Athletics at the 1936 Summer Olympics

At the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, 29 athletics events were contested, 23 for men and 6 for women. The program of events was unchanged from the previous Games. There was a total of 776 participants from 43 countries competing.

Athletics at the Games of the XI Olympiad
The newly-built Olympiastadion (pictured in 2015) hosted the events
No. of events	29
Competitors	776 from 43 nations
← 1932 1948 →

Medal summary

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	United States (USA)	14	7	4	25
2	Germany (GER)	5	4	7	16
3	Finland (FIN)	3	5	2	10
4	Great Britain (GBR)	2	5	0	7
5	Japan (JPN)	2	2	3	7
6	Italy (ITA)	1	2	2	5
7	Hungary (HUN)	1	0	0	1
	New Zealand (NZL)	1	0	0	1
9	Poland (POL)	0	2	1	3
10	Canada (CAN)	0	1	3	4
11	Switzerland (SUI)	0	1	0	1
12	Netherlands (NED)	0	0	2	2
	Sweden (SWE)	0	0	2	2
14	Australia (AUS)	0	0	1	1
	Latvia (LAT)	0	0	1	1
	Philippines (PHI)	0	0	1	1
Totals (16 entries)		29	29	29	87

Men

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
100 metres details	Jesse Owens  United States	10.3	Ralph Metcalfe  United States	10.4	Tinus Osendarp  Netherlands	10.5
200 metres details	Jesse Owens  United States	20.7	Mack Robinson  United States	21.1	Tinus Osendarp  Netherlands	21.3
400 metres details	Archie Williams  United States	46.5	Godfrey Brown  Great Britain	46.7	Jimmy LuValle  United States	46.8
800 metres details	John Woodruff  United States	1:52.9	Mario Lanzi  Italy	1:53.3	Phil Edwards  Canada	1:53.6
1500 metres details	Jack Lovelock  New Zealand	3:47.8	Glenn Cunningham  United States	3:48.4	Luigi Beccali  Italy	3:49.2
5000 metres details	Gunnar Höckert  Finland	14:22.2	Lauri Lehtinen  Finland	14:25.8	Henry Jonsson  Sweden	14:29.0
10,000 metres details	Ilmari Salminen  Finland	30:15.4	Arvo Askola  Finland	30:15.6	Volmari Iso-Hollo  Finland	30:20.2
110 metres hurdles details	Forrest Towns  United States	14.2	Don Finlay  Great Britain	14.4	Fritz Pollard  United States	14.4
400 metres hurdles details	Glenn Hardin  United States	52.4	John Loaring  Canada	52.7	Miguel White  Philippines	52.8
3000 metres steeplechase details	Volmari Iso-Hollo  Finland	9:03.8	Kaarlo Tuominen  Finland	9:06.8	Alfred Dompert  Germany	9:07.2
4 × 100 metres relay details	United States (USA) Jesse Owens Ralph Metcalfe Foy Draper Frank Wykoff	39.8	Italy (ITA) Orazio Mariani Gianni Caldana Elio Ragni Tullio Gonnelli	41.1	Germany (GER) Wilhelm Leichum Erich Borchmeyer Erwin Gillmeister Gerd Hornberger	41.2
4 × 400 metres relay details	Great Britain (GBR) Freddie Wolff Godfrey Rampling Bill Roberts Godfrey Brown	3:09.0	United States (USA) Harold Cagle Robert Young Edward O’Brien Al Fitch	3:11.0	Germany (GER) Helmut Hamann Friedrich Von Stülpnagel Harry Voigt Rudolf Harbig	3:11.8
Marathon details	Son Kitei  Japan[1]	2:29:19.2	Ernest Harper  Great Britain	2:31:23.2	Nan Shoryu  Japan[1]	2:31:42.0
50 kilometres walk details	Harold Whitlock  Great Britain	4:30:41.4	Arthur Tell Schwab  Switzerland	4:32:09.2	Adalberts Bubenko  Latvia	4:32:42.2
High jump details	Cornelius Johnson  United States	2.03 m	Dave Albritton  United States	2.00 m	Delos Thurber  United States	2.00 m
Pole vault details	Earle Meadows  United States	4.35 m	Shuhei Nishida  Japan	4.25 m	Sueo Ōe  Japan	4.25 m
Long jump details	Jesse Owens  United States	8.06 m	Luz Long  Germany	7.87 m	Naoto Tajima  Japan	7.74 m
Triple jump details	Naoto Tajima  Japan	16.00 m	Masao Harada  Japan	15.66 m	Jack Metcalfe  Australia	15.50 m
Shot put details	Hans Woellke  Germany	16.20 m	Sulo Bärlund  Finland	16.12 m	Gerhard Stöck  Germany	15.66 m
Discus throw details	Ken Carpenter  United States	50.48 m	Gordon Dunn  United States	49.36 m	Giorgio Oberweger  Italy	49.23 m
Hammer throw details	Karl Hein  Germany	56.49 m	Erwin Blask  Germany	55.04 m	Fred Warngård  Sweden	54.83 m
Javelin throw details	Gerhard Stöck  Germany	71.84 m	Yrjö Nikkanen  Finland	70.77 m	Kalervo Toivonen  Finland	70.72 m
Decathlon details	Glenn Morris  United States	7900	Bob Clark  United States	7601	Jack Parker  United States	7275

Women

Games	Gold		Silver		Bronze
100 metres details	Helen Stephens  United States	11.5	Stanisława Walasiewicz  Poland	11.7	Käthe Krauß  Germany	11.9
80 metres hurdles details	Trebisonda Valla  Italy	11.7	Anni Steuer  Germany	11.7	Betty Taylor  Canada	11.7
4 × 100 metres relay details	United States (USA) Harriet Bland Annette Rogers Betty Robinson Helen Stephens	46.9	Great Britain (GBR) Eileen Hiscock Violet Olney Audrey Brown Barbara Burke	47.6	Canada (CAN) Dorothy Brookshaw Mildred Dolson Hilda Cameron Aileen Meagher	47.8
High jump details	Ibolya Csák  Hungary	1.60 m	Dorothy Odam  Great Britain	1.60 m	Elfriede Kaun  Germany	1.60 m
Discus throw details	Gisela Mauermayer  Germany	47.63 m	Jadwiga Wajs  Poland	46.22 m	Paula Mollenhauer  Germany	39.80 m
Javelin throw details	Tilly Fleischer  Germany	45.18 m	Luise Krüger  Germany	43.29 m	Maria Kwaśniewska  Poland	41.80 m

Records broken

20 new Olympic records and 6 new world records were set in the athletics events.

Volmari Iso-Hollo, 3000 m steeplechase, 1936 Summer Olympics

Men's Olympic and world records

Event	Date	Round	Name	Nationality	Result	OR	WR
200 metres	5 August	Final	Jesse Owens	United States	20.7	OR
1500 meters	6 August	Final	Jack Lovelock	New Zealand	3:47.8	OR	WR
5000 metres	7 August	Final	Gunnar Höckert	Finland	14:22.2	OR
110 metres hurdles	6 August	Semi-final	Forrest Towns	United States	14.1	OR	WR
3000 metres steeplechase	8 August	Final	Volmari Iso-Hollo	Finland	9:03.8	OR	[2]
4 × 100 metres relay	9 August	Final	Jesse Owens Ralph Metcalfe Foy Draper Frank Wykoff	United States	39.8	OR	WR
Marathon	9 August	Final	Son Kitei	Japan	2:29:19.2	OR
50 kilometres walk	5 August	Final	Harold Whitlock	Great Britain	4:30:41.4	OR
Long jump	4 August	Final	Jesse Owens	United States	8.06 m	OR[3]
Triple jump	6 August	Final	Naoto Tajima	Japan	16.00 m	OR	WR
High jump	2 August	Final	Cornelius Johnson	United States	2.03 m	OR
Pole vault	5 August	Final	Earle Meadows	United States	4.35 m	OR
Shot put	2 August	Final	Hans Woellke	Germany	16.20 m	OR
Discus throw	5 August	Final	Ken Carpenter	United States	50.48 m	OR
Hammer throw	3 August	Final	Karl Hein	Germany	56.49 m	OR
Decathlon	8 August	Final	Glenn Morris	United States	7900	OR	WR

Women's Olympic and world records

Event	Date	Round	Name	Nationality	Result	OR	WR
80 metres hurdles	5 August	Semi-final	Trebisonda Valla	Italy	11.6	OR[3]
4 × 100 metres relay	8 August	Heats	Emmy Albus Käthe Krauß Marie Dollinger Ilse Dörffeldt	Germany	46.4	OR	WR
Discus throw	4 August	Final	Gisela Mauermayer	Germany	47.63 m	OR
Javelin throw	2 August	Final	Tilly Fleischer	Germany	45.18 m	OR

References

• 1936 Summer Olympics results: athletics, from https://www.sports-reference.com/; retrieved 2010-04-05.
• International Olympic Committee results database

Notes

1. Both Sohn Kee-chung (Son Kitei) and Nam Sung-yong (Nan Shoryu) were from Korea. The IOC credits both medals to Japan due to Korea being a Japanese colony at the time. All Korean Olympians during the Japanese colonial rule could only participate in the Games as a representative of Japan and Japan required them to use the Japanese forms of their names. However, some sources still refer to Son Kitei as the first Korean to win an Olympic marathon.
2. Was a "world best" time as world records were not yet recognised for the event.
3. Wind-aided mark recognised as Olympic record.

52.5147°N 13.2394°E / 52.5147; 13.2394