The men's 400 metres sprint event at the 1952 Olympic Games 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 0.11 seconds by George Rhoden of Jamaica, the second consecutive title in the event by a Jamaican. Herb McKenley 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 George Rhoden and returning gold and silver medalists, Arthur Wint and Herb McKenley, 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, 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.

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: Arthur Wint (London gold medalist), Herb McKenley (silver), and George Rhoden (semifinalist; now also world record holder). The United States had 1948 bronze medalist Mal Whitfield return, this time joined by Gene Cole and future National Football League star Ollie Matson. 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.

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

Schedule All times are Eastern European Summer Time (UTC+3)

Date Time Round Thursday, 24 July 1952 15:2018:35Round 1Quarterfinals Friday, 25 July 1952 15:0017:05SemifinalsFinals

Results

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

Heat 1 Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Karl-Friedrich Haas 47.58 2 Leslie Lewis 47.95 3 Edwin Carr, Jr. 48.23 4 Zoltán Adamik 48.70 5 Evelio Planas 49.44 6 Abdul Rehman 51.47 - Vasilios Mavroidis

Heat 2 Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Ardalion Ignatyev 48.22 2 Rolf Back 48.58 3 Rupert Blöch 49.82 4 Gérard Rasquin 50.12 5 John Anderton 50.35 6 Pongummart Ummarttayakul 53.23

Heat 3 Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Arthur Wint 47.42 2 Jack Carroll 48.05 3 Egon Solymossy 49.32 4 Josef Steger 49.35 5 Jaakko Suikkari 50.92 6 Aurang Zeb 51.25 - Jimmy Reardon

Heat 4 Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Lars-Erik Wolfbrandt 48.57 2 Terry Higgins 48.77 3 Junkichi Matoba 49.57 4 Vasilios Sillis 49.79 5 Doğan Acarbay 50.83 6 Ivan Jacob 51.48 - Cirilo McSween

Heat 5 Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Herb McKenley 48.09 2 Louis van Biljon 48.31 3 Roger Moens 48.71 4 Ferenc Bánhalmi 49.55 5 Arie Gill-Glick 50.27 6 Ernst von Gunten 50.88 — Tage Ekfeldt

Heat 6 Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Mal Whitfield 48.68 2 Guillermo Gutiérrez 48.82 3 Gianni Rocca 49.51 4 Gösta Brännström 50.32 5 Javier Souza 50.47 6 Emin Doybak 51.34 7 Fernando Casimiro 52.33

Heat 7 Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Jacques Degats 48.60 2 Morris Curotta 48.87 3 Vincenzo Lombardo 49.53 4 Rudolf Haidegger 50.01 5 Albert Lowagie 50.26 - Knud Schibsbye - Sam LaBeach

Heat 8 Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Hans Geister 47.99 2 Yves Camus 48.06 3 Milan Filo 48.91 4 Guðmundur Lárusson 49.81 5 Sompop Svadanandana 53.68 6 Jeremías Stokes 53.81 - Gustavo Ehlers

Heat 9 Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Gene Cole 48.44 2 Alan Dick 48.84 3 Edmunds Pīlāgs 49.29 4 Angel García 49.34 5 Antoine Uyterhoeven 50.21 6 Jean Hamilius 50.75 - José Fórmica

Heat 10 Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 George Rhoden 48.28 2 Gerard Mach 48.64 3 Paul Dolan 48.81 4 Jean-Pierre Goudeau 48.94 5 Doug Clement 50.19 - Eom Par-yong - Ekrem Koçak

Heat 11 Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 James Lavery 48.47 2 Yuriy Lituyev 49.01 3 Frank Rivera 49.48 4 Antonio Siddi 51.03 - Clayton Clark - Eitaro Okano

Heat 12 Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Ollie Matson 48.17 2 Hans Ernst Schneider 48.86 3 Argemiro Roque 49.05 4 Schalk Booysen 49.17 5 Jiří David 49.23 6 Fred Hammer 49.90 7 Ossi Mildh 50.36

Quarterfinals

The fastest three runners in each of the four heats advanced to the semifinal round. Gerard Mach of Poland and Yuriy Lituyev of the Soviet Union were qualified but did not compete.

Quarterfinal 1 Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Arthur Wint 46.98 2 James Lavery 47.67 3 Lars-Erik Wolfbrandt 48.08 4 Guillermo Gutiérrez 48.75 5 Leslie Lewis 49.09 6 Hans Ernst Schneider 49.32

Quarterfinal 2 Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 George Rhoden 47.24 2 Ollie Matson 47.53 3 Karl-Friedrich Haas 47.66 4 Morris Curotta 48.86 5 Rolf Back 51.53 - Yury Lituyev

Quarterfinal 3 Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Mal Whitfield 47.74 2 Hans Geister 47.81 3 Jack Carroll 47.82 4 Louis van Biljon 48.63 5 Jacques Degats 48.90 6 Alan Dick 49.20

Quarterfinal 4 Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Herb McKenley 47.56 2 Gene Cole 47.88 3 Ardalion Ignatyev 48.25 4 Yves Camus 48.43 5 Terry Higgins 49.22 - Gerard Mach

Semifinals

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

Semifinal 1 Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Arthur Wint 46.38 2 Karl-Friedrich Haas 46.56 3 Mal Whitfield 46.64 4 Gene Cole 46.94 5 Ardalion Ignatyev 47.49 6 James Lavery 47.83

Semifinal 2 Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Herb McKenley 46.53 2 George Rhoden 46.61 3 Ollie Matson 46.99 4 Hans Geister 47.00 5 Jack Carroll 47.61 — Lars-Erik Wolfbrandt

Final

Rank Lane Athlete Nation Time Notes 6 George Rhoden 46.09 4 Herb McKenley 46.20 5 Ollie Matson 46.94 4 3 Karl-Friedrich Haas 47.22 5 2 Arthur Wint 47.24 6 1 Mal Whitfield 47.30

References