Athletics at the 1948 Summer Olympics

Athletics at the Games of the XIV Olympiad
Host stadium (shown in 2002)
No. of events	33
Competitors	745 from 53 nations
←  1936 1952  →

At the 1948 Summer Olympics in London, 33 athletics events were contested, 24 for men and 9 for women. Three events made their Olympic debut at these Games: women's 200 metres, women's long jump and women's shot put. There were a total number of 745 participating athletes from 53 countries.

Medal summary

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	United States	12	5	10	27
2	Sweden	5	3	5	13
3	Netherlands	4	0	2	6
4	France	2	3	3	8
5	Hungary	2	0	1	3
6	Australia	1	3	2	6
7	Italy	1	3	1	5
8	Finland	1	2	0	3
	Jamaica	1	2	0	3
10	Argentina	1	1	0	2
	Czechoslovakia	1	1	0	2
12	Austria	1	0	1	2
	Belgium	1	0	1	2
14	Great Britain	0	6	1	7
15	Switzerland	0	1	1	2
16	Ceylon	0	1	0	1
	Norway	0	1	0	1
	Yugoslavia	0	1	0	1
19	Panama	0	0	2	2
20	Canada	0	0	1	1
	Denmark	0	0	1	1
	Turkey	0	0	1	1
Totals (22 entries)		33	33	33	99

Men

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
100 metres details	Harrison Dillard   United States	10.3	Barney Ewell   United States	10.4	Lloyd LaBeach   Panama	10.6
200 metres details	Mel Patton   United States	21.1	Barney Ewell   United States	21.1	Lloyd LaBeach   Panama	21.2
400 metres details	Arthur Wint   Jamaica	46.2	Herb McKenley   Jamaica	46.4	Mal Whitfield   United States	46.8
800 metres details	Mal Whitfield   United States	1:49.2 (OR)	Arthur Wint   Jamaica	1:49.5	Marcel Hansenne   France	1:49.8
1500 metres details	Henry Eriksson   Sweden	3:49.8	Lennart Strand   Sweden	3:50.4	Willem Slijkhuis   Netherlands	3:50.4
5000 metres details	Gaston Reiff   Belgium	14:17.6 (OR)	Emil Zátopek   Czechoslovakia	14:17.8	Willem Slijkhuis   Netherlands	14:26.8
10,000 metres details	Emil Zátopek   Czechoslovakia	29:59.6 (OR)	Alain Mimoun   France	30:47.4	Bertil Albertsson   Sweden	30:53.6
110 metres hurdles details	William Porter   United States	13.9 (OR)	Clyde Scott   United States	14.1	Craig Dixon   United States	14.1
400 metres hurdles details	Roy Cochran   United States	51.1 (OR)	Duncan White   Ceylon	51.8	Rune Larsson   Sweden	52.2
3000 metres steeplechase details	Tore Sjöstrand   Sweden	9:04.6	Erik Elmsäter   Sweden	9:08.2	Göte Hagström   Sweden	9:11.8
4 × 100 metres relay details	United States  (USA) Barney Ewell Lorenzo Wright Harrison Dillard Mel Patton	40.6	Great Britain  (GBR) Alastair McCorquodale Jack Gregory Ken Jones Jack Archer	41.3	Italy  (ITA) Michele Tito Enrico Perucconi Carlo Monti Antonio Siddi	41.5
4 × 400 metres relay details	United States  (USA) Roy Cochran Cliff Bourland Arthur Harnden Mal Whitfield	3:10.4	France  (FRA) Jean Kerebel Francis Schewetta Robert Chef d'Hôtel Jacques Lunis	3:14.8	Sweden  (SWE) Kurt Lundquist Lars-Erik Wolfbrandt Folke Alnevik Rune Larsson	3:16.0
Marathon details	Delfo Cabrera   Argentina	2:34:51.6	Tom Richards   Great Britain	2:35:07.6	Étienne Gailly   Belgium	2:35:33.6
10 kilometres walk details	John Mikaelsson   Sweden	45:13.2 (OR)	Ingemar Johansson   Sweden	45:43.8	Fritz Schwab   Switzerland	46:00.2
50 kilometres walk details	John Ljunggren   Sweden	4:41:52	Gaston Godel   Switzerland	4:48:17	Tebbs Lloyd Johnson   Great Britain	4:48:31
High jump details	John Winter   Australia	1.98 m	Bjørn Paulson   Norway	1.95 m	George Stanich   United States	1.95 m
Pole vault details	Guinn Smith   United States	4.30 m	Erkki Kataja   Finland	4.20 m	Bob Richards   United States	4.20 m
Long jump details	Willie Steele   United States	7.825 m	Bill Bruce   Australia	7.55 m	Herb Douglas   United States	7.54 m
Triple jump details	Arne Åhman   Sweden	15.40 m	George Avery   Australia	15.36 m	Ruhi Sarıalp   Turkey	15.02 m
Shot put details	Wilbur Thompson   United States	17.12 m (OR)	Jim Delaney   United States	16.68 m	Jim Fuchs   United States	16.42 m
Discus throw details	Adolfo Consolini   Italy	52.78 m (OR)	Giuseppe Tosi   Italy	51.78 m	Fortune Gordien   United States	50.77 m
Hammer throw details	Imre Németh   Hungary	56.07 m	Ivan Gubijan   Yugoslavia	54.27 m	Robert Bennett   United States	53.73 m
Javelin throw details	Tapio Rautavaara   Finland	69.77 m	Steve Seymour   United States	67.56 m	József Várszegi   Hungary	67.03 m
Decathlon details	Bob Mathias   United States	7139	Ignace Heinrich   France	6974	Floyd Simmons   United States	6950

Women

Games	Gold		Silver		Bronze
100 metres details	Fanny Blankers-Koen   Netherlands	11.9	Dorothy Manley   Great Britain	12.2	Shirley Strickland   Australia	12.2
200 metres details	Fanny Blankers-Koen   Netherlands	24.4 (OR)	Audrey Williamson   Great Britain	25.1	Audrey Patterson   United States	25.2
80 metres hurdles details	Fanny Blankers-Koen   Netherlands	11.2 (OR)	Maureen Gardner   Great Britain	11.2	Shirley Strickland   Australia	11.4
4 × 100 metres relay details	Netherlands  (NED) Xenia Stad-de Jong Netty Witziers-Timmer Gerda van der Kade-Koudijs Fanny Blankers-Koen	47.5	Australia  (AUS) Shirley Strickland June Maston Betty McKinnon Joyce King	47.6	Canada  (CAN) Viola Myers Nancy Mackay Diane Foster Patricia Jones	47.8
High jump details	Alice Coachman   United States	1.68 m (OR)	Dorothy Tyler   Great Britain	1.68 m (OR)	Micheline Ostermeyer   France	1.61 m
Long jump details	Olga Gyarmati   Hungary	5.695 m (OR)	Noemí Simonetto   Argentina	5.60 m	Ann-Britt Leyman   Sweden	5.575 m
Shot put details	Micheline Ostermeyer   France	13.75 m (OR)	Amelia Piccinini   Italy	13.09 m	Ine Schäffer   Austria	13.08 m
Discus throw details	Micheline Ostermeyer   France	41.92 m	Edera Cordiale   Italy	41.17 m	Jacqueline Mazéas   France	40.47 m
Javelin throw details	Herma Bauma   Austria	45.57 m (OR)	Kaisa Parviainen   Finland	43.79 m	Lily Carlstedt   Denmark	42.08 m

Participating Nations

•   Argentina  (24)
•   Australia  (20)
•   Austria  (16)
•   Belgium  (18)
•   Bermuda  (6)
•   Brazil  (12)
•   Burma  (1)
•   Canada  (28)
•   Ceylon  (3)
•   Chile  (15)
•   Republic of China  (3)
•   Colombia  (2)
•   Cuba  (3)
•   Czechoslovakia  (11)
•   Denmark  (16)
•   Egypt  (2)
•   Finland  (36)
•   France  (67)
•   Great Britain  (80)
•   Greece  (16)
•   Guyana  (1)
•   Hungary  (13)
•   Iceland  (12)
•   India  (8)
•   Iraq  (2)
•   Ireland  (13)
•   Italy  (25)
•   Jamaica  (10)
•   South Korea  (9)
•   Liechtenstein  (2)
•   Luxembourg  (7)
•   Malta  (1)
•   Mexico  (5)
•   Netherlands  (23)
•   New Zealand  (4)
•   Norway  (20)
•   Pakistan  (5)
•   Panama  (1)
•   Peru  (9)
•   Philippines  (1)
•   Poland  (8)
•   Portugal  (6)
•   Puerto Rico  (4)
•   Singapore  (1)
•   South Africa  (6)
•   Spain  (12)
•   Sweden  (49)
•   Switzerland  (23)
•   Trinidad and Tobago  (3)
•   Turkey  (13)
•   United States  (81)
•   Uruguay  (5)
•   Yugoslavia  (15)

Records broken

14 new Olympic records were set in the athletics events. No new world records were set.

Men's Olympic records

Event	Date	Round	Name	Nationality	Result
800 metres	2 August	Final	Mal Whitfield	United States	1:49.2
5000 metres	2 August	Final	Gaston Reiff	Belgium	14:17.6
10,000 metres	30 July	Final	Emil Zátopek	Czechoslovakia	29:59.6
110 metres hurdles	4 August	Final	William Porter	United States	13.9
400 metres hurdles	31 July	Final	Roy Cochran	United States	51.1
10 kilometres walk	7 August	Final	John Mikaelsson	Sweden	45:13.2
Shot put	3 August	Final	Wilbur Thompson	United States	17.12 m
Discus throw	2 August	Final	Adolfo Consolini	Italy	52.78 m

Women's Olympic records

Event	Date	Round	Name	Nationality	Result
200 metres	6 August	Final	Fanny Blankers-Koen	Netherlands	24.4
80 metres hurdles	4 August	Final	Fanny Blankers-Koen Maureen Gardner	Netherlands   Great Britain	11.2
High jump	7 August	Final	Alice Coachman Dorothy Tyler	United States   Great Britain	1.68 m
Long jump	4 August	Final	Olga Gyarmati	Hungary	5.695 m
Shot put	4 August	Final	Micheline Ostermeyer	France	13.75 m
Javelin throw	31 July	Final	Herma Bauma	Austria	45.57 m

References

• 1948 Summer Olympics results: athletics, from https://www.sports-reference.com/; retrieved 2010-06-01.
• International Olympic Committee results database
• Athletics Australia

51°33′20″N0°16′47″W / 51.5556°N 0.2797°W / 51.5556; -0.2797