The Women's 400 metres competition at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Quebec, Canada was held at the Olympic Stadium on 25–29 July.

The winning margin was an impressive 1.23 seconds, which as of 2023 remains the only time the women's Olympic 400 metres has been won by more than a second.

Competition format The Women's 400m competition consisted of heats (Round 1), quarterfinals, semifinals and a final. The five fastest competitors from each race in the heats plus the next two fastest overall qualified for the Quarterfinals. The four fastest competitors from each of the Quarterfinal races qualified for the Semifinals, where again the four fastest runners from each heat, advanced to the final.

Records Prior to the competition, the existing World and Olympic records were as follows:

World record49.75Bydgoszcz, Poland22 June 1976Olympic record51.08Munich, West Germany7 September 1972

Results

Round 1 Qual. rule: first 5 of each heat (Q) plus the two fastest times (q) qualified.

Heat 1 Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 52.45 Q 2 52.60 Q 3 53.08 Q 4 53.93 Q 5 54.54 Q DNS DNS

Heat 2 Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 52.33 Q 2 52.75 Q 3 52.78 Q 4 53.66 Q 5 53.73 Q 6 53.93 7 57.85

Heat 3 Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 52.56 Q 2 52.65 Q 3 52.88 Q 4 52.93 Q 5 52.94 Q 6 54.11 DNS

Heat 4 Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 51.83 Q 2 52.45 Q 3 52.75 Q 4 53.35 Q 5 53.46 Q 6 53.64 q 7 54.13

Heat 5 Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 52.01 Q 2 52.57 Q 3 52.90 Q 4 52.98 Q 5 54.07 Q 6 58.52 DNS

Heat 6 Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 51.97 Q 2 52.10 Q 3 52.58 Q 4 52.73 Q 5 53.21 Q 6 53.37 q 7 1:13.27

Quarterfinals

Heat 1 Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 51.31 Q 2 51.33 Q 3 51.65 Q 4 51.73 Q 5 52.02 6 52.65 7 53.62 8 54.16

Heat 2 Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 51.63 Q 2 51.67 Q 3 51.79 Q 4 52.41 Q 5 53.71 6 54.07 7 55.02 DNS

Heat 3 Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 51.23 Q 2 51.32 Q 3 51.71 Q 4 52.25 Q 5 52.70 6 53.04 7 53.77 8 53.88

Heat 4 Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 51.62 Q 2 51.74 Q 3 51.87 Q 4 52.00 Q 5 52.29 6 52.51 7 53.14 8 53.14

Semifinals

Heat 1 Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 50.48 Q OR 2 50.51 Q 3 50.90 Q 4 51.26 Q 5 51.44 6 51.55 7 52.20 DNS

Heat 2 Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 50.62 Q 2 50.86 Q 3 51.03 Q 4 51.34 Q 5 51.42 6 51.71 7 51.82 8 51.95

Final Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 49.28 WR 50.51 50.55 4 50.56 5 50.65 6 50.90 7 50.98 8 51.66

References

External links Official Olympic Report , la84foundation.org. Retrieved August 20, 2012.