Quick Facts Men's 400 metres hurdles at the Games of the XXXII Olympiad, Venue ...

Men's 400 metres hurdles at the Games of the XXXII Olympiad
Semifinal 2
Venue	Olympic Stadium
Dates	30 July 2021 (quarterfinals) 1 August 2021 (semifinals) 3 August 2021 (final)
Competitors	36 from 26 nations
Winning time	45.94 WR
Medalists
Karsten Warholm  Norway Rai Benjamin  United States Alison dos Santos  Brazil
← 2016 2024 →

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The men's 400 metres hurdles event at the 2020 Summer Olympics took place between 30 July and 3 August 2021 at the Olympic Stadium.^[1] 36 athletes from 26 nations competed.^[2]

In what has been described as one of the greatest races in Olympic history,^[3] Karsten Warholm of Norway won, setting a new world record of 45.94 seconds. He beat his own previous record, set a month before, by 0.76 seconds; silver medalist Rai Benjamin of the United States beat the previous record by 0.53 seconds.^[3] Brazilian hurdler Alison dos Santos took bronze and would have bettered the almost 30-year-old Olympic record in the final by 0.06 seconds. The medals were the first ever in the event for both Norway and Brazil; the United States' podium streak in the event stretched to four Games.

Following more than a decade of dominance by Edwin Moses, Kevin Young set the world record at 46.78 in the 1992 Olympic Final, being the first man to break 47 seconds (Moses' best time had been 47.02).

The 47-second barrier would not be broken again until 2018, by Abderrahman Samba, then in 2019, Karsten Warholm and Rai Benjamin broke it in the same race.

In 2021 at the United States Olympic Trials, Benjamin narrowly missed Young's world record, and a week later, Warholm broke it, stopping the clock at 46.70. It was expected it would take a world record to win the Olympic gold medal.

Both Benjamin and Warholm drew each other in the first semifinal: Warholm sped up at the finish to take the win in 47.30, while Alison dos Santos ran 47.31 to win the second semifinal over Samba.

In the final, Warholm started quickly, gaining a slight advantage over the first barrier. One lane to his inside, Benjamin was able to see the position of his opponent. By the fifth hurdle, Warholm had a half a stride advantage, but through the final turn, Benjamin pulled that back in steadily.

Benjamin, with the momentum, cleared the final hurdle even with Warholm, but Warholm opened up in the 40 metre dash to the finish line, winning by two metres.^[3]

Warholm's time was 45.94 - breaking the 46-second barrier - and also demolishing his existing world record by 0.76 seconds. Benjamin ran 46.17, more than half a second faster than the previous world record, to win silver, and bronze medalist dos Santos ran 46.72, just 0.02 slower than Warholm's previous world record. If not for Warholm's performance, Benjamin's time would have been the greatest improvement in this event's world record since 1968. Warholm's new record improved his previous record by 1.6%, the largest improvement by percentage in a men's track world record since Michael Johnson lowered the 200m world record by 1.7% in 1996. Also, using World Athletics scoring tables in an attempt to compare the quality of Warholm's performance to other men's track world records, the only world-record performances superior to that of Warholm were Usain Bolt's records in the 100m and 200m.^[4]

The all-time list saw Young move down to No. 4 as all three broke his Olympic record; further to this, all three medalists broke their respective continental records, six of the eight competitors in the race set new national records,^[3] and all eight finalists recorded the best times in history for their respective placements in the race.^[4]

This race was one of the few times^{[citation needed]} in which all three medalists broke the existing Olympic record and the top two finishers also broke the existing world record; and the same outcome occurred in the women's 400m hurdles final the next day.

This was the 27th appearance of the event, which was introduced in 1900. It was left off the 1912 program, but has been contested at every Games since the post-World War I return of the Olympics in 1920.

The reigning world champion was Karsten Warholm of Norway. The reigning Olympic champion Kerron Clement of the United States did not compete.^[5]

The British Virgin Islands competed in the men's 400 metres hurdles for the first time. The United States made its 26th appearance, most of any nation, having missed only the boycotted 1980 Games.

Approximately forty athletes were expected to compete; the exact number depended on how many nations used universality places to enter athletes in addition to the 40 qualifying through time or ranking (1 universality place was used in 2016).^[6]

A National Olympic Committee (NOC) could enter up to 3 qualified athletes in the men's 400 metres hurdles event if all athletes met the entry standard or qualified by ranking during the qualifying period. (The limit of 3 had been in place since the 1930 Olympic Congress.) The qualifying standard was 48.90 seconds. This standard was "set for the sole purpose of qualifying athletes with exceptional performances unable to qualify through the IAAF World Rankings pathway." The world rankings, based on the average of the best five results for the athlete over the qualifying period and weighted by the importance of the meet, was used thereafter to qualify athletes until the cap of 40 is reached.^[6][7]

The qualifying period was originally from 1 May 2019 to 29 June 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the period was suspended from 6 April 2020 to 30 November 2020, with the end date extended to 29 June 2021. The world rankings period start date was also changed from 1 May 2019 to 30 June 2020. Athletes who had met the qualifying standard during that time were still qualified, but those using world rankings would not be able to count performances during that time. The qualifying time standards could be obtained in various meets during the given period that have the approval of the IAAF. Only outdoor meets were eligible. The most recent Area Championships could be counted in the ranking, even if they didn't take place during the qualifying period.^[6][8]

NOCs could also use their universality place—each NOC could enter one male athlete regardless of time if they had no male athletes meeting the entry standard for an athletics event—in the 400 metres hurdles.^[6]

Entry number: 40.

More information Qualification standard, No. of athletes ...

Qualification standard	No. of athletes	NOC	Nominated athletes
Entry standard – 48.90	3	Jamaica	Jaheel Hyde Kemar Mowatt Shawn Rowe
	3	Japan	Takatoshi Abe Kazuki Kurokawa Hiromu Yamauchi
	3	United States	Rai Benjamin David Kendziera Kenny Selmon
	2	Brazil	Alison dos Santos Márcio Teles
	1	Algeria	Abdelmalik Lahoulou
	1	British Virgin Islands	Kyron McMaster
	1	Estonia	Rasmus Mägi
	1	France	Ludvy Vaillant
	1	Germany	Constantin Preis
	1	Ireland	Thomas Barr
	1	Kenya	Moitalel Naadokila
	1	Norway	Karsten Warholm
	1	Poland	Patryk Dobek
	1	Qatar	Abderrahman Samba
	1	South Africa	Sokwakhana Zazini
	1	Switzerland	Kariem Hussein
	1	Turkey	Yasmani Copello
World ranking	2	Germany	Joshua Abuaku Luke Campbell
	1	Chinese Taipei	Chen Chieh
	1	Costa Rica	Gerald Drummond
	1	Czech Republic	Vít Müller
	1	France	Wilfried Happio
	1	Great Britain	Chris McAlister
	1	Hungary	Máté Koroknai
	1	India	M. P. Jabir
	1	Iran	Mahdi Pirjahan
	1	Italy	Alessandro Sibilio
	2	Netherlands	Ramsey Angela Nick Smidt
	1	Spain	Sergio Fernández
	1	Tunisia	Mohamed Touati
Universality Places	1	Cape Verde	Jordin Andrade
	1	Mozambique	Creve Armando Machava
	1	Seychelles	Ned Justeen Azemia
Total	40

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The event continued to use the three-round format used previously in every Games since 1908 (except for a four-round competition in 1952).^[9]

Prior to this competition, the existing World, Olympic, and Area records were as follows:

World record	Karsten Warholm (NOR)	46.70	Oslo, Norway	1 July 2021
Olympic record	Kevin Young (USA)	46.78	Barcelona, Spain	6 August 1992

More information Area, Athlete ...

Area	Athlete	Time	Nation
Africa (records)	Samuel Matete	47.10	Zambia
Asia (records)	Abderrahman Samba	46.98	Qatar
Europe (records)	Karsten Warholm	46.70 WR	Norway
North, Central America and Caribbean (records)	Kevin Young	46.78	United States
Oceania (records)	Rohan Robinson	48.28	Australia
South America (records)	Alison dos Santos	47.34	Brazil

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New records

The following new World and Olympic records were set during this competition:

World record	Karsten Warholm (NOR)	45.94	Tokyo, Japan	3 August 2021
Olympic record	Karsten Warholm (NOR)	45.94	Tokyo, Japan	3 August 2021

The following new Area (continental) records were set during this competition:

More information Area, Athlete ...

Area	Athlete	Time	Nation
Europe (records)	Karsten Warholm	45.94 WR	Norway
North, Central America and Caribbean (records)	Rai Benjamin	46.17	United States
South America (records)	Alison dos Santos	46.72	Brazil

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The following national records were set during this competition:

More information Country, Athlete ...

Country	Athlete	Round	Time	Notes
Brazil	Alison dos Santos	Semifinals	47.31	AR
		Final	46.72	AR
Estonia	Rasmus Mägi	Semifinals	48.36
		Final	48.11
Norway	Karsten Warholm	Final	45.94	WR, OR, AR
United States	Rai Benjamin	Final	46.17	AR
British Virgin Islands	Kyron McMaster	Final	47.08
Turkey	Yasmani Copello	Final	47.81

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All times are Japan Standard Time (UTC+9)

The men's 400 metres hurdles took place over three separate days.^[1]