41.02 | |
| 34 | 1 | 3 | Ahmed Atari | | 5:16.80 | |
| – | 1 | 6 | Adbulrahman Alishaq | | | DNS |
| – | 3 | 5 | Thiago Pereira | | | DNS |
Final
The final was held at 18:09.
| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 4 | Ryan Lochte | | 4:07.13 | |
| 6 | Tyler Clary | | 4:11.17 | |
| 5 | Yuya Horihata | | 4:11.98 | NR |
| 4 | 3 | Huang Chaosheng | | 4:13.62 | |
| 5 | 2 | Ioannis Drymonakos | | 4:14.62 | NR |
| 6 | 7 | Dávid Verrasztó | | 4:15.67 | |
| 7 | 1 | Wang Chengxiang | | 4:15.89 | |
| 8 | 8 | Roberto Pavoni | | 4:19.85 | |
