# Athletics at the 1936 Summer Olympics – Men's 400 metres

The men's 400 metres sprint event at the 1936 Olympic Games took place in early August. Forty-two athletes from 25 nations competed. The maximum number of athletes per nation had been set at 3 since the 1930 Olympic Congress. The final was won by 0.2 seconds by American Archie Williams, the third consecutive and seventh overall title in the event for the United States. Godfrey Brown's silver was Great Britain's first medal in the event since 1924.

## Background

This was the tenth appearance of the event, which is one of 12 athletics events to have been held at every Summer Olympics. None of the finalists from 1932 returned. Archie Williams of the United States was the favorite, setting the world record at 46.1 seconds at the 1936 NCAA championships.
The Republic of China and Romania appeared in the event for the first time. The United States made its tenth appearance in the event, the only nation to compete in it at every Olympic Games to that point.

## Competition format

The competition retained the basic four-round format from 1920. There were 8 heats in the first round, each with 5 or 6 athletes. The top three runners in each heat advanced to the quarterfinals. There were 4 quarterfinals of 6 runners each; the top three athletes in each quarterfinal heat advanced to the semifinals. The semifinals featured 2 heats of 6 runners each. The top three runners in each semifinal heat advanced, making a six-man final.

## Records

These were the standing world and Olympic records (in seconds) prior to the 1924 Summer Olympics.
| World record | Archie Williams (USA) | 46.1 | Chicago, United States | 19 June 1936 |
| Olympic record | Bill Carr (USA) | 46.2 | Los Angeles, United States | 5 August 1932 |
No records were set during this event.

## Schedule

| Date | Time | Round |
| Thursday, 6 August 1936 | 10:30 15:15 | Heats Quarterfinals |
| Friday, 7 August 1936 | 15:00 17:30 | Semifinals Final |

## Results
### Heats

The fastest three runners in each of the eight heats advanced to the quarterfinal round.

#### Heat 1

| Rank | Athlete | Nation | Time | Notes |
| 1 | Bill Roberts | Great Britain | 48.1 | Q |
| 2 | Olle Danielsson | Sweden | 48.6 | Q |
| 3 | John Loaring | Canada | 49.1 | Q |
| 4 | Albert Jud | Switzerland | 49.4 | |
| 5 | Tibor Ribényi | Hungary | 50.1 | |

#### Heat 2

| Rank | Athlete | Nation | Time | Notes |
| 1 | Georges Henry | France | 49.2 | Q |
| 2 | Karel Kněnický | Czechoslovakia | 49.6 | Q |
| 3 | Dennis Shore | South Africa | 49.9 | Q |
| 4 | Sven Strömberg | Sweden | 50.0 | |
| 5 | Johann Baptist Gudenus | Austria | 52.9 | |

#### Heat 3

| Rank | Athlete | Nation | Time | Notes |
| 1 | Godfrey Brown | Great Britain | 48.8 | Q |
| 2 | Mario Lanzi | Italy | 49.3 | Q |
| 3 | Adolf Metzner | Germany | 50.2 | Q |
| 4 | Mohamed Ebeid | Egypt | 50.5 | |
| 5 | Jean Verhaert | Belgium | 50.7 | |
| 6 | Leonard Tay | Republic of China | 52.4 | |

#### Heat 4

| Rank | Athlete | Nation | Time | Notes |
| 1 | Harold Smallwood | United States | 49.0 | Q |
| 2 | Marshall Limon | Canada | 49.2 | Q |
| 3 | József Vadas | Hungary | 49.2 | Q |
| 4 | Rolf Schønheyder | Norway | 49.4 | |
| 5 | Antônio de Carvalho | Brazil | 50.4 | |
| 6 | Hiroyoshi Kubota | Japan | 50.8 | |

#### Heat 5

| Rank | Athlete | Nation | Time | Notes |
| 1 | Jimmy LuValle | United States | 49.1 | Q |
| 2 | Juan Carlos Anderson | Argentina | 49.4 | Q |
| 3 | Zoltán Zsitva | Hungary | 49.8 | Q |
| 4 | Francisc Nemeş | Romania | 50.9 | |
| 5 | Keiji Imai | Japan | 51.0 | |

#### Heat 6

| Rank | Athlete | Nation | Time | Notes |
| 1 | Hermann Blazejezak | Germany | 47.9 | Q |
| 2 | Godfrey Rampling | Great Britain | 48.6 | Q |
| 3 | Börje Strandvall | Finland | 49.3 | Q |
| 4 | Raymond Boisset | France | 49.5 | |
| 5 | Jean Krombach | Luxembourg | 50.4 | |

#### Heat 7

| Rank | Athlete | Nation | Time | Notes |
| 1 | Archie Williams | United States | 47.8 | Q |
| 2 | William Fritz | Canada | 49.0 | Q |
| 3 | Gunnar Christensen | Denmark | 49.3 | Q |
| 4 | Toyoyi Aihara | Japan | 50.2 | |
| 5 | Raúl Muñoz | Chile | 50.5 | |

#### Heat 8

| Rank | Athlete | Nation | Time | Notes |
| 1 | Pierre Skawinski | France | 48.9 | Q |
| 2 | Bertil von Wachenfeldt | Sweden | 49.0 | Q |
| 3 | Rudolf Klupsch | Germany | 49.1 | Q |
| 4 | Alfred König | Austria | 49.4 | |
| 5 | Gyan Bhalla | India | 52.4 | |

### Quarterfinals

The fastest three runners in each of the four heats advanced to the semifinal round.

#### Quarterfinal 1

| Rank | Lane | Athlete | Nation | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 5 | Bill Roberts | Great Britain | 47.7 | Q |
| 2 | 1 | Harold Smallwood | United States | 48.6 | Q |
| 3 | 3 | Mario Lanzi | Italy | 48.8 | Q |
| 4 | 2 | Zoltán Zsitva | Hungary | 49.4 | |
| 5 | 4 | Dennis Shore | South Africa | 49.6 | |
| 6 | 6 | Gunnar Christensen | Denmark | 51.0 | |

#### Quarterfinal 2

| Rank | Lane | Athlete | Nation | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 2 | Hermann Blazejezak | Germany | 48.2 | Q |
| 2 | 5 | Godfrey Brown | Great Britain | 48.3 | Q |
| 3 | 6 | William Fritz | Canada | 48.4 | Q |
| 4 | 4 | Bertil von Wachenfeldt | Sweden | 48.5 | |
| 5 | 1 | Georges Henry | France | 49.4 | |
| 6 | 3 | Börje Strandvall | Finland | 49.9 | |

#### Quarterfinal 3

| Rank | Lane | Athlete | Nation | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 1 | Archie Williams | United States | 48.0 | Q |
| 2 | 3 | Juan Carlos Anderson | Argentina | 48.7 | Q |
| 3 | 2 | Johnny Loaring | Canada | 49.3 | Q |
| 4 | 4 | Olle Danielsson | Sweden | 49.6 | |
| — | — | Adolf Metzner | Germany | DNS | |
| — | — | József Vadas | Hungary | DNS | |

#### Quarterfinal 4

| Rank | Lane | Athlete | Nation | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 2 | Jimmy LuValle | United States | 47.6 | Q |
| 2 | 6 | Pierre Skawinski | France | 48.0 | Q |
| 3 | 3 | Godfrey Rampling | Great Britain | 48.0 | Q |
| 4 | 4 | Rudolf Klupsch | Germany | 48.8 | |
| 5 | 1 | Marshall Limon | Canada | 48.9 | |
| 6 | 5 | Karel Kněnický | Czechoslovakia | 49.6 | |

### Semifinals

The fastest three runners in each of the two heats advanced to the final round.

#### Semifinal 1

| Rank | Lane | Athlete | Nation | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 5 | Archie Williams | United States | 47.2 | Q |
| 2 | 2 | Bill Roberts | Great Britain | 48.0 | Q |
| 3 | 3 | Johnny Loaring | Canada | 48.1 | Q |
| 4 | 1 | Mario Lanzi | Italy | 48.2 | |
| 5 | 5 | Pierre Skawinski | France | 52.0 | |
| — | — | Harold Smallwood | United States | DNS | |

#### Semifinal 2

| Rank | Lane | Athlete | Nation | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 4 | Jimmy LuValle | United States | 47.1 | Q |
| 2 | 5 | Godfrey Brown | Great Britain | 47.3 | Q |
| 3 | 6 | William Fritz | Canada | 47.4 | Q |
| 4 | 2 | Godfrey Rampling | Great Britain | 47.5 | |
| 5 | 3 | Juan Carlos Anderson | Argentina | 48.5 | |
| 6 | 1 | Hermann Blazejezak | Germany | 49.2 | |

### Final

| Rank | Lane | Athlete | Nation | Time |
| | 5 | Archie Williams | United States | 46.5 |
| | 6 | Godfrey Brown | Great Britain | 46.7 |
| | 2 | James LuValle | United States | 46.8 |
| 4 | 3 | Bill Roberts | Great Britain | 46.8 |
| 5 | 1 | William Fritz | Canada | 47.8 |
| 6 | 4 | Johnny Loaring | Canada | 48.2 |