Swimming at the 1972 Summer Olympics – Men's 400 metre freestyle Swimming at the 1972 Summer Olympics – Men's 400 metre freestyle The men's 400 metre freestyle event at the 1972 Olympic Games took place September 1. This swimming event used freestyle swimming, which means that the method of the stroke is not regulated (unlike backstroke, breaststroke, and butterfly events). 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. Rick DeMont of the United States originally won the gold medal in 4:00.26. Following the race, the International Olympic
Swimming pool and drink coffee at the same time. The last swimmers managed to overturn the raft, to the amusement of 150 spectators. The Amateur Swimming Association was founded in 1869 in England, and the Oxford Swimming Club in 1909. The presence of indoor baths in the cobbled area of Merton Street might have persuaded the less hardy of the aquatic brigade to join. So, bathers gradually became swimmers, and bathing pools became swimming pools.. In 1939, Oxford created its first major public indoor pool at Temple Cowley. The modern Olympic Games started in 1896 and included swimming races, after which the