Women's 400 metre freestyle at the I959 Pan American Games
Venue	-
Dates	September 2 (preliminaries), September 6 (finals)
Medalists
Chris von Saltza   United States   Sylvia Ruuska   United States   Donna Graham   United States
«1955 1963»

The women's 400 metre freestyle competition of the swimming events at the 1959 Pan American Games took place on 2 September (preliminaries) ^[1][2] and 6 September (finals).^[3] The last Pan American Games champion was Beth Whittall of Canada.^{[4][5][6][7][8]}

This race consisted of eight lengths of the pool, with all eight being in the freestyle stroke.^[9]

All times are in minutes and seconds.

The first round was held on September 2.^[1]

Rank	Heat	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	1	Chris von Saltza	United States	4:58.1	Q, GR
2	2	Sylvia Ruuska	United States	5:00.1	Q
3	1	Donna Graham	United States	5:11.5	Q
4	1	Maria Luísa Sousa	Mexico	5:22.0	Q
5	2	Blanca Barrón	Mexico	5:22.4	Q
6	1	Katy Campbell	Canada	5:25.1	Q
7	1	Susan Sangster	Canada	5:25.7	Q
8	1	Maria Teixeira	Brazil	5:37.2	Q
-	2	Lilian Moreira	Brazil	5:40.1
-	2	Glória Funaro	Brazil	5:46.4

The final was held on September 6.^[3]

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
	Chris von Saltza	United States	4:55.9	GR
	Sylvia Ruuska	United States	5:03.4
	Donna Graham	United States	5:03.5
4	Katy Campbell	Canada	5:19.8
5	Blanca Barrón	Mexico	5:20.0
6	Maria Luísa Sousa	Mexico	5:21.5
7	-	-	-
8	Glória Funaro	Brazil	5:44.0