Swimming at the 1980 Summer Olympics – Women's 400 metre individual medley

The women's 400 metre individual medley event at the 1980 Summer Olympics was held on 26 July at the Swimming Pool at the Olimpiysky Sports Complex.

[1] The eventual gold medal winner, Petra Schneider, later admitted that her performance was aided by the use of steroids as part of the East German state-run doping programme.

[2] Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.

The following records were established during the competition: