Athletics at the 1936 Summer Olympics – Men's 4 × 100 metres relay

Men's 4 × 100 metre relay at the Games of the XI Olympiad
Venue	Olympiastadion: Berlin, Germany
Dates	August 9 (heats, final)
Competitors	from 15 nations
Teams	15
Winning time	39.8
Medalists
Jesse Owens Ralph Metcalfe Foy Draper Frank Wykoff  United States Orazio Mariani Gianni Caldana Elio Ragni Tullio Gonnelli  Italy Wilhelm Leichum Erich Borchmeyer Erwin Gillmeister Gerd Hornberger  Germany

The men's 4 × 100 metres relay event at the 1936 Olympic Games took place on August 9. The United States team of Jesse Owens, Ralph Metcalfe, Foy Draper and Frank Wykoff won in a world record time of 39.8.

Marty Glickman and Sam Stoller were originally slated to compete in the American relay team but were replaced by Owens and Metcalfe prior to the start of the race. There were speculations that their Jewish heritage contributed to the decision "not to embarrass the German hosts"; however, given that African-Americans were also heavily disliked by the Nazis, Glickman and Stoller's replacement with black American athletes Owens and Metcalfe does not support this theory. Others state that Owens and Metcalfe were in a better physical condition, and that was the main reason behind the replacement.

Results

Heats

The fastest two teams in each of the three heats advanced to the final round.

Heat 1

Rank	Country	Competitors	Time	Notes
1	United States	Jesse Owens, Ralph Metcalfe, Foy Draper, Frank Wykoff	40.0	=WR
2	Italy	Orazio Mariani, Gianni Caldana, Elio Ragni, Tullio Gonnelli	41.1
3	South Africa	Eric Grimbeek, Pat Dannaher, Tom Lavery, Marthinus Theunissen	41.7
4	Finland	Toivo Ahjopalo, Toivo Sariola, Palle Virtanen, Aki Tammisto	42.0
	Japan	Takayoshi Yoshioka, Monta Suzuki, Mutsuo Taniguchi, Masao Yazawa		DSQ

Heat 2

Rank	Country	Athletes	Time	Notes
1	Netherlands	Tjeerd Boersma, Wil van Beveren, Chris Berger, Tinus Osendarp	41.3
2	Argentina	Juan Lavenás, Antonio Sande, Carlos Hofmeister, Tomás Beswick	41.9
3	Hungary	Mario Minai, Gyula Gyenes, József Kovács, József Sir	42.0
4	Great Britain	Charles Wiard, Don Finlay, Walter Rangeley, Alan Pennington	42.4
5	France	Maurice Carlton, Pierre Dondelinger, Paul Bronner, Robert Paul	42.6
6	Republic of China	Poh Kimseng, Huang Yingjie, Chen Kingkwan, Liu Changchun	44.8

Heat 3

Rank	Country	Athletes	Time	Notes
1	Germany	Wilhelm Leichum, Erich Borchmeyer, Erwin Gillmeister, Gerd Hornberger	41.4
2	Canada	Sam Richardson, Bruce Humber, Lee Orr, Howard McPhee	41.5
3	Sweden	Lennart Lindgren, Irvin Ternström, Östen Sandström, Åke Stenqvist	41.5
4	Switzerland	Albert Jud, Bernard Marchand, Georges Meyer, Paul Hänni	42.2

Final

Rank	Country	Athletes	Time	Notes
	United States	Jesse Owens, Ralph Metcalfe, Foy Draper, Frank Wykoff	39.8	WR
	Italy	Orazio Mariani, Gianni Caldana, Elio Ragni, Tullio Gonnelli	41.1
	Germany	Wilhelm Leichum, Erich Borchmeyer, Erwin Gillmeister, Gerd Hornberger	41.2
4	Argentina	Juan Lavenás, Antonio Sande, Carlos Hofmeister, Tomás Beswick	42.2
5	Canada	Sam Richardson, Bruce Humber, Lee Orr, Howard McPhee	42.7
	Netherlands	Tjeerd Boersma, Wil van Beveren, Chris Berger, Tinus Osendarp		DSQ

Key: DSQ = Disqualified, WR = World record