Athletics at the Games of the IX Olympiad
Athletics at the 1928 Summer Olympics on a stamp of the Netherlands
Venue	Olympic Stadium
Dates	29 July–5 August
Competitors	706 (611 men, 95 women) from 40 nations

Athletics at the 1928 Summer Olympics
Track events
100 m	men	women
200 m	men
400 m	men
800 m	men	women
1500 m	men
5000 m	men
10,000 m	men
110 m hurdles	men
400 m hurdles	men
3000 m steeplechase	men
4 × 100 m relay	men	women
4 × 400 m relay	men
Road events
Marathon	men
Field events
Long jump	men
Triple jump	men
High jump	men	women
Pole vault	men
Shot put	men
Discus throw	men	women
Javelin throw	men
Hammer throw	men
Combined events
Decathlon	men

At the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam, 27 athletics events were contested. The competition was held on a 400-meter track and would become the standard for athletics tracks in the future. For the first time, women's events in athletics were included in the Olympic Games program. There was a total of 706 participants from 40 countries competing.

Medal summary

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	United States (USA)	9	8	8	25
2	Finland (FIN)	5	5	4	14
3	Canada (CAN)	4	2	2	8
4	Great Britain (GBR)	2	2	1	5
5	Germany (GER)	1	2	6	9
6	Sweden (SWE)	1	2	4	7
7	France (FRA)	1	1	1	3
8	Japan (JPN)	1	1	0	2
9	Ireland (IRL)	1	0	0	1
	Poland (POL)	1	0	0	1
	South Africa (RSA)	1	0	0	1
12	Chile (CHI)	0	1	0	1
	Haiti (HAI)	0	1	0	1
	Hungary (HUN)	0	1	0	1
	Netherlands (NED)	0	1	0	1
16	Norway (NOR)	0	0	1	1
Totals (16 entries)		27	27	27	81

Men

Games	Gold	Silver	Bronze
100 metres	Percy Williams  Canada	Jack London  Great Britain	Georg Lammers  Germany
200 metres	Percy Williams  Canada	Walter Rangeley  Great Britain	Helmut Körnig  Germany
400 metres	Ray Barbuti  United States	James Ball  Canada	Joachim Büchner  Germany
800 metres	Douglas Lowe  Great Britain	Erik Byléhn  Sweden	Hermann Engelhard  Germany
1500 metres	Harri Larva  Finland	Jules Ladoumegue  France	Eino Purje  Finland
5000 metres	Ville Ritola  Finland	Paavo Nurmi  Finland	Edvin Wide  Sweden
10,000 metres	Paavo Nurmi  Finland	Ville Ritola  Finland	Edvin Wide  Sweden
110 metres hurdles	Sydney Atkinson  South Africa	Steve Anderson  United States	John Collier  United States
400 metres hurdles	David Burghley  Great Britain	Frank Cuhel  United States	Morgan Taylor  United States
3000 metres steeplechase	Toivo Loukola  Finland	Paavo Nurmi  Finland	Ove Andersen  Finland
4 × 100 metres relay	United States (USA) Frank Wykoff James Quinn Charles Borah Henry Russell	Germany (GER) Georg Lammers Richard Corts Hubert Houben Helmut Körnig	Great Britain (GBR) Cyril Gill Edward Smouha Walter Rangeley Jack London
4 × 400 metres relay	United States (USA) George Baird Fred Alderman Emerson Spencer Ray Barbuti	Germany (GER) Otto Neumann Harry Werner Storz Richard Krebs Hermann Engelhard	Canada (CAN) James Ball Stanley Glover Phil Edwards Alex Wilson
Marathon	Boughera El Ouafi  France	Manuel Plaza  Chile	Martti Marttelin  Finland
High jump	Bob King  United States	Benjamin Hedges  United States	Claude Ménard  France
Pole vault	Sabin Carr  United States	William Droegemuller  United States	Charles McGinnis  United States
Long jump	Edward Hamm  United States	Silvio Cator  Haiti	Alfred Bates  United States
Triple jump	Mikio Oda  Japan	Levi Casey  United States	Vilho Tuulos  Finland
Shot put	John Kuck  United States	Herman Brix  United States	Emil Hirschfeld  Germany
Discus throw	Bud Houser  United States	Antero Kivi  Finland	James Corson  United States
Hammer throw	Pat O'Callaghan  Ireland	Ossian Skiöld  Sweden	Edmund Black  United States
Javelin throw	Erik Lundqvist  Sweden	Béla Szepes  Hungary	Olav Sunde  Norway
Decathlon	Paavo Yrjölä  Finland	Akilles Järvinen  Finland	Ken Doherty  United States

Women

Games	Gold	Silver	Bronze
100 metres	Betty Robinson  United States	Bobbie Rosenfeld  Canada	Ethel Smith  Canada
800 metres	Lina Radke  Germany	Kinue Hitomi  Japan	Inga Gentzel  Sweden
4 × 100 metres relay	Canada (CAN) Myrtle Cook Ethel Smith Bobbie Rosenfeld Jane Bell	United States (USA) Jessie Cross Loretta McNeil Betty Robinson Mary Washburn	Germany (GER) Anni Holdmann Leni Junker Rosa Kellner Leni Schmidt
High jump	Ethel Catherwood  Canada	Lien Gisolf  Netherlands	Mildred Wiley  United States
Discus throw	Halina Konopacka  Poland	Lillian Copeland  United States	Ruth Svedberg  Sweden

Records broken

During the 1928 Summer Olympic Games 9 new world records were set in the athletics events. New Olympic records were set in 16 of the 27 events.

Men's world records

Event	Date	Round	Name	Nationality	Result
110 metres hurdles	July 31	Semifinal	George Weightman-Smith	South Africa	14.6
3000 metres steeplechase	August 4	Final	Toivo Loukola	Finland	9:21.8
4 × 400 metres relay	August 5	Final	George Baird Fred Alderman Emerson Spencer Ray Barbuti	United States	3:14.2
Shot put	July 29	Final	John Kuck	United States	15.87 m
Decathlon	August 5	Final	Paavo Yrjölä	Finland	8,053.290

Women's world records

Event	Date	Round	Name	Nationality	Result
800 metres	August 2	Final	Lina Radke	Germany	2:16.8
4 × 100 metres relay	August 5	Final	Myrtle Cook Ethel Smith Bobbie Rosenfeld Jane Bell	Canada	48.4
High jump	August 5	Final	Ethel Catherwood	Canada	1.595 m
Discus throw	July 31	Final	Halina Konopacka	Poland	39.62 m

Participating nations

706 athletes from 40 nations competed. Lithuania and Romania competed in athletics for the first time. Bulgaria, Egypt, Malta, Panama, Rhodesia, and Uruguay were the only six nations not to compete in athletics.

References

• 1928 Summer Olympics results: athletics, from https://www.sports-reference.com/; retrieved 2010-03-01.
• Official Olympic Report

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