Going into the event, Germany's Lukas Märtens was the favourite, while South KoreanKim Woo-min and AustraliansElijah Winnington and Samuel Short were also among the top contenders. In the final, Märtens led from beginning to end to take gold with a time of 3:41.78, while Winnington took silver and Woo-min took bronze. The win won Märtens the first swimming gold medal of the games.
Each National Olympic Committee (NOC) was permitted to enter a maximum of two qualified athletes in each individual event, but only if both of them had attained the Olympic Qualifying Time (OQT).[5] For this event, the OQT was 3:46.78 seconds. World Aquatics then considered athletes qualifying through universality; NOCs were given one event entry for each gender, which could be used by any athlete regardless of qualification time, providing the spaces had not already been taken by athletes from that nation who had achieved the OQT.[5][6] Finally, the rest of the spaces were filled by athletes who had met the Olympic Consideration Time (OCT), which was 3:47.91 for this event.[5] In total, 23 athletes qualified through achieving the OQT, 13 athletes qualified through universality places and two athletes qualified through achieving the OCT.[6]
Heats
Five heats took place on 27 July 2024, starting at 10:45.[a] The swimmers with the best eight times in the heats advanced to the final.[1]Guyana's Raekwon Noel beat his own national record in the first heat, setting it at 4:02.29. Eduardo Cisternas from Chile also lowered his national record by over two and a half seconds to 3:51.29. Austria's Felix Auböck did not qualify.[7]
The final took place at 19:42 on 27 July.[9] Germany's Lukas Märtens led the race from beginning to end,[10] with both Märtens and South Korean Kim Woo-min splitting below Paul Biedermann's world record pace.[b] Through the rest of the race, Märtens held on for gold with a time of 3:41.78 while Australia's Elijah Winnington overtook Woo-min to take silver with 3:42.21.[12][13] Woo-min took the bronze with 3:42.50.[12][14] Brazil's Guilherme Costa set a new Americas record of 3:42.76, beating Larsen Jensen's 16 year old time of 3:42.78.[15] The win won Märtens the first swimming gold medal of the games.[16]
^Biedermann set the world record of 3:40.07 at the 2009 World Championships, during the supersuit era.[11] Upon winning the race but not breaking the world record, Märtens said "A lot of people expected the record to fall — I don’t give a shit, I am on top now".[10]
