Athletics at the 2024 Summer Olympics – Women's 400 metres hurdles explained

Event:	Women's 400 metres hurdles
Games:	2024 Summer
Venue:	Stade de France, Paris, France
Competitors:	40
Win Value:	50.37
Gold:	Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone
Goldnoc:	USA
Silver:	Anna Cockrell
Silvernoc:	USA
Bronze:	Femke Bol
Bronzenoc:	NED
Prev:	2020
Next:	2028

The women's 400 metres hurdles at the 2024 Summer Olympics was held in four rounds at the Stade de France in Paris, France, from 4 to 8 August 2024. This was the eleventh time that the women's 400 metres hurdles was contested at the Summer Olympics. A total of 40 athletes were able to qualify for the event by entry standard or ranking.

Summary

In one of the most anticipated races of these Olympics, returning gold medalist Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone had improved the world record five times, each year at the U.S. Championships while qualifying and then at the major championship. Leading up to these championships, she set the record again at the U.S. Trials. 2023 was the odd year, as McLaughlin-Levrone set her sights on the flat 400 metres, becoming the #11 performer of all time in that event before getting injured. Third in Tokyo behind Dalilah Muhammad #3 of all time, Femke Bol had risen to silver at the 2022 World Championships and in McLaughlin-Levrone's absence won gold in 2023. Earlier in 2024, Bol ran 50.95 at the record-setting track in La Chaux-de-Fonds, becoming the #2 performer in history. She also toyed with the flat 400, setting the indoor world record twice earlier in the season. The rest of the top contenders looked to be racing for bronze. Rushell Clayton and Anna Cockrell had set their best times at their respective trials.

In the Olympic final, McLaughlin-Levrone went out fastest over the first hurdle with Jasmine Jones second. McLaughlin-Levrone continued conservatively for herself down the backstretch, gaining on Bol, who was in her sights immediately to her outside. By the 200, McLaughlin-Levrone had made up the stagger on Bol. Instead of the anticipated surge by Bol, McLaughlin-Levrone just continued to pull ahead to an insurmountable lead and successfully defended her Olympic title. To Bol's outside, Cockrell was not broken. Cockrell took the final hurdle smoothly, passing Bol, and she surged ahead to run in for silver. Bol won her second consecutive Olympic bronze medal in this event.^[1]

McLaughlin-Levrone set a new world record at 50.37. Anna Cockrell became the #4 performer with her 51.87, the 13th fastest performance in history (behind 7 by McLaughlin-Levrone, 4 by Bol, and Muhammad's Olympic silver medal). Bol's 52.15 was only her 8th best but was #19 in history. In fourth, Jasmine Jones became the #5 performer in history. Fifth place Rushell Clayton became #13. The top four would have won any Olympics before 2020.

The final was the fastest women's 400-meter hurdles race in Olympic history collectively: five of the eight women ran under 52.7 seconds, with these times ranking among the top 11 in Olympic history.^[2] The winning margin was 1.50 seconds - the greatest winning margin for the women's 400 metres hurdles at any Olympics.

Background

The women's 400 metres hurdles was first introduced at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, United States and was contested ten times at the Summer Olympics before 2024: every four years, although the 2020 edition was postponed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.^{[3] [4]} That year, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone from the United States won the event in a world and Olympic record of 51.46 seconds. Since then, McLaughlin-Levrone lowered her world record three times, most recently at the 2024 U.S. Olympic Trials, where she ran a time of 50.65 seconds.^[5]

Global records before the 2024 Summer Olympics

Record	Athlete (Nation)	Time (s)	Location	Date
World record		50.65^[6]	Eugene, United States	30 June 2024
Olympic record		51.46^[7]	Tokyo, Japan	4 August 2021
World leading		50.65^[8]	Eugene, United States	30 June 2024

Area records before the 2024 Summer Olympics

Area Record	Athlete (Nation)	Time (s)
Africa		52.90
Asia		53.09
Europe		50.95
North, Central America and Caribbean		50.65
Oceania		53.17
South America		53.69

Qualification

For the women's 400 metres hurdles event, the qualification period was between 1 July 2023 and 30 June 2024.^[9] Forty athletes were able to qualify for the event, with a maximum of three athletes per nation, by running the entry standard of 54.85 seconds or faster or by their World Athletics Ranking for this event.^[9]

Results

Round 1

The five heats of round 1 were held on 4 August, at 12:35 (UTC+2) in the afternoon.^[10] 40 athletes qualified for the event.
Qualification rule: First 3 in each heat (Q) and next 3 fastest (q) advance to semi-finals, all others advance to repechage round (except DNS, DNF, DQ).^[11]

Heat 1

Results of heat 1 in round 1^[12]

Rank	Lane	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	7	align=left		align=left		54.32
2	3	align=left		align=left		54.75
3	5	align=left		align=left		54.82
4	8	align=left		align=left		54.84
5	9	align=left		align=left		55.81
6	6	align=left		align=left		55.81
7	4	align=left		align=left		56.52
	2	align=left		align=left

Heat 2

Results of heat 2 in round 1^[13]

Rank	Lane	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	5	align=left		align=left		53.60
2	9	align=left		align=left		54.46	,
3	3	align=left		align=left		54.80
4	2	align=left		align=left		54.90	,
5	8	align=left		align=left		54.94
6	7	align=left		align=left		55.03
7	6	align=left		align=left		56.70
8	4	align=left		align=left		58.49

Heat 3

Results of heat 3 in round 1^[14]

Rank	Lane	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	4	align=left		align=left		53.38
2	8	align=left		align=left		53.95
3	3	align=left		align=left		54.73
4	6	align=left		align=left		55.13
5	5	align=left		align=left		55.39
6	2	align=left		align=left		55.43
7	9	align=left		align=left		55.46
8	7	align=left		align=left		55.69

Heat 4

Results of heat 4 in round 1^[15]

Rank	Lane	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	8	align=left		align=left		53.91
2	7	align=left		align=left		54.65
3	4	align=left		align=left		54.67
4	9	align=left		align=left		54.80	,
5	5	align=left		align=left		55.45
6	3	align=left		align=left		56.29
7	2	align=left		align=left		56.67
8	6	align=left		align=left		57.84

Heat 5

Results of heat 5 in round 1^[16]

Rank	Lane	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	3	align=left		align=left		53.60
2	4	align=left		align=left		55.26
3	5	align=left		align=left		55.32
4	6	align=left		align=left		55.44
5	2	align=left		align=left		55.62
6	7	align=left		align=left		55.92
7	8	align=left		align=left		57.69
8	9	align=left		align=left		58.10

Repechage round

The repechage round was held on 5 August, starting at 10:50 (UTC+2) in the morning.^[10]
Qualification rule: first 2 in each repechage heat (Q) advance to the semi-finals.

Heat 1

Results of heat 1 of the repechage round^[17]

Rank	Lane	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	4	align=left		align=left		55.07
2	7	align=left		align=left		55.11 (.107)
	3	align=left		align=left			,
4	6	align=left		align=left		55.94
5	5	align=left		align=left		56.73
6	2	align=left		align=left		58.04
7	8	align=left		align=left		59.40

Heat 2

Results of heat 2 of the repechage round^[18]

Rank	Lane	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	5	align=left		align=left		54.75	,
2	3	align=left		align=left		55.10 (.093)
3	2	align=left		align=left		55.10 (.098)
4	6	align=left		align=left		55.31
5	7	align=left		align=left		55.44
6	4	align=left		align=left		56.02
7	8	align=left		align=left		56.56

Heat 3

Results of heat 3 of the repechage round^[19]

Rank	Lane	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	7	align=left		align=left		54.91
2	8	align=left		align=left		54.95	, =
3	2	align=left		align=left		55.09
4	4	align=left		align=left		55.12
5	3	align=left		align=left		55.18
6	6	align=left		align=left		55.48
7	5	align=left		align=left		58.28

Semi-finals

The semi-finals are scheduled to be held on 6 August, starting at 20:07 (UTC+2) in the evening.^[10]
Qualification rule: First 2 in each heat (Q) and next 2 fastest (q) advance to final.

Heat 1

Results of heat 1 of the semi-finals^[20]

Rank	Lane	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	5	align=left		align=left		53.00
2	7	align=left		align=left		53.83
3	8	align=left		align=left		53.90
4	3	align=left		align=left		54.84
5	4	align=left		align=left		54.88
6	2	align=left		align=left		54.94
7	9	align=left		align=left		55.20
8	6	align=left		align=left		1:31.22

Heat 2

Results of heat 2 of the semi-finals^[21]

Rank	Lane	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	7	align=left		align=left		52.13
2	4	align=left		align=left		53.83
3	5	align=left		align=left		54.12
4	6	align=left		align=left		54.65
5	3	align=left		align=left		54.92
6	8	align=left		align=left		54.93
7	2	align=left		align=left		55.65
8	9	align=left		align=left		55.96

Heat 3

Results of heat 3 of the semi-finals^[22]

Rank	Lane	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	6	align=left		align=left		52.57
2	7	align=left		align=left		52.90
3	5	align=left		align=left		53.13	,
4	4	align=left		align=left		53.80
5	9	align=left		align=left		54.64
6	3	align=left		align=left		54.90
7	1	align=left		align=left		55.49
8	8	align=left		align=left		55.50
9	2	align=left		align=left		55.63

Final

The final is scheduled to be held on 8 August, starting at 21:25 (UTC+2) in the evening.^[10]

Rank	Lane	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
	5			50.37
	7			51.87
	6			52.15
4	9			52.29
5	8			52.68
6	2			53.29
7	3			53.88
8	4			54.53

^[23]

Notes and References

1. Web site: Women's 400m Hurdles - Final race analysis . Olympics . 9 August 2024 . 8 August 2024.
2. Web site: Women's 400m Hurdles.
3. Steve Smythe, "Olympic history: Women’s 400m hurdles", Athletics Weekly, 28 July 2016. Retrieved 30 June 2024.
4. "Tokyo 2020: Olympic and Paralympic Games postponed because of coronavirus", BBC, 24 March 2020. Retrieved 29 June 2024.
5. Web site: Gabriel . Jessi . 30 June 2024 . McLaughlin-Levrone breaks world 400m hurdles record at US Trials . 1 July 2024 . World Athletics.
6. "All time Top lists – Senior – 400 Metres Hurdles women", World Athletics, 29 June 2024. Retrieved 29 June 2024.
7. Nicole Jeffery, "McLaughlin smashes world 400m hurdles record in Tokyo with 51.46", World Athletics, 4 August 2021. Retrieved 29 June 2024.
8. "Season Top Lists – Senior 2024 – 400 Metres Hurdles women", World Athletics, 2024. Retrieved 29 June 2024.
9. Sean McAlister, "How to qualify for athletics at Paris 2024. The Olympics qualification system explained", Olympics.com, 20 December 2022. Retrieved 29 June 2024.
10. "Paris 2024 - Olympic Schedule - Athletics", Olympics.com. Retrieved 29 June 2024.
11. Web site: Women's 400m Hurdles – Round 1 results . Olympics . 7 August 2024 . 4 August 2024.
12. Web site: 4 August 2024 . Women's 400m Hurdles - Round 1 - Heat 1/5 results . 5 August 2024 . Olympics.
13. Web site: 4 August 2024 . Women's 400m Hurdles - Round 1 - Heat 2/5 results . 5 August 2024 . Olympics.
14. Web site: 4 August 2024 . Women's 400m Hurdles - Round 1 - Heat 3/5 results . 5 August 2024 . Olympics.
15. Web site: 4 August 2024 . Women's 400m Hurdles - Round 1 - Heat 4/5 results . 5 August 2024 . Olympics.
16. Web site: 4 August 2024 . Women's 400m Hurdles - Round 1 - Heat 5/5 results . 5 August 2024 . Olympics.
17. Web site: Women's 400m Hurdles - Repechage - Heat 1/3 results . Olympics . 5 August 2024 . 5 August 2024.
18. Web site: Women's 400m Hurdles - Repechage - Heat 2/3 results . Olympics . 5 August 2024 . 5 August 2024.
19. Web site: Women's 400m Hurdles - Repechage - Heat 3/3 results . Olympics . 5 August 2024 . 5 August 2024.
20. Web site: Women's 400m Hurdles - Semi-Final 2/3 results . Olympics . 8 August 2024 . 6 August 2024.
21. Web site: Women's 400m Hurdles - Semi-Final 2/3 results . Olympics . 8 August 2024 . 6 August 2024.
22. Web site: Women's 400m Hurdles - Semi-Final 3/3 results . Olympics . 8 August 2024 . 6 August 2024.
23. Web site: Women's 400m Hurdles - Final results . Olympics . 9 August 2024 . 8 August 2024.