1952 Summer Olympics / Athletics - 4 × 100 m (women)

sport	athletics
discipline	4 x 100 meter relay
gender	Women
Attendees	60 athletes from 15 countries
Competition location	Helsinki Olympic Stadium
Competition phase	July 27, 1952
Medalists  United States  GER  GBR

The women's 4 x 100 meter relay at the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki was held on July 27, 1952 in the Helsinki Olympic Stadium. 60 athletes took part in fifteen seasons.

The US relay with Mae Faggs , Barbara Jones , Janet Moreau and Catherine Hardy won the gold medal in a new world record time ahead of the German team consisting of Ursula Knab , Maria Sander , Helga Klein and Marga Petersen . Bronze went to the UK season with Sylvia Cheeseman , June Foulds , Jean Desforges and Heather Armitage .

Existing records

World record	German Empire ( Emmy Albus , Käthe Krauß , Marie Dollinger , Ilse Dörffeldt )	46.4 s	Olympic preliminary run from Berlin	August 8, 1936
Olympic record

Conducting the competition

The relays competed on July 27th to three preliminary runs. The two best seasons qualified for the final, which took place on the same day.

Note: The qualified relays are highlighted in light blue.

Time schedule

July 27th, 3 p.m .: Preliminaries
July 27, 5 p.m .: Final

Prelims

Date: July 27, 1952, from 3 p.m.

In preliminary run 1, a sprint relay from Saarland was used for the first and only time in Olympic history .

Forward 1

space	Season	occupation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Australia	Shirley Strickland Verna Johnston Winsome Cripps Marjorie Jackson	46.1 s	46.22 s	WR
2	Netherlands	Grietje de Jongh Bertha Brouwer Nel Büch Wilhelmina Lust	47.1 s	47.32 s
3	Argentina	Lilián Heinz Lilián Buglia Gladys Erbetta Ana María Fontán	47.9 s	48.11 s
4th	Poland	Maria Arndt Maria Ilwicka Genowefa Minicka Eulalia Szwajkowska	48.1 s	48.21 s
5	Saarland	Inge Glashörster Inge Eckel Hilda Antes Ursula Finger	49.0 s	49.22 s

Forward 2

space	Season	occupation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	United States	Mae Faggs Barbara Jones Janet Moreau Catherine Hardy	46.5 s	46.77 s
2	Great Britain	Sylvia Cheeseman June Foulds Jean Desforges Heather Armitage	46.6 s	46.84 s
3	Italy	Vittoria Cesarini Milena Greppi Giuseppina Leone Liliana Tagliaferri	47.4 s	47.68 s
4th	Sweden	Anna-Lisa Augustsson Agneta Hannerz Greta Magnusson Nell Sjöström	47.8 s	48.06 s
DSQ	Hungary	Olga Gyarmati Aranka Szabó-Bartha Ibolya Tilkovszky Ilona Tolnai-Rákhely

Forward 3

space	Season	occupation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	BR Germany	Ursula Knab Maria Sander Helga Klein Marga Petersen	46.3 s	46.42 s
2	Soviet Union	Irina Turowa Yevgenia Setschenowa Nadezhda Chnykina Vera Kalashnikova	46.7 s	47.01 s
3	Canada	Frances O'Halloran Luella Law Rosella Thorne Eleanor McKenzie	47.3 s	47.47 s
4th	France	Alberte de Campou Denise Laborie Marcelle Gabarrus Yvette Monginou	47.6 s	47.79 s
5	Finland	Maire Österdahl Leena Sipilä Aino Autio Ulla Pokki	50.2 s	50.34 s

final

space	Season	occupation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	United States	Mae Faggs Barbara Jones Janet Moreau Catherine Hardy	45.9 s	46.14 s	WR
2	BR Germany	Ursula Knab Maria Sander Helga Klein Marga Petersen	45.9 s	46.18 s	WR
3	Great Britain	Sylvia Cheeseman June Foulds Jean Desforges Heather Armitage	46.2 s	46.41 s
4th	Soviet Union	Irina Turowa Yevgenia Setschenowa Nadezhda Chnykina Vera Kalashnikova	46.3 s	46.42 s
5	Australia	Shirley Strickland Verna Johnston Winsome Cripps Marjorie Jackson	46.6 s	46.86 s
6th	Netherlands	Grietje de Jongh Bertha Brouwer Nel Büch Wilhelmina Lust	47.8 s	47.16 s

Date: July 27, 1952, 5 p.m.

The top favorite was the Australian season, which had improved the world record in the run-up .

In the last change, the Australians were also in the lead ahead of the Germans and the Americans. But the change from Winsome Cripps to Marjorie Jackson was the crux of the entire race. Although Cripps was still able to hand over the baton to Jacksons, she knocked it out of the hand of her teammate with her knee. Jackson picked the wood up off the ground with lightning speed and continued the race, but the backlog was too great. The fact that the Australians finished fifth, despite this mishap, only seven tenths of a second behind the Olympic champions, shows their full potential.

The German relay was now in the front, Marga Petersen ran down the home straight in the lead. Catherine Hardy was able to level the gap, however. Both teams crossed the finish line in a new world record time of 45.9 seconds, making both the first seasons to stay below the 46-second mark. Only the electronic timekeeping made it clear that the US relay was four hundredths of a second faster than the German team.

In the fifth Olympic final, the US season ran to its third victory. At fifteen, Barbara Jones, who was used in the relay, is the youngest Olympic champion in athletics to date - as of September 2017.

literature

• Ekkehard zur Megede , The History of Olympic Athletics, Volume 2: 1948–1968, Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 1st edition 1969, p. 111f

Web links

• SportsReference 4 × 100 m , accessed on September 29, 2017
• Official report p. 339, engl. (PDF), accessed on September 29, 2017
• USA's Women Set New 4x100m World Record For Gold - Helsinki 1952 Olympics , published June 7, 2013 on youtube.com, accessed September 29, 2017

Individual evidence

1. ↑ IAAF Statistics Handbook, Berlin 2009, page 650 ( Memento from June 29, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Official report p. 266, engl. (PDF)
3. ↑ SportsReference (Eng.)