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.
Kerron Stephon Clement is a Trinidadian-born American track and field athlete who competes in the 400-meter hurdles and 400-meter sprint. He held the indoor world record in the 400-meter sprint, having broken Michael Johnson's mark in 2005.
Randolph Duane Ross is an American collegiate track and field coach, and former athlete, specializing in the 110 meters hurdles. He is currently the Director of Track and Field programs for the University of Tennessee and is best known for winning the bronze medal at the 1999 World Championships in Athletics and representing the United States at the 2004 Athens Olympics. Ross also won the 1995 NCAA championship in the 110-meter hurdles, and as a 7-time All-American and 5 Time ACC champion is Clemson University's most decorated male hurdler.
Lashinda Demus is a retired American hurdler who specialized in the 400 meter hurdles, an event in which she was the 2011 world champion and 2012 Olympic gold medalist, becoming the first woman from the United States to win the Olympic 400 m hurdles title.
Amantle Montsho is a female sprinter from Botswana who specializes in the 400 metres. She represented her country at the 2004 and 2008 Summer Olympics, reaching the final at the latter edition. She was the first woman to represent Botswana at the Olympics. She has also competed at the World Championships in Athletics and the IAAF World Indoor Championships, and is the former World Champion over the 400m, winning in a personal best time of 49.56 in Daegu.
Kirani James is a Grenadian professional sprinter who specializes in the 200 and 400 metres. He won the 400 m at the World Championships in 2011, and the 2012 London Olympics. In the 400 metres, James also won the silver medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics, and bronze medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, thus becoming the first man to earn the full set of three medals in the centennial history of the event. He is Grenada's first and only Olympic medalist.
Shaunae Miller-Uibo is a Bahamian track and field sprinter who competes in the 200 and 400 metres. She is a two-time Olympic champion after winning the women's 400 metres at the 2016 Rio Olympics and again at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Dalilah Muhammad is an American track and field athlete who specializes in the 400 meters hurdles. She is the 2016 Rio Olympics champion and 2020 Tokyo Olympics silver medalist, becoming at the latter the then-second-fastest woman of all time in the event with her personal best of 51.58 seconds. Muhammad was second at both the 2013 and 2017 World Championships to take her first gold in 2019, setting the former world record of 52.16 s. She was the second female 400 m hurdler in history, after Sally Gunnell, to have won the Olympic, World titles and broken the world record. At both the 2019 World Championships and Tokyo Games, she also took gold as part of women's 4 × 400 metres relay team.
Michael Arthur Norman Jr. is an American sprinter. He holds the world best time in the indoor 400 meters at 44.52 seconds. Outdoors, his 43.45, set at the 2019 Mt. SAC Relays is tied as the #4 on the all time list. In 2016, he became the world junior champion in both the 200 meters and 4×100 meter relay. In 2022, he became the world champion in both the 400 meters and 4x400 meter relay.
Salwa Eid Naser is a Nigerian-born Bahraini sprinter who specialises in the 400 metres. She was the 2019 World champion with the third fastest time in history of 48.14 seconds, becoming the youngest-ever champion in the event and also the first woman representing an Asian nation to win that event at a World Championships. The mark places her only behind contested results of Marita Koch and Jarmila Kratochvílová. Over the distance, at only 19, Naser was the 2017 World silver medallist. She has also won, as a member of Bahraini mixed-gender 4x400 m relay team, the 2019 World Championships bronze medal.
Courtney Okolo is an American track and field sprinter who usually competes in the 400 metres. She starred at Carrollton (Texas) Newman Smith High School where she won multiple individual state championships.
Christian Coleman is an American professional track and field sprinter who competes in the 100 meters and 200 meters. The 2019 world champion in the 100 meters, he also won gold as part of men's 4 × 100-meter relay. He holds personal bests of 9.76 seconds for the 100 m, which made him the 6th fastest all-time in the history of 100 metres event, and 19.85 for the 200 m. Coleman is the world indoor record holder for the 60 meters with 6.34 seconds. He was the Diamond League champion in 2018 & 2023 and the world number one ranked runner in the men's 100 m for the 2017, 2018 and 2019 seasons.
Fredrick Lee Kerley is an American professional track and field sprinter who started his career competing in the 400 meters until 2020, when he transitioned to the 100 meters and 200 meters. He has earned several medals at the World Championships in the 400 m and 4 × 400 m relay including an individual bronze and a relay gold at the 2019 edition. Kerley claimed 100 m gold in the 2022 edition.
Dominique Blake is a Jamaican track and field athlete. Blake won a gold medal at the 2010 Central American and Caribbean Games and was accidentally awarded a bronze medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics. She was banned for 4+1⁄2 years after testing positive for methylhexanamine and returned to athletic competition in 2017.
Christopher O'Donnell is an Irish track and field athlete competing in sprinting events. He represented Ireland at the 2020 Summer Olympics in the Mixed 4 x 400m relay where he was part of the first ever Irish team to run in an Olympic final, and was also part of the team who reached the final of the 2022 and 2023 World Championships. He is the current Irish U20 record holder in the 400 metres, with a time of 46.54, set on 22 July 2017 at the European U20 Championships, where he finished 6th in the final. His personal best of 45.26 seconds sits joint-2nd on the Irish all-time list and he is a 5-time National 400m champion.
Wadeline Jonathas is an American track and field athlete. She won gold medal in the women's 4 × 400 meters event at the 2019 World Athletics Championships and finished in 4th place in the 400 meters, in 49.60 seconds. Jonathas represents United States in women's 400 meters at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Jonathan Jones is a sprinter from Barbados.
Trevor Stewart is an American Olympic athlete. He won a gold medal in the men's 4x400 metres relay and a bronze medal in the mixed 4x400 metres relay at the 2020 Summer Olympics.
Elija Godwin is an American athlete who specialises in the 400 metres.
Jacory Patterson is an American track and field athlete specializing in the sprints. A native of Columbia, South Carolina, he won a gold medal at the 2016 USATF Junior Olympics in the long jump before focusing on sprinting events. Patterson attended Dreher High School in Columbia, where he broke the state record in the 200 m and won a state title in the 400 m.
