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.
James Stephen Baulch is a retired Welsh sprint athlete and television presenter. He won the 400 metres gold medal at the 1999 World Indoor Championships. As a member of British 4 × 400 metres relay teams, he won a gold medal at the 1997 World Championships, and silver medal at the 1996 Olympic Games. He represented Wales at the Commonwealth Games where he won an individual silver and a bronze medal in the 4 × 400 m relay.
Muriel Hurtis-Houairi is a French track and field athlete. She came to prominence in 2002 when she won the 200 m gold medals at both the European Indoor Championships and the European Athletics Championships. The following year she added the World Indoor title and won a bronze medal at the 2003 World Championships in Athletics and a gold in the 4×100 metres relay with France.
Sunday Bada was a Nigerian sprinter who specialized in the 400 metres event. He won three medals at the World Indoor Championships, including a gold medal in 1997. His personal best time was 44.63 seconds, and with 45.51 seconds indoor he holds the African indoor record. He set a national record in the 4 x 400 metres relay at the 2000 Olympics, where the Nigerian team also won gold medals after the disqualification of the US.
Christine Ijeoma Ohuruogu, MBE is a British former track and field athlete who specialised in the 400 metres, the event for which she is an Olympic, World and Commonwealth champion. The Olympic champion in 2008, and silver medalist in 2012, she is a double World Champion, having won the 400 m at the 2007 and 2013 World Championships. She has also won six World championship medals in the women's 4 × 400 m relay as part of the Great Britain and Northern Ireland team and bronze Olympic medals with the women's 4 × 400 m relay at the 2008 Beijing Games and the 2016 Rio Games, her final Olympics. Ohuruogu shares with Merlene Ottey and Usain Bolt the record for medalling in most successive global championships – 9 – between the 2005 World Championships in Athletics and the 2016 Summer Olympics.
David Gillick is an Irish international track and field athlete. He began his education in Our Lady's Boys School and attended St Benildus College secondary school in Kilmacud. He studied at Dublin Institute of Technology before moving to Loughborough University in the United Kingdom to train as a full-time athlete with coach Nick Dakin. Gillick specialises in the 400 metres and he won the European Indoor Championship in 2005 and 2007, as well as the Irish National Outdoor Championship in 2006 and 2007. He set the Irish Indoor record of 45.52 seconds in the 2007 final. The time also beat the Irish outdoor record of 45.58 and was within the Olympic 'A' qualifying standard for the 2008 Games. On 4 July 2009 he ran 44.77 seconds in a race in Madrid to set a new national record. He is also the 2009 Irish national 200 m champion.
Vera Ivanovna Popkova was a Soviet track and field athlete who competed in the sprints. She had personal bests of 11.3 seconds for the 100 metres and 23.0 seconds for the 200 metres. Over her career, she won eight individual national titles in the sprints.
Ahmed Douhou is a French sprinter who specializes in the 200 metres. He switched nationality from his birth country Côte d'Ivoire in 2002.
Michael Mathieu is a retired Bahamian sprinter from Freeport, Grand Bahama who specialized in the 200 metres and 400 metres. He was part of the Bahamian silver medal-winning team in the men's 4×400 metres relay at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, running second leg and recording a 44.0 split, and the gold medal-winning team at the 2012 Summer Olympics. He was also a part of second place relay team at the 2007 World Championships. He won the bronze medal in the 4x400 metres relay in the 2016 Summer Olympics.
Jonathan Borlée is a Belgian sprinter, who specializes in the 400 metres. He is a member of the Borlée family.
Eilidh Doyle is a retired British track and field athlete. Originally running as Eilidh Child, she specialised in the 400 metres hurdles outdoors, and the 400 metres flat indoors, as well as the 4 x 400 metres relay on both surfaces. She represented Great Britain at the 2012 Olympic Games in London, and won an Olympic bronze medal in the 4 x 400 metres relay at the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro. Individually, she is the 2014 European Champion and a three-time Commonwealth silver medalist in the 400 metres hurdles.
Jacques Borlée is a former Belgian athlete, and the father and coach of athletes Olivia Borlée, Kevin, Jonathan and Dylan Borlée. He was voted European Athletics Coach of the Year in 2011.
Pavel Maslák is a Czech sprinter who specialises in the 200 metres and 400 metres. He is the only athlete in history who has managed to win the 400 m title at the World Indoor Championships at three consecutive championships. Maslák is the first Czech to have run 400 metres under 45 seconds outdoor and under 46 seconds indoor.
Lalonde Keida Gordon, HBM is a Tobagonian male track and field sprinter who specialises in the 400 metres. He won the bronze medal at the 2012 London Olympics with a personal best of 44.52 seconds. He is the third fastest 400 m runner from his country after Machel Cedenio and Ian Morris.
Jereem Richards is a Trinidadian track and field sprinter who specializes in the 200 metres and 400 metres events. He won the bronze medal in the 200 m at the 2017 World Championships in Athletics and gold for the 400 m at the 2022 World Indoor Championships. Richards took 200m titles at both the 2018 and 2022 Commonwealth Games. He was part of the Trinidad and Tobago team that won the bronze medal in the men's 4 × 400 m relay at the 2012 World Indoor Championships and a gold medal at the 2017 World Championships in Athletics.
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.
Natalia Kaczmarek is a Polish athlete sprinter who specialises in the 400 metres. She won the silver medal in the event at the 2022 European Championships. Kaczmarek earned several global medals as part of 4 x 400 m relays, including gold in the mixed event and silver in the women's event at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
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.
Jovan Stojoski is a Serbian sprinter who represents Macedonia since 2019. Stojoski participated in the 2020 Olympic Games Tokyo.
Femke Bol is a Dutch track and field athlete who competes in hurdling and sprinting. She specialises in the 400 metres hurdles, where she is the 2023 World Champion, and in the 400 metres, where she is the indoor world record holder. In the 4 × 400 metres relay, she is the 2023 World Champion with the Dutch women's team.
