400 metres hurdles

The first awards in a 400 m hurdles race were given in 1860 when a race was held in Oxford, England, over a course of 440 yards (402.336 m). While running the course, participants had to clear twelve wooden hurdles, over 100 centimetres tall, that had been spaced in even intervals.

To reduce the risk of injury, somewhat more lightweight constructions were introduced in 1895 that runners could push over. However, until 1935 runners were disqualified if they pushed over more than three hurdles in a race and records were only officially accepted if the runner in question had cleared all hurdles clean and left them all standing.

The 400 m hurdles became an Olympic event at the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris, France. At the same time, the race was standardized; thus, virtually identical races could be held and the finish times compared to one other. As a result, the official distance was fixed to 400 metres, or one lap of the stadium, and the number of hurdles was reduced to ten. The official height of the hurdles was set to 91.4 cm (3 feet). The hurdles are now placed on the course with a run-up to the first hurdle of 45 metres, distance between the hurdles of 35 metres each, and home stretch from the last hurdle to finish line of 40 metres.

The first documented 400 m hurdles race for women took place in 1971. In 1974, the International Amateur Athletics Federation (IAAF), now known as World Athletics, introduced the event officially as a discipline, with hurdles at the lower height of 76.20 cm (2 ft, 6 inches). The women's race was not run at the Olympics until the 1984 Summer Games in Los Angeles where it was first staged with the first Men's World Champion having been crowned the year before at the inaugural World Athletics Championships. A special edition of the Women's 400m Hurdles took place in the 1980 IAAF World Championships in Athletics in response to the Women's 400m Hurdles not being included at the boycotted 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, and Liberty Bell Classic.

Many athletic commentators and officials have often brought up the idea of lifting the height of the women's 400 m hurdles to incorporate a greater requirement of hurdling skill. This is a view held by German athletic coach Norbert Stein, "All this means that the women's hurdles for specialists, who are the target group to be dealt with in this discussion, is considerably depreciated in skill demands when compared to the men's hurdles. It should not be possible in the women's hurdles that the winner is an athlete whose performance in the flat sprint is demonstrably excellent but whose technique of hurdling is only moderate and whose anthropometric characteristics are not optimal. This was the case at the World Championships in Seville and the same problem can often be seen at international and national meetings."

In terms of technique and endurance, the 400-metre hurdles is arguably the most demanding event in the sprints and hurdles group.[1]^: 4169[2]^: 9 Athletes must be able to run a fast 400-metre flat time, maintain a good hurdling technique, and have a unique awareness of stride pattern between hurdles.[2]^: 9 Furthermore, athletes must possess anaerobic endurance over the final 150 to 100 metres of the race as, at this point, lactate (the conjugate base of lactic acid) will accumulate in the body from anaerobic glycolysis.[3]^: 43

• Men
  • First official IAAF world record: 55.0 seconds, Charles Bacon (USA), 1908
  • First under 54 seconds: 53.8 seconds, Sten Pettersson (SWE), 1925
  • First under 53 seconds: 52.6 seconds, John Gibson (USA), 1927
  • First under 52 seconds: 51.7 seconds, Bob Tisdall (IRL), 1932
  • First under 51 seconds: 50.6 seconds, Glenn Hardin (USA), 1934
  • First under 50 seconds: 49.5 seconds, Glenn Davis (USA), 1956
  • First under 49 seconds: 48.8 seconds, Geoff Vanderstock (USA), 1968
  • First under 48 seconds: 47.82 seconds, John Akii-Bua (UGA), 1972
  • First under 47 seconds: 46.78 seconds, Kevin Young (USA), 1992
  • First under 46 seconds: 45.94 seconds, Karsten Warholm (NOR), 2021[18]
• Women
  • First official world record: 56.51 seconds, Krystyna Kacperczyk (POL), 1974
  • First under 56 seconds: 55.74 seconds, Tatyana Storozheva (USSR), 1977
  • First under 55 seconds: 54.89 seconds, Tatyana Zelentsova (USSR), 1978
  • First under 54 seconds: 53.58 seconds, Margarita Ponomaryova (USSR), 1984
  • First under 53 seconds: 52.94 seconds, Marina Stepanova (USSR), 1986
  • First under 52 seconds: 51.90 seconds, Sydney McLaughlin (USA), 2021

American athlete Glenn Davis had a prodigious start to his hurdling career, running his first race in April 1956 in 54.4 s. Two months later, he ran a new world record with 49.5 s and later that year he won the 400 m hurdles at the Olympics, and was also the first to repeat that feat in 1960.

In terms of success and longevity in competition, Edwin Moses' record is significant: he won 122 races in a row between 1977 and 1987 plus two gold medals, at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montréal and the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. He was undefeated for exactly nine years nine months and nine days, from 26 August 1977 until 4 June 1987. He finished third in the 1988 Olympic final, the last race of his career. He also held the world record for sixteen years from when he first broke it at the Olympics on 25 July 1976 until it was finally broken by Kevin Young at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona.

Edwin Moses

• Olympic Games & World Championships victories
  • Edwin Moses (USA), Olympic 1976, 1984, World 1983, 1987
  • Felix Sanchez (DOM), Olympic 2004, 2012, World 2001, 2003
  • Kerron Clement (USA), Olympic 2016, World 2007, 2009
  • Sally Gunnell (GBR), Olympic 1992, World 1993
  • Kevin Young (USA), Olympic 1992, World 1993
  • Derrick Adkins (USA), Olympic 1996, World 1995
  • Melaine Walker (JAM), Olympic 2008, World 2009
  • Dalilah Muhammad (USA), Olympic 2016, World 2019
  • Karsten Warholm (NOR), Olympic 2020, World 2017, 2019
• Two Olympic victories:
  • Glenn Davis (USA), 1956 and 1960
  • Edwin Moses (USA), 1976 and 1984 (also bronze in 1988)
  • Angelo Taylor (USA), 2000 and 2008
  • Félix Sánchez (DOM), 2004 and 2012
• Two World Championships:
  • Edwin Moses (USA), 1983 and 1987
  • Félix Sánchez (DOM), 2001 and 2003 (won silver in 2007)
  • Kerron Clement (USA), 2007 and 2009
  • Karsten Warholm (NOR), 2017 and 2019
  • Nezha Bidouane (MAR), 1997 and 2001 (won silver in 1999)
  • Jana Pittman (AUS), 2003 and 2007
  • Zuzana Hejnová (CZE), 2013 and 2015

* Note: Edwin Moses, Kevin Young and Karsten Warholm are the only male 400 m hurdlers to have been Olympic Champion, World Champion, and broken the World Record.
* Note: Sally Gunnell and Dalilah Muhammad are the only female 400 m hurdlers to have been Olympic Champion, World Champion, and broken the World Record.

• IAAF list of 400-metres-hurdles records in XML