# Athletics at the 1928 Summer Olympics

At the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam, 27 athletics events were contested. The competition was held on a 400-meter track and would become the standard for athletics tracks in the future. For the first time, women's events in athletics were included in the Olympic Games program. There was a total of 706 participants from 40 countries competing.

## Medal summary

| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
| 1 | United States (USA) | 9 | 8 | 8 | 25 |
| 2 | Finland (FIN) | 5 | 5 | 4 | 14 |
| 3 | Canada (CAN) | 4 | 2 | 2 | 8 |
| 4 | Great Britain (GBR) | 2 | 2 | 1 | 5 |
| 5 | Germany (GER) | 1 | 2 | 6 | 9 |
| 6 | Sweden (SWE) | 1 | 2 | 4 | 7 |
| 7 | France (FRA) | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| 8 | Japan (JPN) | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| 9 | Ireland (IRL) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 9 | Poland (POL) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 9 | South Africa (RSA) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 12 | Chile (CHI) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 12 | Haiti (HAI) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 12 | Hungary (HUN) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 12 | Netherlands (NED) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 16 | Norway (NOR) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Totals (16 entries) | Totals (16 entries) | 27 | 27 | 27 | 81 |

### Men

| Games | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
| 100 metres details | Percy Williams Canada | Jack London Great Britain | Georg Lammers Germany |
| 200 metres details | Percy Williams Canada | Walter Rangeley Great Britain | Helmut Körnig Germany |
| 400 metres details | Ray Barbuti United States | James Ball Canada | Joachim Büchner Germany |
| 800 metres details | Douglas Lowe Great Britain | Erik Byléhn Sweden | Hermann Engelhard Germany |
| 1500 metres details | Harri Larva Finland | Jules Ladoumegue France | Eino Purje Finland |
| 5000 metres details | Ville Ritola Finland | Paavo Nurmi Finland | Edvin Wide Sweden |
| 10,000 metres details | Paavo Nurmi Finland | Ville Ritola Finland | Edvin Wide Sweden |
| 110 metres hurdles details | Sydney Atkinson South Africa | Steve Anderson United States | John Collier United States |
| 400 metres hurdles details | David Burghley Great Britain | Frank Cuhel United States | Morgan Taylor United States |
| 3000 metres steeplechase details | Toivo Loukola Finland | Paavo Nurmi Finland | Ove Andersen Finland |
| 4 × 100 metres relay details | United States (USA) Frank Wykoff James Quinn Charles Borah Henry Russell | Germany (GER) Georg Lammers Richard Corts Hubert Houben Helmut Körnig | Great Britain (GBR) Cyril Gill Edward Smouha Walter Rangeley Jack London |
| 4 × 400 metres relay details | United States (USA) George Baird Fred Alderman Emerson Spencer Ray Barbuti | Germany (GER) Otto Neumann Harry Werner Storz Richard Krebs Hermann Engelhard | Canada (CAN) James Ball Stanley Glover Phil Edwards Alex Wilson |
| Marathon details | Boughera El Ouafi France | Manuel Plaza Chile | Martti Marttelin Finland |
| High jump details | Bob King United States | Benjamin Hedges United States | Claude Ménard France |
| Pole vault details | Sabin Carr United States | William Droegemuller United States | Charles McGinnis United States |
| Long jump details | Edward Hamm United States | Silvio Cator Haiti | Alfred Bates United States |
| Triple jump details | Mikio Oda Japan | Levi Casey United States | Vilho Tuulos Finland |
| Shot put details | John Kuck United States | Herman Brix United States | Emil Hirschfeld Germany |
| Discus throw details | Bud Houser United States | Antero Kivi Finland | James Corson United States |
| Hammer throw details | Pat O'Callaghan Ireland | Ossian Skiöld Sweden | Edmund Black United States |
| Javelin throw details | Erik Lundqvist Sweden | Béla Szepes Hungary | Olav Sunde Norway |
| Decathlon details | Paavo Yrjölä Finland | Akilles Järvinen Finland | Ken Doherty United States |

### Women

| Games | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
| 100 metres details | Betty Robinson United States | Bobbie Rosenfeld Canada | Ethel Smith Canada |
| 800 metres details | Lina Radke Germany | Kinue Hitomi Japan | Inga Gentzel Sweden |
| 4 × 100 metres relay details | Canada (CAN) Myrtle Cook Ethel Smith Bobbie Rosenfeld Jane Bell | United States (USA) Jessie Cross Loretta McNeil Betty Robinson Mary Washburn | Germany (GER) Anni Holdmann Leni Junker Rosa Kellner Leni Schmidt |
| High jump details | Ethel Catherwood Canada | Lien Gisolf Netherlands | Mildred Wiley United States |
| Discus throw details | Halina Konopacka Poland | Lillian Copeland United States | Ruth Svedberg Sweden |

## Records broken

During the 1928 Summer Olympic Games 9 new world records were set in the athletics events. New Olympic records were set in 16 of the 27 events.

### Men's world records

| Event | Date | Round | Name | Nationality | Result |
| 110 metres hurdles | July 31 | Semifinal | George Weightman-Smith | South Africa | 14.6 |
| 3000 metres steeplechase | August 4 | Final | Toivo Loukola | Finland | 9:21.8 |
| 4 × 400 metres relay | August 5 | Final | George Baird Fred Alderman Emerson Spencer Ray Barbuti | United States | 3:14.2 |
| Shot put | July 29 | Final | John Kuck | United States | 15.87 m |
| Decathlon | August 5 | Final | Paavo Yrjölä | Finland | 8,053.290 |

### Women's world records

| Event | Date | Round | Name | Nationality | Result |
| 800 metres | August 2 | Final | Lina Radke | Germany | 2:16.8 |
| 4 × 100 metres relay | August 5 | Final | Myrtle Cook Ethel Smith Bobbie Rosenfeld Jane Bell | Canada | 48.4 |
| High jump | August 5 | Final | Ethel Catherwood | Canada | 1.595 m |
| Discus throw | July 31 | Final | Halina Konopacka | Poland | 39.62 m |

## Participating nations

706 athletes from 40 nations competed. Lithuania and Romania competed in athletics for the first time. Bulgaria, Egypt, Malta, Panama, Rhodesia, and Uruguay were the only six nations not to compete in athletics.
| Argentina (7)  Australia (7)  Austria (4)  Belgium (32)  Canada (32)  Chile (8)  Cuba (1)  Czechoslovakia (11)  Denmark (10)  Estonia (4)  Finland (35)  France (50)  Germany (62)  Great Britain (55) | Greece (13)  Haiti (2)  Hungary (26)  India (7)  Ireland (10)  Italy (24)  Japan (16)  Latvia (6)  Lithuania (5)  Luxembourg (4)  Mexico (11)  Monaco (1)  Netherlands (50)  New Zealand (3) | Norway (13)  Philippines (2)  Poland (15)  Portugal (3)  Romania (13)  South Africa (9)  Spain (10)  Sweden (29)  Switzerland (9)  Turkey (6)  United States (98)  Yugoslavia (4) |