Athletics at the 2024 Summer Olympics – Men's 4 × 400 metres relay

The men's 4 x 400 metres relay at the 2024 Summer Olympics was held in two rounds at the Stade de France in Paris, France, on 9 and 10 August 2024. This was the 26th time that the men's 4 x 400 metres relay was contested at the Summer Olympics. A total of 16 teams were able to qualify for the event through the 2024 World Athletics Relays or the World Athletics top list.

Men's 4 x 400 metres relay at the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad
Venue	Stade de France, Paris, France
Dates	9 August 2024 (round 1) 10 August 2024 (final)
Winning time	2:54.43 OR
Medalists
Christopher Bailey, Vernon Norwood, Bryce Deadmon, Rai Benjamin, Quincy Wilson*  United States Bayapo Ndori, Busang Kebinatshipi, Anthony Pesela, Letsile Tebogo  Botswana Alex Haydock-Wilson, Matthew Hudson-Smith, Lewis Davey, Charlie Dobson, Samuel Reardon*, Toby Harries* *Indicates the athlete only competed in the preliminary heats.  Great Britain

Summary

A great deal of social media enthusiasm was generated when 16 year old, high school junior Quincy Wilson finished 6th at the US Trials, entitling him to be on the US relay squad. After the trials, he improved to run the be the second fastest American of the year, setting the world U18 record three times during the season. He was the first leg of the team in Heat 1. Also on that leg was Botswana's 200m gold medalist Letsile Tebogo who blasted a 44.4 leg to tear the race apart at the start. The public relations boon turned into a liability as Wilson ran credibly for the first 300 metres but tied up on the last 100 metres to run a 47.3 leg, putting the US team at a big deficit in 7th place, in danger of not qualifying for the final. He handed off to veteran Vernon Norwood, twice Wilson's age who ran a 43.6 to bring USA past Poland into 6th place. Bryce Deadmon ran a 44.2 leg to get past Zambia and Germany into 4th place. Christopher Bailey had to run all out for most of the anchor lap, only having the opportunity once he had clearly passed Kentaro Sato of Japan to secure the third automatic qualifying position for the team behind Botswana and GBR. Bailey split 44.0, so all three runners who would run in the final the next day had hard splits in their legs. Ultimately Japan and Zambia were able to qualify on time, but nobody knew that would happen until the second heat concluded. More drama happened in the second heat when Lythe Pillay tripped taking South Africa out of the final. The referees put them back in, making 9 starters for the final.

Teams are allowed to change the order and substitute fresh runners for the final. USA's gold medalist Quincy Hall was injured and unable to be used, so the only USA addition was 400 hurdle gold medalist Rai Benjamin. Belgium also lost the services of their World Indoor Champion Alexander Doom due to injury. They were able to substitute with 36 year old veteran, 2010 European Champion Kevin Borlée. Botswana has exhibited high level talent since Rio, but made technical mistakes that shouldn't happen in high level races. This year, mistakes are not evident and they are planning for a winning strategy using their star Tebogo strategically in the heats and putting him on anchor in the final.

In the final, with big 3 turn stagger gaps between the athletes at the start, Bayapo Ndori blasted BOT out to a big lead in the first 300 of the race, catching GBR's Alex Haydock-Wilson who had already passed Muhammad Abdallah Kounta FRA on his outside. Over the last 100 metres, the early leaders slowed while Kounta, Bailey USA and Jonathan Sacoor BEL closed strongly, Botswana handing off to Busang Kebinatshipi slightly ahead of USA to Norwood, Belgium to Dylan Borlée slightly ahead of GBR to their star Matthew Hudson-Smith even with France to Gilles Biron. By the time the athletes merged, Kebinatshipi had 3 metres on Hudson-Smith, Norwood another 2 metres back with 2 more metres on Borlée. Over the rest of the leg, Hudson-Smith closed down on Kebinatshipi while Norwood passed Hudson-Smith at the handoff to Deadmon. Botswana passed to Anthony Pesela in the lead, but Deadmon quickly ran around him on the turn, opening up a 4 metre lead midway down the backstretch, while GBR's Lewis Davey pulled even with Pesela. Deadmon main.tained the gap as Davey passed Pesela at the start of the turn. That was temporary, coming off the turn, Pesela passed him back and went on a charge after Deadmon wile Davey faded into the distance. Pesela closed it down the lead to 3 metres when he handed off to Tebogo. Could the strong hurdler, Benjamin, hold off one of the fastest men in the world running twice his normal distance? Benjamin set it in cruise mode, seemingly holding a little back for the onslaught. Through the turn, Tebogo began to close down the lead, but only slightly. Coming onto the straightaway, Tebogo was into full sprint mode, pulling into lane 2 for room to pass. Tebogo looked like he might get there, closing down to less than a metre, but Benjamin held him off to the finish line.

Background

The men's 4 × 400 metres relay at the Summer Olympics has been present on the Olympic athletics programme since 1912.

Global records before the 2024 Summer Olympics

Record	Athlete (Nation)	Time (s)	Location	Date
World record	United States (Andrew Valmon, Quincy Watts, Butch Reynolds, Michael Johnson)	2:54.29	Stuttgart, Germany	22 August 1993
Olympic record	United States (LaShawn Merritt, Angelo Taylor, David Neville, Jeremy Wariner)	2:55.39	Beijing, China	23 August 2008
World leading	Texas A&M (Jevon O'Bryant, Cutler Zamzow, Kimar Farquharson, Auhmad Robinson)	2:58.37	Eugene, United States	7 June 2024

Area records before the 2024 Summer Olympics

Area Record	Athlete (Nation)	Time (s)
Africa (records)	Botswana (Isaac Makwala, Baboloki Thebe, Zibane Ngozi, Bayapo Ndori)	2:57.27
Asia (records)	India (Muhammad Anas, Amoj Jacob, Muhammed Ajmal Variyathodi, Rajesh Ramesh)	2:59.05
Europe (records)	Great Britain (Iwan Thomas, Jamie Baulch, Mark Richardson, Roger Black)	2:56.60
North, Central America and Caribbean (records)	United States (Andrew Valmon, Quincy Watts, Butch Reynolds, Michael Johnson)	2:54.29 WR
Oceania (records)	Australia (Bruce Frayne, Darren Clark, Gary Minihan, Rick Mitchell)	2:59.70
South America (records)	Brazil (Eronilde de Araújo, Anderson Jorge dos Santos, Claudinei da Silva, Sanderlei Parrela)	2:58.56

Qualification

Main article: Athletics at the 2024 Summer Olympics – Qualification § Men's 4 × 400 m relay

Qualification event	No. of teams	Qualified teams
2024 World Athletics Relays	14	Belgium  Botswana  Brazil  Germany  Great Britain  India  Italy  Japan  Nigeria  Poland  South Africa  Spain  Trinidad and Tobago  United States
World Athletics Top List (as of June 30, 2024)	2	France  Zambia
Total	16

For the men's 4 x 400 metres relay event, fourteen teams qualified through the 2024 World Athletics Relays. The remaining two spots were awarded to the teams with the highest ranking on the World Athletics Top List. The qualification period is between 1 July 2023 and 30 June 2024.

Results

Round 1

Round 1 was held on 9 August, and started at 11:05 (UTC+2) in the morning.

Heat 1

Rank	Lane	Nation	Competitors	Reaction	Time	Notes
1	6	Botswana	Letsile Tebogo, Busang Collen Kebinatshipi, Anthony Pesela, Bayapo Ndori	0.165	2:57.76	Q, SB
2	8	Great Britain	Samuel Reardon, Matthew Hudson-Smith, Toby Harries, Charlie Dobson	0.228	2:58.88	Q, SB
3	4	United States	Quincy Wilson, Vernon Norwood, Bryce Deadmon, Christopher Bailey	0.166	2:59.15	Q
4	7	Japan	Yuki Joseph Nakajima, Kaito Kawabata, Fuga Sato, Kentaro Sato	0.199	2:59.48	q, NR
5	2	Zambia	Patrick Kakoz Nyambe, Kennedy Luchembe, Chanda Mulenga, Muzala Samukonga	0.190	3:00.08	q
6	5	Germany	Jean Paul Bredau, Marc Koch, Manuel Sanders, Emil Agyekum	0.153	3:00.29	SB
7	3	Poland	Maksymilian Szwed, Karol Zalewski, Daniel Sołtysiak, Kajetan Duszyński	0.163	3:01.21	SB
8	9	Trinidad and Tobago	Renny Quow, Jereem Richards, Jaden Marchan, Shakeem McKay	0.156	3:06.73

Heat 2

Rank	Lane	Nation	Competitors	Reaction	Time	Notes
1	3	France	Muhammad Abdallah Kounta, Gilles Biron, Téo Andant, Fabrisio Saïdy	0.156	2:59.53	Q, SB
2	7	Belgium	Jonathan Sacoor, Dylan Borlée, Florent Mabille, Kevin Borlée	0.143	2:59.84	Q, =SB
3	5	Italy	Luca Sito, Vladimir Aceti, Alessandro Sibilio, Edoardo Scotti	0.166	3:00.26	Q, SB
4	2	India	Muhammed Anas Yahiya, Muhammed Ajmal Variyathodi, Amoj Jacob, Rajesh Ramesh	0.158	3:00.58	SB
5	4	Brazil	Lucas Carvalho, Lucas Vilar, Douglas Mendes, Matheus Lima	0.141	3:00.95	SB
6	9	Spain	Iñaki Cañal, Óscar Husillos, David García Zurita, Julio Arenas	0.145	3:01.60
7	6	South Africa	Gardeo Isaacs, Zakithi Nene, Antonie Matthys Nortje, Lythe Pillay	0.168	3:03.19	qR
	8	Nigeria	Ifeanyi Emmanuel Ojeli, Ezekiel Nathaniel, Dubem Amene, Chidi Okezie	0.152	DQ

Final

The final was held on 10 August, and started at 21:12 (UTC+2) in the evening.

Rank	Lane	Nation	Competitors	Reaction	Time	Notes
	4	United States	Christopher Bailey, Vernon Norwood, Bryce Deadmon, Rai Benjamin	0.144	2:54.43	OR
	6	Botswana	Bayapo Ndori, Busang Kebinatshipi, Anthony Pesela, Letsile Tebogo	0.159	2:54.53	AR
	7	Great Britain	Alex Haydock-Wilson, Matthew Hudson-Smith, Lewis Davey, Charlie Dobson	0.150	2:55.83	AR
4	5	Belgium	Jonathan Sacoor, Dylan Borlée, Kevin Borlée, Florent Mabille	0.152	2:57.75	NR
5	1	South Africa	Gardeo Isaacs, Zakithi Nene, Lythe Pillay, Antonie Matthys Nortje	0.156	2:58.12	NR
6	2	Japan	Yuki Joseph Nakajima, Kaito Kawabata, Fuga Sato, Kentaro Sato	0.204	2:58.33	AR
7	9	Italy	Luca Sito, Vladimir Aceti, Edoardo Scotti, Alessandro Sibilio	0.152	2:59.72	SB
8	3	Zambia	Patrick Kakoz Nyambe, Kennedy Luchembe, Chanda Mulenga, Muzala Samukonga	0.186	3:02.76
9	8	France	Muhammad Abdallah Kounta, Gilles Biron, Téo Andant, Fabrisio Saïdy	0.156	3:07.30