The only question in this event was how big the United States's margin would be, not if they would win. In the heats, the Americans rested all their best swimmers, sending in the B squad, which still posted the fastest qualifying time. In the final, lead-off Steve Clark opened a bodylength lead over Japan's Makoto Fukui and Roy Saari doubled that on the second leg. Gary Ilman pulled well ahead on the third leg, and Germany moved up to pass the Japanese for second. Donald Schollander swam two seconds faster than the posted 200 freestyle world record on the anchor leg as the American recorded a world record of 7:52.1 for a huge world record, and the first time ever under eight minutes, Germany a full 7.2 seconds behind in second place, as they also bettered eight minutes. Japan held onto third place, their bronze medal in this event their only swimming medal of the Tokyo Olympics. Schollander finished his Olympics with four gold medals, the first swimmer ever to win that many at a single Olympics.
World Rekord: United States (Bill Craig, Richard McGeagh, Walter Richardson, Stephen Clark) 4:00.1 Osaka, Japan 24th September 1963
Olympic Rekord: United States (Frank McKinney 1:02.0, Paul Hait 1:10.5, Lance Larson 58.0, Jeff Farrell 54.9) 4:05.4 Rome, Italy 1 September 1960
`
Heats> - Wednesday, 14th October
Heat 1
time
gap
Round
Rk
_____________
1.
UT Germany
4:06.6
+1.5s
Heat 1
2.
Ernst Küppers 1:02.1, Egon Henninger 1:07.1, Horst-Günther Gregor 1:00.7, Hans-Joachim Klein 56.7s