1996 Summer Olympics / Athletics - 4 × 400 m (women)

sport	athletics
discipline	4 x 400 meter relay
gender	Women
Attendees	59 athletes from 14 countries
Competition location	Centennial Olympic Stadium
Competition phase	August 2, 1996 (preliminary round) August 3, 1996 (final)
Medalists  United States  NGR  GER

The women's 4-by-400-meter relay at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta was played on August 2 and 3, 1996 at the Centennial Olympic Stadium . 59 athletes took part in fourteen seasons.

Olympic champion was the US relay with Rochelle Stevens , Maicel Malone , Kim Graham and Jearl Miles as well as Linetta Wilson who was also used in the run-up . The silver medal went to Nigeria ( Olabisi Afolabi , Fatima Yusuf , Charity Opara , Falilat Ogunkoya ), bronze to Germany with Uta Rohländer , Linda Kisabaka , Anja Rücker and Grit Breuer .
The runner used in the preliminary runs for the medal winners also received the corresponding precious metal.

Relays from Switzerland, Austria and Liechtenstein did not take part.

Current titleholders

Olympic champion 1992	United team	3: 20.20 min	Barcelona 1992
World Champion 1995	United States	3: 22.39 min	Gothenburg 1995
European Champion 1994	France	3: 22.34 min	Helsinki 1994
Pan American champion 1995	Cuba	3: 27.45 min	Mar del Plata 1995
Central America and Caribbean champions 1995		3: 27.86 min	Guatemala City 1995
South American Champion 1995	Colombia	3: 33.37 min	Manaus 1995
Asian champion 1995	People's Republic of China	3: 32.73 min	Jakarta 1995
African champion 1996	Nigeria	3: 39.2 min	Yaoundé 1996
Oceania Champion 1994	New Zealand	3: 54.14 min	Auckland 1994

Existing records

World record	3: 15.17 min	Soviet Union ( Tazzjana Ljadouskaja , Olga Nasarowa , Marija Pinigina , Olha Bryshina )	Seoul , South Korea	October 1, 1988
Olympic record			Final from Seoul , South Korea

Note: All times are Atlanta local time ( UTC − 5 ).

Preliminary round

2nd August 1996

The relays were drawn in two runs. The first three teams per run qualified for the final. In addition, the two fastest times, the so-called lucky losers , made it through. The directly qualified teams are highlighted in light blue, the lucky losers in light green.

Forward 1

space	Season	occupation	Time (min)	annotation
1	United States	Rochelle Stevens Linetta Wilson Kim Graham Maicel Malone	3: 22.71
2	Nigeria	Olabisi Afolabi Fatima Yusuf Charity Opara Falilat Ogunkoya	3: 23.24
3	France	Francine Landre Viviane Dorsile Evelyne Elien Elsa Devassoigne	3: 28.07
4th	Great Britain	Phylis Smith Allison Curbishley Donna Fraser Georgina Oladapo	3: 28.13
5	Ukraine	Viktorija Fomenko Lyudmila Koschtschei Jana Manujlowa Olha Moroz	3: 28.16
6th	Antigua and Barbuda	Dine Potter Sonia Williams Charmaine Thomas Heather Samuel	3: 44.98
DSQ	India	Kalayathumkuzhi Beenamol Rosakutty Kunnath Chacko Jyotirmoyee Sikdar Shiny Abraham
DNS	American Virgin Islands

Forward 2

space	Season	occupation	Time (min)	annotation
1	Germany	Uta Rohländer Linda Kisabaka Anja Rücker Grit Breuer	3: 24.08
2	Cuba	Idalmis Bonne Julia Duporty Surella Morales Ana Fidelia Quirot	3: 24.23
3	Russia	Tatiana Tschebykina Olga Kotlyarova Yekaterina Kulikova Svetlana Goncharenko	3: 24.86
4th	Jamaica	Juliet Campbell Tracey Ann Barnes Merlene Frazer Inez Turner	3: 25.33
5	Czech Republic	Naděžda Koštovalová Ludmila Formanová Helena Fuchsová Hana Benešová	3: 26.82
6th	Australia	Lee Naylor Kylie Hanigan Melinda Gainsford-Taylor Renée Poetschka	3: 33.78
7th	St. Kitts and Nevis	Bernadeth Prentice Diane Francis Valma Bass Tamara Wigley	3: 35.12

final

space	Season	occupation	Time (min)	annotation
1	United States	Rochelle Stevens Maicel Malone Kim Graham Jearl Miles in the heats also: Linetta Wilson	3: 20.91
2	Nigeria	Olabisi Afolabi Fatima Yusuf Charity Opara Falilat Ogunkoya	3: 21.04
3	Germany	Uta Rohländer Linda Kisabaka Anja Rücker Grit Breuer	3: 21.14
4th	Jamaica	Merlene Frazer Sandie Richards Juliet Campbell Deon Hemmings in the preliminary also: Tracey Ann Barnes Inez Turner	3: 21.69
5	Russia	Tatiana Tschebykina Svetlana Goncharenko Yekaterina Kulikova Olga Kotlyarova	3: 22.22
6th	Cuba	Idalmis Bonne Julia Duporty Surella Morales Ana Fidelia Quirot	3: 25.85
7th	Czech Republic	Naděžda Koštovalová Ludmila Formanová Helena Fuchsová Hana Benešová	3: 26.99
8th	France	Francine Landre Viviane Dorsile Evelyne Elien Elsa Devassoigne	3: 28.46

August 3, 1996

The US runners were the favorites, the strongest opponents were the team from Russia. The two teams crossed the finish line in this order at the last World Championships . In the final of the 400-meter run , however, there was no Russian runner and Jearl Miles was the best and only US finalist in fifth place. Other medal candidates were the Australians, who were third in the World Cup, and the Nigerians, the only nation with two finalists over 400 meters.

Compared to the prelims, there were three cast changes in two seasons:

• USA - Jearl Miles ran for Linetta Wilson.
• Jamaica - Sandie Richards replaced Tracey Ann Barnes and Deon Hemmings replaced Inez Turner.

In the final, Olabisi Afolabi went very quickly for Nigeria and on the first change the team was eight meters ahead of Russia and the United States. The German Linda Kisabaka moved past two opponents to fourth place when she took over the baton. In the second round, five teams clearly set themselves apart from their opponents. Fatima Yusuf's lead for Nigeria became significantly smaller. This was followed by Maicel Malone for the USA, Kisabaka, Swetlana Goncharenko for Russia and Sandie Richards for Jamaica. So it went into the third round. The last time the USA was in the lead, Kim Graham had closed the gap to Charity Opara and had passed. Nigeria was now in second place, followed by Jamaica, Germany and Russia. The US runner-up Jearl Miles had a slight lead, which she expanded on the back straight. But in the last corner the Nigerian Falilat Ogunkoya came up again and it became very close to the front. Both athletes were very exhausted and did everything they could to survive the last thirty meters. The German relay team was still very strong with the last runner Grit Breuer. Jearl Miles finally saved the Olympic victory for the US season with a lead of thirteen hundredths of a second. The Nigerians finished second ahead of Germany with just a tenth of a second. Places four and five went to Jamaica and Russia.

Nigeria won the first medal in the women's 4-by-400-meter relay .

literature

• Gerd Rubenbauer (ed.), Olympic Summer Games Atlanta 1996 with reports by Britta Kruse, Johannes Ebert, Andreas Schmidt and Ernst Christian Schütt, comments: Gerd Rubenbauer and Hans Schwarz, Chronik Verlag im Bertelsmann Verlag, Gütersloh / Munich 1996, p. 46

Web links

• SportsReference 4 × 400 m
• Official Report, Part III on the Olympic Games in Atlanta , p. 88, English / French (PDF, 13,520 MB), accessed on March 13, 2018

Video

• Women's 4x400m Relay Atlanta Olympics 1996 , published May 22, 2016 on youtube.com, accessed March 13, 2018

Individual evidence

1. ↑ IAAF Statistics Handbook, Beijing 2015, page 804 , accessed on March 13, 2018
2. ↑ ^{a b} Official Report, Part III on the Olympic Games in Atlanta ( Memento of the original from October 7, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , P. 88, English / French (PDF, 13,520 MB), accessed on March 13, 2018