400m champions and records

Men’s competitions are dominated by the USA, which notched up all of the top ten times run in the last 41 years!
That the 400m fastest time is hard to improve is evident: since Lee Evans’ time of 43’’86 of October 1968, and Michael Johnson’s current record of 43’’18 of August 1999 (it’s already been 10 years…) there is an improvement of only 68 hundredths of a second, ie 1,6%.
 
There is more variety among the ladies: the top time times, all recorded since 1984, are shared among seven countries: the USA with 3 times (but none in the first six!), Czechoslovakia with 2, and Germany (GDR), France, the Soviet Union, Australia and Mexico with one.
 
Top all-time athletes - men
(Updated 3 October 2008.)

Rank
Time
Athlete
Nation
Date
Location
1.
43.18
Michael Johnson
 United States
26 August 1999
Seville
2.
43.29
Harry 'Butch' Reynolds
 United States
17 August 1988
Zürich
3.
43.45
Jeremy Wariner
 United States
31 August 2007
Osaka
4.
43.50
Quincy Watts
 United States
5 August 1992
Barcelona
5.
43.75
LaShawn Merritt
 United States
21 August 2008
Beijing
6.
43.81
Danny Everett
 United States
26 June 1992
New Orleans
7.
43.86
Lee Evans
 United States
18 October 1968
Mexico City
8.
43.87
Steve Lewis
 United States
28 September 1988
Seoul
9.
43.97
Larry James
 United States
18 October 1968
Mexico City
10.
44.05
Angelo Taylor
 United States
23 June 2007
Indianapolis

Top all-time athletes - ladies
(Updated 3 October 2008.)

Rank
Time
Athlete
Nation
Date
Location
1.
47.60
Marita Koch
 East Germany
6 October 1985
Canberra
2.
47.99
Jarmila Kratochvílová
 Czechoslovakia
10 August 1983
Helsinki
3.
48.25
Marie-José Pérec
 France
29 July 1996
Atlanta
4.
48.27
Olga Vladykina-Bryzgina
 Soviet Union
6 October 1985
Canberra
5.
48.59
Taťána Kocembová
 Czechoslovakia
10 August 1983
Helsinki
6.
48.63
Cathy Freeman
 Australia
29 July 1996
Atlanta
7.
48.70
Sanya Richards
 United States
16 September 2006
Athens
8.
48.83
Valerie Brisco-Hooks
 United States
6 August 1984
Los Angeles
9.
48.89
Ana Guevara
 Mexico
27 August 2003
Paris Saint-Denis
10.
49.05
Chandra Cheeseborough
 United States
6 August 1984
Los Angeles

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the article “400m” at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/400m