Swimming at the 1973 World Aquatics Championships – Women's 400 metre individual medley
# Swimming at the 1973 World Aquatics Championships – Women's 400 metre individual medley

The women's 400 metre individual medley competition of the swimming events at the 1973 World Aquatics Championships took place on September 6.

## Records

Prior to the competition, the existing world and championship records were as follows.

| World record | Angela Franke (GDR) | 5:01.10 | Utrecht, Netherlands | 18 August 1973 |
| - | - | - | - | - |
| Competition record | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |

The following records were established during the competition:

| Date | Event | Name | Nationality | Time | Record |
| - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 6 September | Heat | Susan Hunter | New Zealand | 5:08.360 | CR |
| 6 September | Heat | Gudrun Wegner | East Germany | 5:04.036 | CR |
| 6 September | Final | Angela Franke | East Germany | 4:57.511 | WR |

## Results

### Heats

27 swimmers participated in 4 heats.

| Rank | Heat | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 1 | 2 | - | Gudrun Wegner | East Germany | 5:04.036 | Q, CR |
| 2 | 3 | - | Novella Calligaris | Italy | 5:05.464 | Q |
| 3 | 4 | - | Angela Franke | East Germany | 5:05.899 | Q |
| 4 | 1 | - | Susan Hunter | New Zealand | 5:08.360 | Q, CR |
| 5 | 2 | - | Terry Potts | United States | 5:09.030 | Q |
| 6 | 1 | - | Leslie Cliff | Canada | 5:10.098 | Q |
| 7 | 4 | - | Jenny Bartz | United States | 5:10.758 | Q |
| 8 | 3 | - | José Damen | Netherlands | 5:12.175 | Q |
| 9 | 2 | - | Uta Schütz | West Germany | 5:13.412 | |
| 10 | 2 | - | Susan Richardson | Great Britain | 5:13.887 | NR |
| 11 | 1 | - | Yukari Takemoto | Japan | 5:14.005 | |
| 12 | 1 | - | Anita Zarnowiecki | Sweden | 5:15.187 | |
| 13 | 4 | - | Marina Malyutina | Soviet Union | 5:17.056 | |
| 14 | 4 | - | Gail Neall | Australia | 5:17.964 | |
| 15 | 4 | - | Paola Morozzi | Italy | 5:19.419 | |
| 16 | 3 | - | Jennifer McHugh | Canada | 5:21.267 | |
| 17 | 4 | - | Gisela Cerezo | Venezuela | 5:24.615 | |
| 18 | 4 | - | Naoko Shio | Japan | 5:25.049 | |
| 19 | 3 | - | T. Skvortsova | Soviet Union | 5:25.709 | |
| 20 | 3 | - | Roselina Angel | Colombia | 5:25.840 | |
| 21 | 1 | - | Eleni Avlanitou | Greece | 5:32.217 | |
| 22 | 2 | - | Maria Isabel Guerra | Brazil | 5:34.586 | |
| 23 | 2 | - | G. Borras | Argentina | 5:39.117 | |
| 24 | 2 | - | María Mock | Puerto Rico | 5:42.732 | |
| 25 | 1 | - | Myriam Mizouni | Tunisia | 5:48.120 | |
| 26 | 1 | - | Angela López | Puerto Rico | 5:51.895 | |
| 27 | 3 | - | K. Tevajarvi | Finland | | DNS / DSQ |

### Final

The results of the final are below.

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| - | - | - | - | - | - |
| | - | Gudrun Wegner | East Germany | 4:57.511 | WR |
| | - | Angela Franke | East Germany | 5:00.376 | |
| | - | Novella Calligaris | Italy | 5:02.029 | |
| 4 | - | Leslie Cliff | Canada | 5:07.012 | |
| 5 | - | Terry Potts | United States | 5:09.904 | |
| 6 | - | Susan Hunter | New Zealand | 5:10.282 | |
| 7 | - | Jenny Bartz | United States | 5:10.451 | |
| 8 | - | José Damen | Netherlands | 5:15.660 | |
