The men's 400 metres

400 metres

The 400 metres, or 400 metre dash, is a common sprinting event in track and field competitions. It has been featured in the athletics programme at the Summer Olympics since 1896 . On a standard outdoor running track, it is exactly one lap around the track. Runners start in staggered positions and...

event was part of the track and field athletics programme

Athletics at the 1924 Summer Olympics

At the 1924 Summer Olympics held in Paris, 27 athletics events were contested, all for men only.-Medal table:-Medal summary:-Participating nations:657 athletes from 40 nations competed. Ten nations competed in athletics for the first time...

 at the 1924 Summer Olympics

1924 Summer Olympics

The 1924 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the VIII Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event which was celebrated in 1924 in Paris, France...

. The competition was held on Thursday, July 10, 1924 and on Friday, July 11, 1924.

As for all other races the track was 500 metres in circumference.

Sixty runners from 27 nations competed.

Records

These were the standing world and Olympic records (in seconds) prior to the 1924 Summer Olympics.

World Record	47.4(*)	Ted Meredith Ted Meredith James Edwin "Ted" Meredith was an American athlete, winner of two gold medals at the 1912 Summer Olympics.He was born in Chester Heights, Pennsylvania and died in Camden, New Jersey, aged 65...	Cambridge, MA Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...  (USA United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district... )	May 27, 1916
Olympic Record	48.2	Charles Reidpath Charles Reidpath Charles Decker Reidpath was an American athlete, winner of two gold medals at the 1912 Summer Olympics, who later went on to have an outstanding military career.-Biography:...	Stockholm Stockholm Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...  (SWE Sweden Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund.... )	July 13, 1912

(*) 440 yards (= 402.34 m)

In the quarter-finals, Josef Imbach set a new Olympic record with 48.0 seconds. In the semi-finals Horatio Fitch

Horatio Fitch

Horatio May Fitch was an American athlete who competed mainly in the 400 metres.He competed for the United States in the 1924 Summer Olympics held in Paris, France in the 400 metres where he won the silver medal, an event memorialized by the 1982 hit movie "Chariots of Fire." The race winner was...

 improved the Olympic record with 47.8 seconds. In the final, Eric Liddell

Eric Liddell

Eric Henry Liddell was a Scottish athlete, rugby union international player, and missionary.Liddell was the winner of the men's 400 metres at the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris...

 set a new world record with 47.6 seconds; this time was ratified as a 400 metres world record as Ted Meredith

Ted Meredith

James Edwin "Ted" Meredith was an American athlete, winner of two gold medals at the 1912 Summer Olympics.He was born in Chester Heights, Pennsylvania and died in Camden, New Jersey, aged 65...

 ran his record over 440 yards.

Round 1

All heats were held on Thursday, July 10, 1924 and started at 2 p.m.

12-hour clock

The 12-hour clock is a time conversion convention in which the 24 hours of the day are divided into two periods called ante meridiem and post meridiem...

The best two finishers of every heat qualified for the quarter-finals.

Heat 1

Place	Athlete	Time	Qual.
1		54.0	Q
2		54.8	Q

Heat 2

Place	Athlete	Time	Qual.
1		50.2	Q
2		50.9	Q
3		51.0
4
5

Heat 3

Place	Athlete	Time	Qual.
1		50.2	Q
2		52.6	Q
3		53.1
4

Heat 4

Place	Athlete	Time	Qual.
1		49.6	Q
2		50.6	Q
3		51.5
4

Heat 5

Place	Athlete	Time	Qual.
1		51.8	Q

Heat 6

Place	Athlete	Time	Qual.
1		51.8	Q
2		53.0	Q

Heat 7

Place	Athlete	Time	Qual.
1		50.8	Q
2		51.7	Q
3		53.0

Heat 8

Place	Athlete	Time	Qual.
1		49.8	Q
2		51.2	Q
3		51.8
4		52.0

Heat 9

Place	Athlete	Time	Qual.
1		50.0	Q
2		51.0	Q
3		51.4
4
5

Heat 10

Place	Athlete	Time	Qual.
1		49.6	Q
2		49.9	Q
3		51.0
4

Heat 11

Place	Athlete	Time	Qual.
1		49.2	Q
2		50.3	Q
3		51.0
4

Heat 12

Place	Athlete	Time	Qual.
1		49.8	Q
2		50.5	Q
3		51.4
4
5		52.8

Heat 13

Place	Athlete	Time	Qual.
1		51.0	Q
2		51.8	Q
3		55.0

Heat 14

Place	Athlete	Time	Qual.
1		50.2	Q
2		50.4	Q
3		50.6
4		55.4

Heat 15

Place	Athlete	Time	Qual.
1		52.0	Q
2		52.1	Q

Heat 16

Place	Athlete	Time	Qual.
1		50.2	Q
2		51.1	Q
3
4
5

Heat 17

Place	Athlete	Time	Qual.
1		51.2	Q
2		52.0	Q
3		53.1

Quarterfinals

All semi-finals were held on Thursday, July 10, 1924 and started at 4 p.m.

12-hour clock

The 12-hour clock is a time conversion convention in which the 24 hours of the day are divided into two periods called ante meridiem and post meridiem...

The best two finishers of every heat qualified for the semifinals.

Horace Aylwin, Lajos Kurunczy, George Renwick, and Erik Åström qualified for the quarterfinals but withdrew.

Quarterfinal 1

Place	Athlete	Time	Qual.
1		49.0	Q
2		50.0	Q
3		50.8
4

Quarterfinal 2

Place	Athlete	Time	Qual.
1		49.0	Q
2		49.2	Q
3		50.2
4		50.7

Quarterfinal 3

Place	Athlete	Time	Qual.
1		49.8	Q
2		50.4	Q
3		50.9
4		51.6
5
6

Quarterfinal 4

Place	Athlete	Time	Qual.
1		49.0	Q
2		49.3	Q
3		49.5
4		50.5
5		50.5

Quarterfinal 5

Place	Athlete	Time	Qual.
1		49.0	Q
2		49.3	Q
3		49.6
4		50.2
5

Quarterfinal 6

Place	Athlete	Time	Qual.
1		48.0	Q OR
2		48.4	Q
3		48.8
4		49.8
5		50.7

Semifinals

All semi-finals were held on Friday, July 11, 1924 and started at 2:45 p.m.

12-hour clock

The 12-hour clock is a time conversion convention in which the 24 hours of the day are divided into two periods called ante meridiem and post meridiem...

The best three finishers of each heat qualified for the final.

Semifinal 1

Place	Athlete	Time	Qual.
1		47.8	Q OR
2		47.9	Q
3		48.0	Q
4		48.2
5		48.4
6		48.6

Semifinal 2

Place	Athlete	Time	Qual.
1		48.2	Q
2		48.3	Q
3		48.7	Q
4
5
6

Final

The final was held on Friday, July 11, 1924 and started at 5:30 p.m.

12-hour clock

The 12-hour clock is a time conversion convention in which the 24 hours of the day are divided into two periods called ante meridiem and post meridiem...

Place	Athlete	Time
1		47.6 WR
2		48.4
3		48.6
4		48.8
5		1:07.0 est
—		DNF