The men's 4 × 200-metre freestyle relay was a swimming event held as part of the swimming at the 1936 Summer Olympics programme.[ 1] It was the seventh appearance of the event, which was established in 1908. The competition was held on Monday and Tuesday, 10 and 11 August 1936.
Seventy-four swimmers from 18 nations competed.
Note: The International Olympic Committee medal database shows only these swimmers as medalists. Ralph Gilman and Charles Hutter swam for the United States in the semi-finals but were not credited with silver medals.
These were the standing world and Olympic records (in minutes) prior to the 1936 Summer Olympics.
In the final the Japan set a new world record with 8:51.5 minutes.
Monday, 10 August 1936: The fastest two in each semi-final and the next two fastest from across the semi-finals advanced to the final.
Semifinal 1
Place Swimmers Time Qual. 1 René Cavalero , Artem Nakache , Christian Talli , and Jean Taris (FRA ) 9:21.7 QQ 2 Munroe Bourne , Bob Hamerton , Robert Hooper , and Bob Pirie (CAN ) 9:40.0 QQ 3 Aluizio Lage , Leônidas da Silva , Manoel Villar , and Isaac Moraes (BRA ) 9:42.5 4 Jikirum Adjaluddin , Arsad Alpad , Nils Christiansen , and José Obial (PHI ) 9:45.8 5 Edmund Cooper , Leonard Spence , Dudley Spurling , and John Young (BER ) 10:50.5 6 Rikhardos Brousalis , Spyridon Mavrogiorgos , Panagiotis Provatopoulos , and Angelos Vlakhos (GRE ) 10:51.0
Semifinal 2
Place Swimmers Time Qual. 1 Ralph Gilman , Charles Hutter , Jack Medica , and Paul Wolf (USA ) 9:10.4 QQ 2 Oszkár Abay-Nemes , Ferenc Csik , Ödön Gróf , and Árpád Lengyel (HUN ) 9:20.8 QQ 3 Mostyn Ffrench-Williams , Romund Gabrielsen , Bob Leivers , and Norman Wainwright (GBR ) 9:30.8 qq 4 Poul Petersen , Jørgen Jørgensen , Aage Hellstrøm , and John Christensen (DEN ) 9:39.6 5 Herbert Hnatek , Franz Seltenheim , Edmund Pader , and Günther Zobernig (AUT ) 10:58.4 6 Norbert Franck , Pierre Hastert , Marcel Neumann , and Georges Tandel (LUX ) 10:59.8 — Kazimierz Bocheński , Helmut Barysz , Joachim Karliczek , and Ilja Szrajbman (POL ) DSQ
Semifinal 3
Place Swimmers Time Qual. 1 Shigeo Arai , Shigeo Sugiura , Masaharu Taguchi , and Masanori Yusa (JPN ) 8:56.1 QQ 2 Helmuth Fischer , Hermann Heibel , Wolfgang Heimlich , and Werner Plath (GER ) 9:21.4 QQ 3 Björn Borg , Sten-Olof Bolldén , Sven-Pelle Pettersson , and Gunnar Werner (SWE ) 9:35.3 qq 4 Draško Vilfan , Tone Gazzari , Zmaj Defilipis, and Tone Cerer (YUG ) 9:40.3 5 Higazi Said , Ibrahim Fadl , Mahmoud Kadri , and Saad El-Din Zaki (EGY ) 10:05.3
Tuesday, 11 August 1936:
Place Swimmers Time 1 Masanori Yusa , Shigeo Sugiura , Masaharu Taguchi , and Shigeo Arai (JPN ) 8:51.5 WR 2 Ralph Flanagan , John Macionis , Paul Wolf , and Jack Medica (USA ) 9:03.0 3 Árpád Lengyel , Oszkár Abay-Nemes , Ödön Gróf , and Ferenc Csik (HUN ) 9:12.3 4 Alfred Nakache , Christian Talli , René Cavalero , and Jean Taris (FRA ) 9:18.2 5 Werner Plath , Hermann Heibel , Wolfgang Heimlich , and Helmuth Fischer (GER ) 9:19.0 6 Mostyn Ffrench-Williams , Romund Gabrielsen , Bob Leivers , and Norman Wainwright (GBR ) 9:21.5 7 Munroe Bourne , Bob Hamerton , Robert Hooper , and Bob Pirie (CAN ) 9:27.5 8 Björn Borg , Sten-Olof Bolldén , Sven-Pelle Pettersson , and Gunnar Werner (SWE ) 9:37.5
1908 : John Derbyshire , Paul Radmilovic , William Foster , Henry Taylor (GBR ) 1912 : Cecil Healy , Malcolm Champion , Leslie Boardman , Harold Hardwick (ANZ ) 1920 : Perry McGillivray , Pua Kealoha , Norman Ross , Duke Kahanamoku (USA ) 1924 : Johnny Weissmuller , Wally O'Connor , Harry Glancy , Ralph Breyer (USA ) 1928 : Johnny Weissmuller , Austin Clapp , Walter Laufer , George Kojac (USA ) 1932 : Masanori Yusa , Yasuji Miyazaki , Takashi Yokoyama , Hisakichi Toyoda (JPN ) 1936 : Masanori Yusa , Shigeo Sugiura , Shigeo Arai , Masaharu Taguchi (JPN ) 1948 : Wally Ris , Jimmy McLane , Wally Wolf , Bill Smith (USA ) 1952 : Wayne Moore , Bill Woolsey , Ford Konno , Jimmy McLane (USA ) 1956 : Kevin O'Halloran , John Devitt , Murray Rose , Jon Henricks (AUS ) 1960 : George Harrison , Dick Blick , Mike Troy , Jeff Farrell (USA ) 1964 : Don Schollander , Steve Clark , Roy Saari , Gary Ilman (USA ) 1968 : Don Schollander , Mark Spitz , John Nelson , Stephen Rerych (USA ) 1972 : Mark Spitz , John Kinsella , Fred Tyler , Steve Genter (USA ) 1976 : Mike Bruner , Bruce Furniss , John Naber , Jim Montgomery (USA ) 1980 : Sergey Koplyakov , Vladimir Salnikov , Ivar Stukolkin , Andrey Krylov (URS ) 1984 : Mike Heath , David Larson , Jeff Float , Bruce Hayes (USA ) 1988 : Troy Dalbey , Matt Cetlinski , Doug Gjertsen , Matt Biondi (USA ) 1992 : Dmitry Lepikov , Vladimir Pyshnenko , Veniamin Tayanovich , Yevgeny Sadovyi , Aleksey Kudryavtsev , Yury Mukhin (EUN ) 1996 : Josh Davis , Joe Hudepohl , Brad Schumacher , Ryan Berube , Jon Olsen (USA ) 2000 : Ian Thorpe , Michael Klim , Todd Pearson , Bill Kirby , Grant Hackett , Daniel Kowalski (AUS ) 2004 : Michael Phelps , Ryan Lochte , Peter Vanderkaay , Klete Keller , Dan Ketchum , Scott Goldblatt (USA ) 2008 : Michael Phelps , Ryan Lochte , Ricky Berens , Peter Vanderkaay , David Walters , Erik Vendt , Klete Keller (USA ) 2012 : Ryan Lochte , Conor Dwyer , Ricky Berens , Michael Phelps , Charlie Houchin , Matt McLean , Davis Tarwater (USA ) 2016 : Conor Dwyer , Townley Haas , Ryan Lochte , Michael Phelps , Clark Smith , Jack Conger , Gunnar Bentz (USA ) 2020 : Tom Dean , James Guy , Matt Richards , Duncan Scott , Calum Jarvis (GBR ) 2024 : James Guy , Tom Dean , Matt Richards , Duncan Scott , Jack McMillan , Kieran Bird (GBR )