Athletics at the 1952 Summer Olympics – Men's 400 metres

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.

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.^[2]

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.

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.^[2][3]

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

World record	George Rhoden (JAM)	45.9	Eskilstuna, Sweden	22 August 1950
Olympic record	Bill Carr (USA)	46.2	Los Angeles, United States	5 August 1932

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

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

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

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Karl-Friedrich Haas	Germany	47.58	Q
2	Leslie Lewis	Great Britain	47.95	Q
3	Edwin Carr, Jr.	Australia	48.23
4	Zoltán Adamik	Hungary	48.70
5	Evelio Planas	Cuba	49.44
6	Abdul Rehman	Pakistan	51.47

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Ardalion Ignatyev	Soviet Union	48.22	Q
2	Rolf Back	Finland	48.58	Q
3	Rupert Blöch	Austria	49.82
4	Gérard Rasquin	Luxembourg	50.12
5	John Anderton	South Africa	50.35
6	Pongummart Ummarttayakul	Thailand	53.23

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Arthur Wint	Jamaica	47.42	Q
2	Jack Carroll	Canada	48.05	Q
3	Egon Solymossy	Hungary	49.32
4	Josef Steger	Switzerland	49.35
5	Jaakko Suikkari	Finland	50.92
6	Aurang Zeb	Pakistan	51.25

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Lars-Erik Wolfbrandt	Sweden	48.57	Q
2	Terry Higgins	Great Britain	48.77	Q
3	Junkichi Matoba	Japan	49.57
4	Vasilios Sillis	Greece	49.79
5	Doğan Acarbay	Turkey	50.83
6	Ivan Jacob	India	51.48

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Herb McKenley	Jamaica	48.09	Q
2	Louis van Biljon	South Africa	48.31	Q
3	Roger Moens	Belgium	48.71
4	Ferenc Bánhalmi	Hungary	49.55
5	Arie Gill-Glick	Israel	50.27
6	Ernst von Gunten	Switzerland	50.88
—	Tage Ekfeldt	Sweden	DSQ

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Mal Whitfield	United States	48.68	Q
2	Guillermo Gutiérrez	Venezuela	48.82	Q
3	Gianni Rocca	Italy	49.51
4	Gösta Brännström	Sweden	50.32
5	Javier Souza	Mexico	50.47
6	Emin Doybak	Turkey	51.34
7	Fernando Casimiro	Portugal	52.33

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Jacques Degats	France	48.60	Q
2	Morris Curotta	Australia	48.87	Q
3	Vincenzo Lombardo	Italy	49.53
4	Rudolf Haidegger	Austria	50.01
5	Albert Lowagie	Belgium	50.26

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Hans Geister	Germany	47.99	Q
2	Yves Camus	France	48.06	Q
3	Milan Filo	Czechoslovakia	48.91
4	Guðmundur Lárusson	Iceland	49.81
5	Sompop Svadanandana	Thailand	53.68
6	Jeremías Stokes	Guatemala	53.81

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Gene Cole	United States	48.44	Q
2	Alan Dick	Great Britain	48.84	Q
3	Edmunds Pīlāgs	Soviet Union	49.29
4	Angel García	Cuba	49.34
5	Antoine Uyterhoeven	Belgium	50.21
6	Jean Hamilius	Luxembourg	50.75

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	George Rhoden	Jamaica	48.28	Q
2	Gerard Mach	Poland	48.64	Q
3	Paul Dolan	Ireland	48.81
4	Jean-Pierre Goudeau	France	48.94
5	Doug Clement	Canada	50.19

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	James Lavery	Canada	48.47	Q
2	Yuriy Lituyev	Soviet Union	49.01	Q
3	Frank Rivera	Puerto Rico	49.48
4	Antonio Siddi	Italy	51.03

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Ollie Matson	United States	48.17	Q
2	Hans Ernst Schneider	Switzerland	48.86	Q
3	Argemiro Roque	Brazil	49.05
4	Schalk Booysen	South Africa	49.17
5	Jiří David	Czechoslovakia	49.23
6	Fred Hammer	Luxembourg	49.90
7	Ossi Mildh	Finland	50.36

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.

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Arthur Wint	Jamaica	46.98	Q
2	James Lavery	Canada	47.67	Q
3	Lars-Erik Wolfbrandt	Sweden	48.08	Q
4	Guillermo Gutiérrez	Venezuela	48.75
5	Leslie Lewis	Great Britain	49.09
6	Hans Ernst Schneider	Switzerland	49.32

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	George Rhoden	Jamaica	47.24	Q
2	Ollie Matson	United States	47.53	Q
3	Karl-Friedrich Haas	Germany	47.66	Q
4	Morris Curotta	Australia	48.86
5	Rolf Back	Finland	51.53

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Mal Whitfield	United States	47.74	Q
2	Hans Geister	Germany	47.81	Q
3	Jack Carroll	Canada	47.82	Q
4	Louis van Biljon	South Africa	48.63
5	Jacques Degats	France	48.90
6	Alan Dick	Great Britain	49.20

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Herb McKenley	Jamaica	47.56	Q
2	Gene Cole	United States	47.88	Q
3	Ardalion Ignatyev	Soviet Union	48.25	Q
4	Yves Camus	France	48.43
5	Terry Higgins	Great Britain	49.22

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

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Arthur Wint	Jamaica	46.38	Q
2	Karl-Friedrich Haas	Germany	46.56	Q
3	Mal Whitfield	United States	46.64	Q
4	Gene Cole	United States	46.94
5	Ardalion Ignatyev	Soviet Union	47.49
6	James Lavery	Canada	47.83

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Herb McKenley	Jamaica	46.53	Q
2	George Rhoden	Jamaica	46.61	Q
3	Ollie Matson	United States	46.99	Q
4	Hans Geister	Germany	47.00
5	Jack Carroll	Canada	47.61
—	Lars-Erik Wolfbrandt	Sweden	DNS

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