Athletics at the Games of the XXVI Olympiad
Pictogram for Athletics
Dates	July 26  August 3, 1996
No. of events	44
Competitors	2053 from 191 nations
←  Barcelona 1992 Sydney 2000 →

At the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, 44 events in athletics were contested. There were a total number of 2053 participating athletes from 191 countries.

A total of two world records and 14 Olympic records were set during the competition.

Medal winners

Men

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
100 metres details	Donovan Bailey   Canada	9.84 (WR)	Frankie Fredericks   Namibia	9.89	Ato Boldon   Trinidad and Tobago	9.90
200 metres details	Michael Johnson   United States	19.32 (WR)	Frankie Fredericks   Namibia	19.68 (AR)	Ato Boldon   Trinidad and Tobago	19.80
400 metres details	Michael Johnson   United States	43.49 (OR)	Roger Black   Great Britain	44.41	Davis Kamoga   Uganda	44.53
800 metres details	Vebjørn Rodal   Norway	1:42.58 (OR)	Hezekiél Sepeng   South Africa	1:42.74	Fred Onyancha   Kenya	1:42.79
1500 metres details	Noureddine Morceli   Algeria	3:35.78	Fermín Cacho   Spain	3:36.40	Stephen Kipkorir   Kenya	3:36.72
5000 metres details	Vénuste Niyongabo   Burundi	13:07.96	Paul Bitok   Kenya	13:08.16	Khalid Boulami   Morocco	13:08.37
10,000 metres details	Haile Gebrselassie   Ethiopia	27:07.34 (OR)	Paul Tergat   Kenya	27:08.17	Salah Hissou   Morocco	27:24.67
110 metres hurdles details	Allen Johnson   United States	12.95 (OR)	Mark Crear   United States	13.09	Florian Schwarthoff   Germany	13.17
400 metres hurdles details	Derrick Adkins   United States	47.54	Samuel Matete   Zambia	47.78	Calvin Davis   United States	47.96
3000 metres steeplechase details	Joseph Keter   Kenya	8:07.12	Moses Kiptanui   Kenya	8:08.33	Alessandro Lambruschini   Italy	8:11.28
4 × 100 metres relay details	Canada (CAN) Robert Esmie Glenroy Gilbert Bruny Surin Donovan Bailey Carlton Chambers*	37.69	United States (USA) Jon Drummond Tim Harden Michael Marsh Dennis Mitchell Tim Montgomery*	38.05	Brazil (BRA) Arnaldo da Silva Robson da Silva Édson Ribeiro André da Silva	38.41
4 × 400 metres relay details	United States (USA) LaMont Smith Alvin Harrison Derek Mills Anthuan Maybank Jason Rouser*	2:55.99	Great Britain (GBR) Iwan Thomas Jamie Baulch Mark Richardson Roger Black Mark Hylton* Du'aine Ladejo*	2:56.60	Jamaica (JAM) Michael McDonald Greg Haughton Roxbert Martin Davian Clarke Dennis Blake* Garth Robinson*	2:59.42
Marathon details	Josia Thugwane   South Africa	2:12:36	Lee Bong-Ju   South Korea	2:12:39	Erick Wainaina   Kenya	2:12:44
20 kilometres walk details	Jefferson Pérez   Ecuador	1:20:07	Ilya Markov   Russia	1:20:16	Bernardo Segura   Mexico	1:20:23
50 kilometres walk details	Robert Korzeniowski   Poland	3:43:30	Mikhail Shchennikov   Russia	3:43:36	Valentí Massana   Spain	3:44:19
High jump details	Charles Austin   United States	2.39 m (OR)	Artur Partyka   Poland	2.37 m	Steve Smith   Great Britain	2.35 m
Pole vault details	Jean Galfione   France	5.92 m	Igor Trandenkov   Russia	5.92 m	Andrei Tivontchik   Germany	5.92 m
Long jump details	Carl Lewis   United States	8.50 m	James Beckford   Jamaica	8.29 m	Joe Greene   United States	8.24 m
Triple jump details	Kenny Harrison   United States	18.09 m (OR)	Jonathan Edwards   Great Britain	17.88 m	Yoelbi Quesada   Cuba	17.44 m
Shot put details	Randy Barnes   United States	21.62 m	John Godina   United States	20.79 m	Oleksandr Bagach   Ukraine	20.75 m
Discus throw details	Lars Riedel   Germany	69.40 m	Vladimir Dubrovshchik   Belarus	66.60 m	Vasiliy Kaptyukh   Belarus	65.80 m
Hammer throw details	Balázs Kiss   Hungary	81.24 m	Lance Deal   United States	81.12 m	Oleksandr Krykun   Ukraine	80.02 m
Javelin throw details	Jan Železný   Czech Republic	88.16 m	Steve Backley   Great Britain	87.44 m	Seppo Räty   Finland	86.98 m
Decathlon details	Dan O'Brien   United States	8824 pts	Frank Busemann   Germany	8706 pts	Tomáš Dvořák   Czech Republic	8664 pts

* Athletes who participated in the heats only and received medals.

Women

Games	Gold		Silver		Bronze
100 metres details	Gail Devers   United States	10.94	Merlene Ottey   Jamaica	10.94	Gwen Torrence   United States	10.96
200 metres details	Marie-José Pérec   France	22.12	Merlene Ottey   Jamaica	22.24	Mary Onyali   Nigeria	22.38
400 metres details	Marie-José Pérec   France	48.25 (OR)	Cathy Freeman   Australia	48.63	Falilat Ogunkoya   Nigeria	49.10
800 metres details	Svetlana Masterkova   Russia	1:57.73	Ana Fidelia Quirot   Cuba	1:58.11	Maria de Lurdes Mutola   Mozambique	1:58.71
1500 metres details	Svetlana Masterkova   Russia	4:00.83	Gabriela Szabo   Romania	4:01.54	Theresia Kiesl   Austria	4:03.02 (NR)
5000 metres details	Wang Junxia   China	14:59.88 (OR)	Pauline Konga   Kenya	15:03.49	Roberta Brunet   Italy	15:07.52
10,000 metres details	Fernanda Ribeiro   Portugal	31:01.63 (OR)	Wang Junxia   China	31:02.59	Gete Wami   Ethiopia	31:06.65
100 metres hurdles details	Ludmila Engquist   Sweden	12.58	Brigita Bukovec   Slovenia	12.59	Patricia Girard   France	12.65
400 metres hurdles details	Deon Hemmings   Jamaica	52.82 (OR)	Kim Batten   United States	53.08	Tonja Buford-Bailey   United States	53.22
4 × 100 metres relay details	United States (USA) Chryste Gaines Gail Devers Inger Miller Gwen Torrence Carlette Guidry*	41.95	Bahamas (BAH) Eldece Clarke Chandra Sturrup Savatheda Fynes Pauline Davis-Thompson Debbie Ferguson*	42.14	Jamaica (JAM) Michelle Freeman Juliet Cuthbert Nikole Mitchell Merlene Ottey Gillian Russell* Andria Lloyd*	42.24
4 × 400 metres relay details	United States (USA) Rochelle Stevens Maicel Malone-Wallace Kim Graham Jearl Miles Linetta Wilson*	3:20.91	Nigeria (NGR) Olabisi Afolabi Fatima Yusuf Charity Opara Falilat Ogunkoya	3:21.04	Germany (GER) Uta Rohländer Linda Kisabaka Anja Rücker Grit Breuer	3:21.14
Marathon details	Fatuma Roba   Ethiopia	2:26:05	Valentina Yegorova   Russia	2:28:05	Yuko Arimori   Japan	2:28:39
10 kilometres walk details	Yelena Nikolayeva   Russia	41:49 (OR)	Elisabetta Perrone   Italy	42:12	Wang Yan   China	42:19
High jump details	Stefka Kostadinova   Bulgaria	2.05 m	Niki Bakoyianni   Greece	2.03 m	Inha Babakova   Ukraine	2.01 m
Long jump details	Chioma Ajunwa   Nigeria	7.12 m	Fiona May   Italy	7.02 m	Jackie Joyner-Kersee   United States	7.00 m
Triple jump details	Inessa Kravets   Ukraine	15.33 m (OR)	Inna Lasovskaya   Russia	14.98 m	Šárka Kašpárková   Czech Republic	14.98 m
Shot put details	Astrid Kumbernuss   Germany	20.56 m	Sui Xinmei   China	19.88 m	Irina Khudoroshkina   Russia	19.35 m
Discus throw details	Ilke Wyludda   Germany	69.66 m	Natalya Sadova   Russia	66.48 m	Ellina Zvereva   Belarus	65.64 m
Javelin throw details	Heli Rantanen   Finland	67.94 m	Louise McPaul   Australia	65.54 m	Trine Hattestad   Norway	64.98 m
Heptathlon details	Ghada Shouaa   Syria	6780 pts	Natallia Sazanovich   Belarus	6563 pts	Denise Lewis   Great Britain	6489 pts

* Athletes who participated in the heats only and received medals.

Olympic and world records broken

Men

Note: Any world record is also an Olympic record

Event	Date	Round	Name	Nationality	Time	Record
100m	27 July	Final	Donovan Bailey	Canada	9.84	WR
200m	29 July		Michael Johnson	United States	19.32
400m	27 July				43.49	OR
800m	30 July		Vebjørn Rodal	Norway	1:42.58
10,000m	26 July		Haile Gebrselassie	Ethiopia	27:07.34
110m hurdles	28 July		Allen Johnson	United States	12.95
High jump	30 July		Charles Austin		2.39
Pole vault	1 August		Jean Galfione		5.92
Triple jump	2 August		Kenny Harrison		18.09

Women

Event	Date	Round	Name	Nationality	Time	Record
400m	28 July	Final	Marie-José Pérec	France	48.26	OR
5000m	29 July		Wang Junxia	China	14:59.88
400m hurdles	2 August		Deon Hemmings	Jamaica	52.82
10 km race walk	27 July		Yelena Nikolayeva	Russia	41:49
Triple jump	30 July		Inessa Kravets	Ukraine	15.33

Medal table

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	United States (USA)	13	5	5	23
2	Russia (RUS)	3	6	1	10
3	Germany (GER)	3	1	3	7
4	France (FRA)	3	0	1	4
5	Ethiopia (ETH)	2	0	1	3
6	Canada (CAN)	2	0	0	2
7	Kenya (KEN)	1	4	3	8
8	Jamaica (JAM)	1	3	2	6
9	China (CHN)	1	2	1	4
10	Nigeria (NGR)	1	1	2	4
11	Poland (POL)	1	1	0	2
	South Africa (RSA)	1	1	0	2
13	Ukraine (UKR)	1	0	3	4
14	Czech Republic (CZE)	1	0	2	3
15	Finland (FIN)	1	0	1	2
	Norway (NOR)	1	0	1	2
17	Algeria (ALG)	1	0	0	1
	Bulgaria (BUL)	1	0	0	1
	Burundi (BDI)	1	0	0	1
	Ecuador (ECU)	1	0	0	1
	Hungary (HUN)	1	0	0	1
	Portugal (POR)	1	0	0	1
	Sweden (SWE)	1	0	0	1
	Syria (SYR)	1	0	0	1
25	Great Britain (GBR)	0	4	2	6
26	Belarus (BLR)	0	2	2	4
	Italy (ITA)	0	2	2	4
28	Australia (AUS)	0	2	0	2
	Namibia (NAM)	0	2	0	2
30	Cuba (CUB)	0	1	1	2
	Spain (ESP)	0	1	1	2
32	Bahamas (BAH)	0	1	0	1
	Greece (GRE)	0	1	0	1
	Romania (ROU)	0	1	0	1
	Slovenia (SLO)	0	1	0	1
	South Korea (KOR)	0	1	0	1
	Zambia (ZAM)	0	1	0	1
38	Morocco (MAR)	0	0	2	2
	Trinidad and Tobago (TRI)	0	0	2	2
40	Austria (AUT)	0	0	1	1
	Brazil (BRA)	0	0	1	1
	Japan (JPN)	0	0	1	1
	Mexico (MEX)	0	0	1	1
	Mozambique (MOZ)	0	0	1	1
	Uganda (UGA)	0	0	1	1
Totals (45 entries)		44	44	44	132

Participating nations

A total of 190 nations participated in the different Athletics events at the 1996 Summer Olympics.

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Athletics at the 1996 Summer Olympics.

• Official Report
• GBR Athletics
• Sports123 at the Wayback Machine (archived 2010-11-28)
• Athletics Australia