Athletics at the 2020 Summer Olympics – Women's 400 metres hurdles

2021 was a dynamic year for the women's 400 metres hurdles. Returning gold medalist and reigning world champion Dalilah Muhammad began the year with the world record from that world championship race. But she was pushed to that record and her previous world record by her American teammate Sydney McLaughlin. McLaughlin was also in the Rio Olympics, but then she made news for qualifying for the semi-final round a few days after her seventeenth birthday. In 2019 McLaughlin matured to be a few steps off the world record while gaining the world championship silver medal. In 2021 at the United States Olympic Trials, she reversed that picture by winning with a new world record of 51.90. A week later, another hurdler, 6 months younger than McLaughlin, Femke Bol improved her personal best to 52.37, to become the #4 performer of all time, behind #1 McLaughlin and #2 Muhammad. A new world record was predicted for this event. Those same three athletes were the three individual semi-final winners qualifying for the final.

Knowing she had to run a world record, Muhammad was out fast clearing the first hurdle just ahead of McLaughlin and Bol. By the third hurdle, she had passed the athletes staggered to her outside. Muhammad kept the pressure up over each hurdle, with McLaughlin three lanes inside of her, watching her. Keeping pace, Bol was touching down just a fraction of a step behind McLaughlin. Those three separated from the rest of the field but kept the same pattern, Muhammad, McLaughlin, Bol over all ten hurdles. When she crossed the finish line, Muhammad had bettered the 6-week-old world record by almost a third of a second, 51.58. And McLaughlin had run faster from the last hurdle home to win, setting a new world record in 51.46. Bol was just barely behind the previous world record in 52.03, the #3 performer and #4 performance ever all in the same race.^[3]

This was the 10th appearance of the event, having appeared at every Olympics since 1984.

A National Olympic Committee (NOC) could enter up to 3 qualified athletes in the women's 400 metres hurdles event if all athletes meet the entry standard or qualify by ranking during the qualifying period. (The limit of 3 has been in place since the 1930 Olympic Congress.) The qualifying standard is 55.40 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, will then be used to qualify athletes until the cap of 40 is reached.^[2][4]

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. Both indoor and outdoor meets are eligible. The most recent Area Championships may be counted in the ranking, even if not during the qualifying period.^[2][5]

NOCs can also use their universality place—each NOC can enter one female athlete regardless of time if they had no female athletes meeting the entry standard for an athletics event—in the 400 metres hurdles.^[2]

The event continued to use the three-round format introduced in 2012.^[6]

Prior to this competition, the existing world, Olympic, and area records were as follows.

World record	Sydney McLaughlin (USA)	51.90	Eugene, Oregon	27 June 2021
Olympic record	Melaine Walker (JAM)	52.64	Beijing, China	20 August 2008

Area	Time (s)	Athlete	Nation
Africa (records)	52.90	Nezha Bidouane	Morocco
Asia (records)	53.96	Han Qing	China
		Song Yinglan	China
Europe (records)	52.34	Yuliya Pechonkina	Russia
North, Central America and Caribbean (records)	51.90 WR	Sydney McLaughlin	United States
Oceania (records)	53.17	Debbie Flintoff-King	Australia
South America (records)	55.60	Gianna Woodruff	Panama

New records

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

World record	Sydney McLaughlin (USA)	51.46	Tokyo, Japan	04 August 2021
Olympic record	Sydney McLaughlin (USA)	51.46	Tokyo, Japan	04 August 2021

The following national records were set during this competition:

All times are Japan Standard Time (UTC+9)

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

Round 1

Qualification Rules: First 4 in each heat (Q) and the next 4 fastest (q) advance to the semifinals.

Heat 1

Rank	Lane	Athlete	Nation	Reaction	Time	Notes
1	9	Viktoriya Tkachuck	Ukraine	0.256	54.80	Q
2	3	Melissa Gonzalez	Colombia	0.146	55.32	Q, NR
3	7	Anna Cockrell	United States	0.213	55.37	Q
4	8	Sage Watson	Canada	0.176	55.54	Q
5	6	Yadisleidis Pedroso	Italy	0.186	55.57	q, SB
6	5	Amalie Iuel	Norway	0.129	55.65	q
7	2	Aminat Yusuf Jamal	Bahrain	0.208	55.90	SB
8	4	Hanne Claes	Belgium	0.174	56.38	SB

Heat 2

Rank	Lane	Athlete	Nation	Reaction	Time	Notes
1	2	Anna Ryzhykova	Ukraine	0.191	54.56	Q
2	7	Janieve Russell	Jamaica	0.159	54.81	Q
3	9	Paulien Couckuyt	Belgium	0.182	54.90	Q, NR
4	8	Linda Olivieri	Italy	0.130	55.54	Q, =PB
5	6	Viivi Lehikoinen	Finland	0.155	55.67
6	3	Noelle Montcalm	Canada	0.197	55.85	SB
7	5	Meghan Beesley	Great Britain	0.165	55.91
8	4	Chayenne da Silva	Brazil	0.165	57.55

Heat 3

Rank	Lane	Athlete	Nation	Reaction	Time	Notes
1	5	Sydney McLaughlin	United States	0.180	54.65	Q
2	7	Gianna Woodruff	Panama	0.268	55.49	Q
3	9	Sara Slott Petersen	Denmark	0.161	55.52	Q
4	8	Quách Thị Lan	Vietnam	0.150	55.71	Q, SB
5	3	Eleonora Marchiando	Italy	0.166	56.82
6	4	Mariya Mykolenko	Ukraine	0.200	57.86	TR 16.5.3
—	6	Leah Nugent	Jamaica	0.240	DQ	TR 17.3.1
_	2	Jessie Knight	Great Britain	0.160	DNF

Heat 4

Rank	Lane	Athlete	Nation	Reaction	Time	Notes
1	8	Femke Bol	Netherlands	0.194	54.43	Q
2	7	Tia-Adana Belle	Barbados	0.166	55.69	Q, SB
3	3	Wenda Nel	South Africa	0.194	56.06	Q
4	5	Jessica Turner	Great Britain	0.186	56.83	Q
5	6	Sarah Carli	Australia	0.167	56.93	SB
6	9	Yasmin Giger	Switzerland	0.165	57.03
—	2	Ronda Whyte	Jamaica	—	DQ	TR 16.8
—	4	Sparkle McKnight	Trinidad and Tobago	—	DNS	—

Heat 5

Rank	Lane	Athlete	Nation	Reaction	Time	Notes
1	3	Dalilah Muhammad	United States		53.97	Q
2	5	Carolina Krafzik	Germany	0.189	54.72	Q, PB
3	9	Lea Sprunger	Switzerland	0.186	54.74	Q, SB
4	8	Joanna Linkiewicz	Poland	0.130	54.93	Q, PB
5	6	Zurian Hechavarría	Cuba	0.181	54.99	q, PB
6	7	Emma Zapletalová	Slovakia	0.166	55.00	q
7	2	Line Kloster	Norway	0.151	56.45
8	4	Loubna Benhadja	Algeria	0.200	57.19	PB

Semi finals

Qualification Rules: First 2 in each heat (Q) and the next 2 fastest (q) advance to the Final

Semi final 1

Rank	Lane	Athlete	Nation	Reaction	Time	Notes
1	7	Dalilah Muhammad	United States	0.186	53.30	Q
2	6	Janieve Russell	Jamaica	0.151	54.10	Q
3	5	Paulien Couckuyt	Belgium	0.164	54.47	NR
4	4	Carolina Krafzik	Germany	0.172	54.96
5	8	Sage Watson	Canada	0.163	55.51
6	3	Quách Thị Lan	Vietnam	0.188	56.78
7	9	Linda Olivieri	Italy	0.120	57.03
8	2	Amalie Iuel	Norway	0.121	57.61

Semi final 2

Rank	Lane	Athlete	Nation	Reaction	Time	Notes
1	5	Sydney McLaughlin	United States	0.204	53.03	Q
2	4	Gianna Woodruff	Panama	0.207	54.22	Q, AR
3	6	Anna Ryzhykova	Ukraine	0.162	54.23	q
4	3	Zurian Hechavarría	Cuba	0.167	55.21
5	9	Joanna Linkiewicz	Poland	0.157	55.67
6	2	Emma Zapletalová	Slovakia	0.136	55.79
7	8	Wenda Nel	South Africa	0.189	56.35
8	7	Tia-Adana Belle	Barbados	0.146	59.26

Semi final 3

Rank	Lane	Athlete	Nation	Reaction	Time	Notes
1	5	Femke Bol	Netherlands	0.215	53.91	Q
2	8	Anna Cockrell	United States	0.174	54.17	Q
3	7	Viktoriya Tkachuk	Ukraine	0.224	54.25	q
4	6	Lea Sprunger	Switzerland	0.140	55.12
5	2	Yadisleidis Pedroso	Italy	0.181	55.80
6	4	Melissa Gonzalez	Colombia	0.191	57.47
7	3	Jessica Turner	Great Britain	0.185	1:00.36
—	9	Sara Slott Petersen	Denmark	0.165	DQ	TR 22.6

Final

Rank	Lane	Athlete	Nation	Reaction	Time	Notes
	4	Sydney McLaughlin	United States	0.163	51.46	WR
	7	Dalilah Muhammad	United States	0.200	51.58	PB
	5	Femke Bol	Netherlands	0.165	52.03	AR
4	6	Janieve Russell	Jamaica	0.136	53.08	PB
5	2	Anna Ryzhykova	Ukraine	0.177	53.48
6	3	Viktoriya Tkachuk	Ukraine	0.206	53.79	PB
7	9	Gianna Woodruff	Panama	0.235	55.84
—	8	Anna Cockrell	United States	0.167	DQ	TR 17.3.1

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