AthleticsAthletics world record
400 m hurdles, women
50.37 s
- Holder
- Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone
- Date
- Place
- Saint-Denis
- Standing since
- 2024 (2 years)
How the record evolved
The last record set in each decade, up to the current record (highlighted).
| Year | Record | Holder |
|---|---|---|
| 50.37 s | Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone | |
| 50.65 s | Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone | |
| 52.16 s | Dalilah Muhammad | |
| 52.34 s | Yuliya Pechonkina | |
| 52.61 s | Kim Batten | |
| 52.94 s | Marina Stepanova | |
| 54.78 s | Marina Makeyeva |
Put them in order
Sort these records from the oldest to the most recent.
- 50.37 sSydney McLaughlin-Levrone
- 52.61 sKim Batten
- 54.78 sMarina Makeyeva
- 52.16 sDalilah Muhammad
What to remember
On August 8, 2024, in the Olympic final at Saint-Denis, American Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone ran the 400 m hurdles in 50.37 s. She broke her own record of 50.65 seconds, set earlier that year. Her average speed came to 28.59 km/h, while clearing ten hurdles.
The 400 metres hurdles is one lap of a standard track, with runners kept in their lanes all the way. Knocking a hurdle over brings no penalty, but touching one slows the runner down. Men have run it at the Olympics since 1900, women only since 1984. In 1979, Marina Makeyeva ran 54.78 s; Marina Stepanova lowered it to 52.94 s in 1986, Kim Batten to 52.61 s in 1995 and Dalilah Muhammad to 52.16 s in 2019. Over 45 years the time dropped by 8.1%.
Born on August 7, 1999, McLaughlin-Levrone was the first woman to break 52 seconds, in June 2021, and 51 seconds, in July 2022. She won Olympic gold in 2020 and 2024 and world titles in 2022 and 2025. In the flat 400 m she ran 47.78 at the 2025 World Championships, making her the second fastest woman in history over that distance.
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Sources and licences
- Value, holder and date: Wikipedia article “List of world records in athletics” (revision used 1378411308). Data from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
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