The 400 metres, or 400-meter dash, is a sprint event in track and field competitions. It has been seen in the athletics programme at the Summer Olympics since 1896 for men and since 1964 for women.
It happens on a standard outdoor running track and the race is one lap around the track.
| Area | Men | Women | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Time (s) | Athlete | Nation | Time (s) | Athlete | Nation | ||
| Africa (records) | 43.03 WR | Wayde van Niekerk |  South Africa | 49.10 | Falilat Ogunkoya |  Nigeria | |
| Asia (records) | 43.93 | Yousef Masrahi |  Saudi Arabia | 48.14 | Salwa Eid Naser |  Bahrain | |
| Europe (records) | 43.44 | Matthew Hudson-Smith |  Great Britain | 47.60 WR | Marita Koch |  East Germany | |
| North, Central America and Caribbean (records) | 43.18 | Michael Johnson |  United States | 48.17 | Marileidy Paulino |  Dominican Republic | |
| Oceania (records) | 44.38 | Darren Clark |  Australia | 48.63 | Cathy Freeman | Australia | |
| South America (records) | 43.93 | Anthony Zambrano |  Colombia | 49.64 | Ximena Restrepo | Colombia | |
