Athletics at the 1948 Summer Olympics

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.

Athletics at the Games of the XIV Olympiad
Host stadium (shown in 2002)
No. of events	33
Competitors	745 from 53 nations

Medal summary

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 entries)		33	33	33	99

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 (OR)	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	Willem Slijkhuis  Netherlands	3:50.4
5000 metres	Gaston Reiff  Belgium	14:17.6 (OR)	Emil Zátopek  Czechoslovakia	14:17.8	Willem Slijkhuis  Netherlands	14:26.8
10,000 metres	Emil Zátopek  Czechoslovakia	29:59.6 (OR)	Alain Mimoun  France	30:47.4	Bertil Albertsson  Sweden	30:53.6
110 metres hurdles	William Porter  United States	13.9 (OR)	Clyde Scott  United States	14.1	Craig Dixon  United States	14.1
400 metres hurdles	Roy Cochran  United States	51.1 (OR)	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 Jack 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'Hôtel 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	Étienne Gailly  Belgium	2:35:33.6
10 kilometres walk	John Mikaelsson  Sweden	45:13.2 (OR)	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	Bob Richards  United States	4.20 m
Long jump	Willie Steele  United States	7.825 m	Bill Bruce  Australia	7.55 m	Herb Douglas  United States	7.54 m
Triple jump	Arne Åhman  Sweden	15.40 m	George Avery  Australia	15.36 m	Ruhi Sarıalp  Turkey	15.02 m
Shot put	Wilbur Thompson  United States	17.12 m (OR)	Jim Delaney  United States	16.68 m	Jim Fuchs  United States	16.42 m
Discus throw	Adolfo Consolini  Italy	52.78 m (OR)	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

Games	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 (OR)	Audrey Williamson  Great Britain	25.1	Audrey Patterson  United States	25.2
80 metres hurdles	Fanny Blankers-Koen  Netherlands	11.2 (OR)	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 (OR)	Dorothy Tyler  Great Britain	1.68 m (OR)	Micheline Ostermeyer  France	1.61 m
Long jump	Olga Gyarmati  Hungary	5.695 m (OR)	Noemí Simonetto  Argentina	5.60 m	Ann-Britt Leyman  Sweden	5.575 m
Shot put	Micheline Ostermeyer  France	13.75 m (OR)	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 Mazéas  France	40.47 m
Javelin throw	Herma Bauma  Austria	45.57 m (OR)	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

References

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