Quick Facts Men's 400 metres hurdles at the Games of the II Olympiad, Venue ...

Men's 400 metres hurdles at the Games of the II Olympiad
Walter Tewksbury
Venue	Bois de Boulogne
Dates	July 14 (semifinals) July 15 (final)
Competitors	5 from 4 nations
Winning time	57.6 OR
Medalists
Walter Tewksbury  United States Henri Tauzin  France George Orton  Canada
1904 →

Close

The men's 400 metres hurdles was a track & field athletics event at the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris. This event was held for the first time at the Olympics. The competition took part on July 14 and July 15, 1900. The race was held on a track of 500 metres in circumference. Five athletes from four nations competed in the longest of the three hurdling events.^[1] The event was won by Walter Tewksbury of the United States. Henri Tauzin of France earned silver, while George Orton of Canada took bronze.

This was the first time the event was held. Introduced along with the men's 200 metres hurdles, the men's 400 metres hurdles was the only one of the two new hurdles events that would stay on the programme long-term, joining the 110 metres hurdles that had been contested in 1896. The 400 metres version would be held in 1900, 1904, and 1908 before being left off for one Games in 1912; when the Olympics returned after World War I, the men's 400 metres hurdles was back and would continue to be contested at every Games thereafter.

This was an unfamiliar event to many of the competing nations; it was not held at the AAU or the AAA championships. Only France regularly had competitions of this format; Henri Tauzin was their five-time title-winner.^[2]

Bohemia, Canada, France, the United States competed in the inaugural 400 metres hurdles event.

The competition consisted of two rounds: semifinals and a final. The semifinal round consisted of two heats, with the top two athletes in each semi-final to advance to the final.^[2]

While 10 men entered, only five started, meaning the semi-finals eliminated only one competitor, making their purpose somewhat questionable: one of the four finalists scratched, meaning the final had three competitiors.

Most of the hurdles were telephone poles laid across the track, with the final hurdle being a water jump.^[2]

These were the standing world and Olympic records (in seconds) prior to the 1900 Summer Olympics.

World record	Jerome Buck (USA)	56.4*	New York City, United States	19 September 1896
Olympic record	New event	—	—	—

^* unofficial 440 yards (= 402.34 m)

The times set in the two heats are uncertain. In the final Walter Tewksbury set the new Olympic record with 57.6 seconds.