The men's 400 metres sprint event at the

1952 Olympic Games 1952 Olympics refers to both: *The 1952 Winter Olympics, which were held in Oslo, Norway *The 1952 Summer Olympics The 1952 Summer Olympics ( fi, Kesäolympialaiset 1952; sv, Olympiska sommarspelen 1952), officially known as the Games of the X ...

took place between July 24 and July 25. Seventy-one athletes from 35 nations competed. The maximum number of athletes per nation had been set at 3 since the 1930 Olympic Congress. The event was won by

George Rhoden George Vincent Rhoden (born 13 December 1926) is a Jamaican retired athlete, winner of two Olympic gold medals in 1952. Rhoden was born in Kingston in December 1926. He later moved to San Francisco, California, and was one of the successful ...

of Jamaica, the second consecutive title in the event by a Jamaican.

Herb McKenley The Hon. Herbert Henry McKenley OM (10 July 1922 – 26 November 2007) was a Jamaican track and field sprinter. He competed at the 1948 and 1952 Olympics in six events in total, and won one gold and three silver medals. Born in Pleasant Valle ...

repeated his silver medal performance from 1948, becoming the second man to win two medals in the event (after Guy Butler of Great Britain in 1920 and 1924).

Summary

In their second Olympics, the Jamaican team came with the top runners including the world record holder

and returning gold and silver medalists,

Arthur Wint Arthur Stanley Wint OD MBE (25 May 1920 – 19 October 1992) was a Jamaican Royal Air Force (RAF) pilot during the Second World War, sprinter, physician, and later High Commissioner to the United Kingdom. Competing at the 1948 and 1952 Olympi ...

and

, respectively. In the final, Rhoden on the far outside in lane 7 was unable to see the competitors staggered behind him. Alone he went out hard. The stagger behind him in lane 6,

Ollie Matson Ollie Genoa Matson II (May 1, 1930 – February 19, 2011) was an American Olympic medal winning sprinter and professional American football running back who played in the National Football League (NFL) from 1952 to 1966. Drafted into the N ...

, who like Rhoden trained in San Francisco, stayed in Rhoden's shadow, trying to match pace. On the inside, in lane 3, defending champion Went also went out hard, quickly making up the stagger on Karl-Friedrich Haas to his outside. Down the backstretch and through the final turn, Rhoden opened up a 5 metre lead on Wint, with Matson losing a couple of more metres. Through the final turn, McKenley began to get up a head of steam, catching Matson just before the home straight, still two metres behind Wint. At that point, Jamaica held the three medal positions, but McKenley was moving much faster than everyone else, quickly catching Wint and off after Rhoden. Wint had nothing to offer the challenge and instead began moving backward. Rhoden crossed the line just ahead of the fast closing McKenley, Matson also cruising past Wint, who was pipped by Haas at the line and almost caught by

Mal Whitfield Malvin Greston Whitfield (October 11, 1924 – November 19, 2015) was an American athlete, goodwill ambassador, and airman. Nicknamed "Marvelous Mal", he was the Olympic champion in the 800 meters at the 1948 and 1952 Summer Olympics, and a memb ...

Background

This was the twelfth appearance of the event, which is one of 12 athletics events to have been held at every Summer Olympics. Jamaica's team was the same as in 1948:

(London gold medalist),

(silver), and

(semifinalist; now also world record holder). The United States had 1948 bronze medalist

return, this time joined by

Gene Cole Gerrard Eugene Cole (February 18, 1928 – January 11, 2018) was an American athlete who competed mainly in the 400 metres. Born in New Lexington, Ohio, Gene Cole attended Lancaster High School (Ohio). He competed for the United States in the 19 ...

and future

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

star

. Australia's finalist from London, Morris Curotta, also returned, making 4 of 6 finalists to come back. Guatemala, Israel, Pakistan, Puerto Rico, the Soviet Union, Thailand, and Venezuela appeared in this event for the first time. The United States made its twelfth appearance in the event, the only nation to compete in it at every Olympic Games to that point.

Competition format

The competition retained the basic four-round format from 1920, and the only change from 1948 was that the first round heats were larger. There were 12 heats in the first round, each with between 4 and 7 athletes. The top two runners in each heat advanced to the quarterfinals. There were 4 quarterfinals of 6 runners each; the top three athletes in each quarterfinal heat advanced to the semifinals. The semifinals featured 2 heats of 6 runners each. The top two runners in each semifinal heat advanced, making a six-man final.Official Report, pp. 275–77.

Records

Prior to the competition, the existing World and Olympic records were as follows.

set a new Olympic record at 46.09 seconds in the final.

Schedule

All times are

Eastern European Summer Time Eastern European Summer Time (EEST) is one of the names of the UTC+03:00 time zone, which is 3 hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time. It is used as a summer daylight saving time in some European and Middle Eastern countries, which makes ...

(

UTC+3 UTC+03:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +03:00. In areas using this time offset, the time is three hours later than the Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). Following the ISO 8601 standard, a time with this offset would be wri ...

)

Results

Heats

The fastest two runners in each of the twelve heats advanced to the quarterfinal round.

Heat 1

Heat 2

Heat 3

Heat 4

Heat 5

Heat 6

Heat 7

Heat 8

Heat 9

Heat 10

Heat 11

Heat 12

Quarterfinals

The fastest three runners in each of the four heats advanced to the semifinal round. Gerard Mach of Poland and

Yuriy Lituyev Yuriy Nikolaevich Lituyev (russian: Юрий Николаевич Литуев) (April 11, 1925 – March 2, 2000) was a Soviet athlete who competed mainly in the 400 metre hurdles. He trained in Leningrad and later in Moscow at the Armed ...

of the Soviet Union were qualified but did not compete.

Quarterfinal 1

Quarterfinal 2

Quarterfinal 3

Quarterfinal 4

Semifinals

The fastest three runners in each of the two heats advanced to the final round.

Semifinal 1

Semifinal 2

Final

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Athletics at the 1952 Summer Olympics - Men's 400 metres Athletics at the 1952 Summer Olympics 400 metres at the Olympics Men's events at the 1952 Summer Olympics