# Athletics at the 2004 Summer Olympics – Men's 4 × 100 metres relay

The men's 4 × 100 metres relay at the 2004 Summer Olympics as part of the athletics program was held at the Athens Olympic Stadium from August 27 to 28. The sixteen teams competed in a two-heat qualifying round in which the first three teams from each heat, together with the next two fastest teams, were given a place in the final race.
The Great Britain quartet of Jason Gardener, Darren Campbell, Mark Lewis-Francis, and Marlon Devonish produced superior exchanges to beat the United States team by 0.01 seconds in a time of 38.07 seconds. The final also saw the U.S. team struggling with their relay duties, when Justin Gatlin and Coby Miller botched their baton handoff after the second leg, leaving the British team to command their lead towards the final bend. By the time Greene received the baton from Miller on the anchor leg, he burst down the home stretch to chase Lewis-Francis at the finish line, but could not get ahead despite his lower leg and head having crossed the line first, as the Americans fell short by just a hundredth of a second.

## Records

Prior to the competition, the existing World and Olympic records were as follows.
| World record | United States (USA) Michael Marsh Leroy Burrell Dennis Mitchell Carl Lewis | 37.40 s | Barcelona, Spain | 6 August 1992 |
| Olympic record | United States (USA) Michael Marsh Leroy Burrell Dennis Mitchell Carl Lewis | 37.40 s | Barcelona, Spain | 6 August 1992 |
No new records were set during the competition.

## Qualification

The qualification period for athletics was 1 January 2003 to 9 August 2004. A National Olympic Committee (NOC) could enter one qualified relay team per relay event, with a maximum of six athletes. For this event, an NOC would be invited to participate with a relay team if the average of the team's two best times, obtained in IAAF-sanctioned meetings or tournaments, would be among the best sixteen, at the end of this period.

## Schedule

All times are Greece Standard Time (UTC+2)
| Date | Time | Round |
| Friday, 27 August 2004 | 20:10 | Round 1 |
| Saturday, 28 August 2004 | 21:45 | Final |

## Results
### Round 1

Qualification rule: The first three teams in each heat (Q) plus the next two fastest overall (q) moved on to the final.

#### Heat 1

| Rank | Lane | Nation | Competitors | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 2 | Nigeria | Olusoji Fasuba, Uchenna Emedolu, Aaron Egbele, Deji Aliu | 38.27 | Q, SB |
| 2 | 1 | Poland | Zbigniew Tulin, Łukasz Chyła, Marcin Jędrusiński, Marcin Urbaś | 38.47 | Q, SB |
| 3 | 7 | Australia | Adam Basil, Paul di Bella, Patrick Johnson, Josh Ross | 38.49 | Q, SB |
| 4 | 3 | Trinidad and Tobago | Nicconnor Alexander, Marc Burns, Ato Boldon, Darrel Brown | 38.53 | q, =NR |
| 5 | 4 | Japan | Hiroyasu Tsuchie, Shingo Suetsugu, Shinji Takahira, Nobuharu Asahara | 38.53 | q |
| 6 | 5 | Germany | Ronny Ostwald, Tobias Unger, Alexander Kosenkow, Till Helmke | 38.64 | |
| 7 | 8 | Canada | Nicolas Macrozonaris, Anson Henry, Charles Allen, Pierre Browne | 38.64 | SB |
| 8 | 6 | Russia | Aleksandr Ryabov, Oleg Sergeyev, Sergey Bychkov, Andrey Yepishin | 39.19 | |

#### Heat 2

| Rank | Lane | Nation | Competitors | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 6 | United States | Shawn Crawford, Darvis Patton, Coby Miller, Maurice Greene | 38.02 | Q |
| 2 | 1 | Great Britain | Jason Gardener, Darren Campbell, Marlon Devonish, Mark Lewis-Francis | 38.53 | Q, SB |
| 3 | 8 | Brazil | Cláudio Roberto Souza, Édson Ribeiro, André da Silva, Vicente de Lima | 38.64 | Q |
| 4 | 2 | Jamaica | Dwight Thomas, Patrick Jarrett, Winston Smith, Michael Frater | 38.71 | SB |
| 5 | 5 | Italy | Marco Torrieri, Simone Collio, Massimiliano Donati, Maurizio Checcucci | 38.79 | |
| 6 | 7 | Ghana | Christian Nsiah, Tanko Braimah, Aziz Zakari, Leonard Myles-Mills | 38.88 | SB |
| 7 | 4 | France | Issa-Aimé Nthépé, Ronald Pognon, Frédéric Krantz, David Alerte | 38.93 | |
| | 3 | Netherlands | Timothy Beck, Troy Douglas, Patrick van Balkom, Caimin Douglas | DNF | |

### Final

| Rank | Lane | Nation | Competitors | Time | Notes |
| | 3 | Great Britain | Jason Gardener, Darren Campbell, Marlon Devonish, Mark Lewis-Francis | 38.07 | SB |
| | 5 | United States | Shawn Crawford, Justin Gatlin, Coby Miller, Maurice Greene | 38.08 | |
| | 4 | Nigeria | Olusoji Fasuba, Uchenna Emedolu, Aaron Egbele, Deji Aliu | 38.23 | SB |
| 4 | 7 | Japan | Hiroyasu Tsuchie, Shingo Suetsugu, Shinji Takahira, Nobuharu Asahara | 38.49 | |
| 5 | 6 | Poland | Zbigniew Tulin, Łukasz Chyła, Marcin Jędrusiński, Marcin Urbaś | 38.54 | |
| 6 | 1 | Australia | Adam Basil, Paul di Bella, Patrick Johnson, Josh Ross | 38.56 | |
| 7 | 8 | Trinidad and Tobago | Nicconnor Alexander, Marc Burns, Ato Boldon, Darrel Brown | 38.60 | |
| 8 | 2 | Brazil | Cláudio Roberto Souza, Édson Ribeiro, André da Silva, Vicente de Lima | 38.67 | |