The 400 metres, or 400-meter dash, is a sprint event in track and field competitions. It has been featured in the athletics programme at the Summer Olympics since 1896 for men and since 1964 for women. On a standard outdoor running track, it is one lap around the track. Runners start in staggered positions and race in separate lanes for the entire course. In many countries, athletes previously competed in the 440-yard dash (402.336 m)—which is a quarter of a mile and was referred to as the "quarter-mile"—instead of the 400 m (437.445 yards), though this distance is now obsolete.
Foekje Dillema was a Dutch track and field athlete. She competed in sprinting where she was a rival of Fanny Blankers-Koen. When she refused a sex verification test at age 24, she was banned from competition by the International Association of Athletics Federations in 1950. After her death, it was determined that she was an intersex person.
The principal sports in Namibia are football, rugby union, cricket, golf and fishing. Boxing and athletics are also popular. The home stadium for all national teams is Independence Stadium in Windhoek, while Sam Nujoma Stadium in Katutura is also occasionally used.
Mokgadi Caster Semenya OIB is a South African middle-distance runner and winner of two Olympic gold medals and three World Championships in the women's 800 metres. She first won gold at the World Championships in 2009 and went on to win at the 2016 Olympics and the 2017 World Championships, where she also won a bronze medal in the 1500 metres. After the doping disqualification of Mariya Savinova, she was also awarded gold medals for the 2011 World Championships and the 2012 Olympics.
Anthonique Strachan is a Bahamian sprinter, she is the 2012 100m and 200m World Junior Champion. She competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics, 2016 Summer Olympics and the 2020 Summer Olympics, in 200 m. and 4 × 400 m relay
Francine Niyonsaba is a Burundian runner who specialized in the 800 metres and shifted to longer distances in 2019. She was the 2016 Rio Olympics silver medalist in the women's 800 metres. Her silver medal was the first Olympic medal for Burundi since 1996. Niyonsaba won a silver in the event at the 2017 World Championships.
Dutee Chand is an Indian professional sprinter and current national champion in the women's 100 metres event. In 2013, Chand was the first Indian sprinter to reach the final of the 100m event at a global youth athletics competition, and in 2016 she took part in the Rio Olympic Games. She is the third Indian woman to ever qualify for the Women's 100 metres event at the Summer Olympic Games. In 2018, Chand clinched silver in women's 100m at the Jakarta Asian Games. It was India's first medal in this event since 1998. Moreover, In 2019, she became the first Indian sprinter to win gold at the Universiade, clocking 11.32 seconds in the 100 m race.
The women's 800 metres event at the 2016 Summer Olympics took place between 17–20 August at the Olympic Stadium.
Shericka Jackson is a Jamaican sprinter competing in the 60 m, 100 m, 200 m, and 400 metres. In the 100 m, she’s the fifth fastest woman of all time, while in the 200 m, she’s the second fastest woman in history.
Morgan Mitchell is an Australian athlete who specialized in the 400 metres and now competes in the 800 metres.
Gianna Ursula Woodruff Washington is a track and field athlete specializing in the 400 metres hurdles. Born in the United States, she represented Panama at the delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympics improving her own South American record with a time of 54.22 seconds in the semi-finals to finish 7th in the final.
Sada Williams is a Barbadian sprinter competing primarily in the 200 and 400 metres. She won the bronze medal in the 400 m at the 2022 World Championships, becoming the first Barbadian woman ever to win a medal at the World Athletics Championships. Williams took gold in the event at the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
The women's 200 metres event at the 2020 Summer Olympics took place on 2 and 3 August 2021 at the Japan National Stadium. 41 athletes from 31 nations competed. In successfully defending her title, Elaine Thompson-Herah became the first woman in history to win both the 100 and 200 metres titles at successive games. Her winning time of 21.53 secs, moved her to second on the world all-time list behind Florence Griffith Joyner, and broke Merlene Ottey's 30-year-old Jamaican record. The winning margin was 0.28 seconds. Surprisingly, Thompson-Herah had the slowest reaction time in the final.
The women's 400 metres event at the 2020 Summer Olympics took place from 3 to 6 August 2021 at the Japan National Stadium. 45 athletes from 34 nations competed. Shaunae Miller-Uibo won the gold medal by 0.84 seconds in a personal best of 48.36 secs, a time which ranks her sixth on the world all-time list. In successfully defending her title, Miller-Uibo joined Marie-Jose Perec as the only women to win two Olympic 400 metres titles.
Aminatou Seyni is a Nigerien track and field sprinter.
The testosterone regulations in women's athletics are a series of policies first published in 2011 by the IAAF and last updated following a court victory against Caster Semenya in May 2019. The first version of the rules applied to all women with high testosterone, but the current version of the rules only apply to athletes with certain XY disorders of sexual development, and set a 5 nmol/L testosterone limit, which applies only to distances between 400 m and 1 mile (inclusive), other events being unrestricted.
Christine Mboma is a Namibian sprinter who competes in the 100 metres and 200 m. At the age of 18, she won a silver medal in the 200 metres at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, becoming the first ever Namibian woman to win a women's Olympic medal and breaking the world under-20 and African senior record. Mboma also won the event at the 2021 World Under-20 Championships and Diamond League final, improving her record mark to 21.78 seconds.
The 2021 Memorial Van Damme was the 45th edition of the annual track and field meeting in Brussels, Belgium. Held on 3 September at the King Baudouin Stadium, it was the thirteenth and penultimate leg of the 2021 Diamond League – the highest level international track and field circuit. The discus throw events were held on 1 September, two days before the rest of the meeting. Although Memorial Van Damme and Weltklasse Zürich co-hosted the finals during the last full season in 2019, in 2021 the series moved to a single final in Zürich.
The Olympic Games mandates sex verification of athletes in women's competitions, and has done since the 1930s. In this time, there have been many different regulations for sex testing, as well as different types of tests used. Initial concerns that prompted the approval of suspicion-based sex testing were of national teams exploiting intersex athletes for Olympic success, and testing first became a requirement in the 1960s when many female athletes were doped and it was harder to tell physical differences between them and men.
