Athletics at the 2020 Summer Olympics – Women's 400 metres hurdles

Qualification

A National Olympic Committee could enter up to three qualified athletes if all met the entry standard or qualified by ranking. The qualifying standard was 55.40 seconds, set to qualify athletes with exceptional performances unable to qualify through the World Rankings pathway. World rankings, based on the average of the best five results weighted by meet importance, were used to fill the cap of 40 athletes. The qualifying period originally ran from 1 May 2019 to 29 June 2020, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic it was suspended from 6 April 2020 to 30 November 2020, with the end date extended to 29 June 2021. The world rankings period start date changed to 30 June 2020; athletes who met the standard during the earlier period remained qualified, but those using rankings could not count performances from that time. Standards could be obtained at approved meets, including indoor and outdoor events. Area Championships could be counted even if outside the qualifying period. NOCs could also use a universality place to enter one female athlete regardless of time if they had no female athletes meeting the entry standard.

Results

Thirty-nine athletes from twenty-five nations took part in five first-round heats on the morning of 31 July 2021 at 9:00 UTC+9. The top four finishers from each heat, plus the next four fastest overall, moved on to the semi-finals. In heat one, Colombia’s Melissa Gonzalez set a national record of 55.32 seconds. In heat two, Belgium’s Paulien Couckuyt ran a national record of 54.90 seconds. Heat three saw Ukraine’s Mariya Mykolenko receive a yellow card for disturbing the start, Great Britain’s Jessie Knight fail to finish, and Jamaica’s Leah Nugent disqualified for a lane infringement. In heat four, Trinidad and Tobago’s Sparkle McKnight did not start, and Jamaica’s Ronda Whyte was disqualified for a false start.

Twenty-four athletes from twenty nations competed in three semi-final heats on 2 August 2021 at 19:00 UTC+9. The first two in each heat, along with the next two fastest overall, qualified for the final. In the first semi-final, Paulien Couckuyt improved her own national record to 54.47 seconds. In the second semi-final, Panama’s Gianna Woodruff set a national record of 54.22 seconds. In the third semi-final, Denmark’s Sara Slott Petersen was disqualified for failing to clear every hurdle.

Eight athletes from five nations contested the final on 4 August 2021 at 9:00 UTC+9. Dalilah Muhammad came out fast, clearing the first hurdle ahead of Sydney McLaughlin and Femke Bol. By the third hurdle, she had passed the runners staggered to her outside. Muhammad, McLaughlin, and Bol pulled away from the rest, keeping the same order over all ten barriers. Muhammad crossed the line in 51.58, beating the six-week-old world record by nearly a third of a second. But McLaughlin, running faster from the final hurdle to the finish, won in 51.46—a new world record. Bol finished in 52.03, just shy of the previous world record, making her the third-fastest performer ever and giving the race the fourth-best performance of all time.