Athletics at the 1948 Summer Olympics

Athletics at the 1948 Summer Olympics
Track events
100 m	men	women
200 m	men	women
400 m	men
800 m	men
1500 m	men
5000 m	men
10,000 m	men
80 m hurdles		women
110 m hurdles	men
400 m hurdles	men
3000 m steeplechase	men
4×100 m relay	men	women
4×400 m relay	men
Road events
Marathon	men
10 km walk	men
50 km walk	men
Field events
Long jump	men	women
Triple jump	men
High jump	men	women
Pole vault	men
Shot put	men	women
Discus throw	men	women
Javelin throw	men	women
Hammer throw	men
Combined events
Decathlon	men

At the 1948 Summer Olympics in London, 33 athletics events were contested, 24 for men and 9 for women. Three events made their Olympic debut at these Games: women's 200 metres, women's long jump and women's shot put. There were a total number of 745 participating athletes from 53 countries.

Medal summary

Men

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
100 metres	Harrison Dillard United States	10.3	Barney Ewell United States	10.4	Lloyd LaBeach Panama	10.6
200 metres	Mel Patton United States	21.1	Barney Ewell United States	21.1	Lloyd LaBeach Panama	21.2
400 metres	Arthur Wint Jamaica	46.2	Herb McKenley Jamaica	46.4	Mal Whitfield United States	46.8
800 metres	Mal Whitfield United States	1:49.2	Arthur Wint Jamaica	1:49.5	Marcel Hansenne France	1:49.8
1500 metres	Henry Eriksson Sweden	3:49.8	Lennart Strand Sweden	3:50.4	Wim Slijkhuis Netherlands	3:50.4
5000 metres	Gaston Reiff Belgium	14:17.6	Emil Zátopek Czechoslovakia	14:17.8	Wim Slijkhuis Netherlands	14:26.8
10,000 metres	Emil Zátopek Czechoslovakia	29:59.6	Alain Mimoun France	30:47.4	Bertil Albertsson Sweden	30:53.6
110 metres hurdles	William Porter United States	13.9	Clyde Scott United States	14.1	Craig Dixon United States	14.1
400 metres hurdles	Roy Cochran United States	51.1	Duncan White Ceylon	51.8	Rune Larsson Sweden	52.2
3000 metres steeplechase	Tore Sjöstrand Sweden	9:04.6	Erik Elmsäter Sweden	9:08.2	Göte Hagström Sweden	9:11.8
4 × 100 metres relay	United States (USA) Barney Ewell Lorenzo Wright Harrison Dillard Mel Patton	40.6	Great Britain (GBR) Alastair McCorquodale John Gregory Ken Jones Jack Archer	41.3	Italy (ITA) Michele Tito Enrico Perucconi Carlo Monti Antonio Siddi	41.5
4 × 400 metres relay	United States (USA) Roy Cochran Cliff Bourland Arthur Harnden Mal Whitfield	3:10.4	France (FRA) Jean Kerebel Francis Schewetta Robert Chef D'Hotel Jacques Lunis	3:14.8	Sweden (SWE) Kurt Lundquist Lars-Erik Wolfbrandt Folke Alnevik Rune Larsson	3:16.0
Marathon	Delfo Cabrera Argentina	2:34:51.6	Tom Richards Great Britain	2:35:07.6	Etienne Gailly Belgium	2:35:33.6
10 kilometres walk	John Mikaelsson Sweden	45:13.2	Ingemar Johansson Sweden	45:43.8	Fritz Schwab Switzerland	46:00.2
50 kilometres walk	John Ljunggren Sweden	4:41:52	Gaston Godel Switzerland	4:48:17	Tebbs Lloyd Johnson Great Britain	4:48:31
High jump	John Winter Australia	1.98 m	Bjørn Paulson Norway	1.95 m	George Stanich United States	1.95 m
Pole vault	Guinn Smith United States	4.30 m	Erkki Kataja Finland	4.20 m	Robert Richards United States	4.20 m
Long jump	Willie Steele United States	7.825 m	Theo Bruce Australia	7.55 m	Herbert Douglas United States	7.54 m
Triple jump	Arne Åhman Sweden	15.40 m	George Avery Australia	15.36 m	Ruhi Sarialp Turkey	15.02 m
Shot put	Wilbur Thompson United States	17.12 m	Jim Delaney United States	16.68 m	Jim Fuchs United States	16.42 m
Discus throw	Adolfo Consolini Italy	52.78 m	Giuseppe Tosi Italy	51.78 m	Fortune Gordien United States	50.77 m
Hammer throw	Imre Németh Hungary	56.07 m	Ivan Gubijan Yugoslavia	54.27 m	Robert Bennett United States	53.73 m
Javelin throw	Tapio Rautavaara Finland	69.77 m	Steve Seymour United States	67.56 m	József Várszegi Hungary	67.03 m
Decathlon	Bob Mathias United States	7139	Ignace Heinrich France	6974	Floyd Simmons United States	6950

Women

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
100 metres	Fanny Blankers-Koen Netherlands	11.9	Dorothy Manley Great Britain	12.2	Shirley Strickland Australia	12.2
200 metres	Fanny Blankers-Koen Netherlands	24.4	Audrey Williamson Great Britain	25.1	Audrey Patterson United States	25.2
80 metres hurdles	Fanny Blankers-Koen Netherlands	11.2	Maureen Gardner Great Britain	11.2	Shirley Strickland Australia	11.4
4 × 100 metres relay	Netherlands (NED) Xenia Stad-de Jong Netty Witziers-Timmer Gerda van der Kade-Koudijs Fanny Blankers-Koen	47.5	Australia (AUS) Shirley Strickland June Maston Betty McKinnon Joyce King	47.6	Canada (CAN) Viola Myers Nancy MacKay Diane Foster Patricia Jones	47.8
High jump	Alice Coachman United States	1.68 m	Dorothy Tyler Great Britain	1.68 m	Micheline Ostermeyer France	1.61 m
Long jump	Olga Gyarmati Hungary	5.695 m	Noemí Simonetto Argentina	5.60 m	Ann-Britt Leyman Sweden	5.575 m
Shot put	Micheline Ostermeyer France	13.75 m	Amelia Piccinini Italy	13.09 m	Ine Schäffer Austria	13.08 m
Discus throw	Micheline Ostermeyer France	41.92 m	Edera Cordiale Italy	41.17 m	Jacqueline Mazeas France	40.47 m
Javelin throw	Herma Bauma Austria	45.57 m	Kaisa Parviainen Finland	43.79 m	Lily Carlstedt Denmark	42.08 m

Records broken

14 new Olympic records were set in the athletics events. No new world records were set.

Men's Olympic records

Event	Date	Round	Name	Nationality	Result
800 metres	2 August	Final	Mal Whitfield	United States	1:49.2
5000 metres	2 August	Final	Gaston Reiff	Belgium	14:17.6
10,000 metres	30 July	Final	Emil Zátopek	Czechoslovakia	29:59.6
110 metres hurdles	4 August	Final	William Porter	United States	13.9
400 metres hurdles	31 July	Final	Roy Cochran	United States	51.1
10 kilometres walk	7 August	Final	John Mikaelsson	Sweden	45:13.2
Shot put	3 August	Final	Wilbur Thompson	United States	17.12 m
Discus throw	2 August	Final	Adolfo Consolini	Italy	52.78 m

Women's Olympic records

Event	Date	Round	Name	Nationality	Result
200 metres	6 August	Final	Fanny Blankers-Koen	Netherlands	24.4
80 metres hurdles	4 August	Final	Fanny Blankers-Koen Maureen Gardner	Netherlands Great Britain	11.2
High jump	7 August	Final	Alice Coachman Dorothy Tyler	United States Great Britain	1.68 m
Long jump	4 August	Final	Olga Gyarmati	Hungary	5.695 m
Shot put	4 August	Final	Micheline Ostermeyer	France	13.75 m
Javelin throw	31 July	Final	Herma Bauma	Austria	45.57 m

Medal table

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	United States	12	5	10	27
2	Sweden	5	3	5	13
3	Netherlands	4	0	2	6
4	France	2	3	3	8
5	Hungary	2	0	1	3
6	Australia	1	3	2	6
7	Italy	1	3	1	5
8	Finland	1	2	0	3
	Jamaica	1	2	0	3
10	Argentina	1	1	0	2
	Czechoslovakia	1	1	0	2
12	Austria	1	0	1	2
	Belgium	1	0	1	2
14	Great Britain	0	6	1	7
15	Switzerland	0	1	1	2
16	Ceylon	0	1	0	1
	Norway	0	1	0	1
	Yugoslavia	0	1	0	1
19	Panama	0	0	2	2
20	Canada	0	0	1	1
	Denmark	0	0	1	1
	Turkey	0	0	1	1
Totals (22 nations)		33	33	33	99

References

• 1948 Summer Olympics results: athletics, from https://www.sports-reference.com/; retrieved 2010-06-01.
• International Olympic Committee results database
• Athletics Australia