Athletics at the 1952 Summer Olympics – Men's 4 × 400 metres relay
The men's 4 × 400 metres relay event at the 1952 Olympic Games took place on July 26 & July 27. The Jamaican team won the final. Herb McKenley's third leg of 44.6, credited with pulling Jamaica into contention from 10 metres back, is considered one of the greatest relay legs in history. George Rhoden, the 400 metres champion and Mal Whitfield the 800 metres champion ran virtually shoulder to shoulder the entire last lap, but Whitfield was never able to take the lead.
Results
Heats
Round One Heat One
| Rank | Country | Athletes | Time | Time | Notes |
| 1 | Arthur Wint, Les Laing, Herb McKenley, George Rhoden | 3:12.1 | 3:12.13 | Q | |
| 2 | Jean-Pierre Goudeau, Robert Bart, Jacques Degats, Jean-Paul Martin du Gard | 3:12.6 | 3:12.72 | Q | |
| 3 | Gösta Brännström, Tage Ekfeldt, Rune Larsson, Lars-Erik Wolfbrandt | 3:13.4 | 3:13.55 | ||
| 4 | Albert Lowagie, Antoine Uyterhoeven, Roger Moens, Fernand Linssen | 3:15.8 | 3:16.05 | ||
| 5 | Roby Schaeffer, Jean Hamilius, Fred Hammer, Gérard Rasquin | 3:16.2 | 3:16.38 | ||
| 6 | Pauli Tavisalo, Ossi Mildh, Ragnar Graeffe, Rolf Back | 3:16.4 | 3:16.67 | ||
| 7 | Junkichi Matoba, Eitaro Okano, Hiroshi Yamamoto, Yoshitaka Muroya | 3:20.3 | 3:20.55 |
Round One Heat Two
Round One Heat Three
Final
| Rank | Country | Time | Time | Notes |
| 3:03.9 | 3:04.04 | WR | ||
| 3:04.0 | 3:04.21 | |||
| 3:06.6 | 3:06.78 | |||
| 4 | 3:09.3 | 3:09.37 | ||
| 5 | 3:10.0 | 3:10.23 | ||
| 6 | 3:10.1 | 3:10.33 |
Key: WR = World record