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Wayde van Niekerk

Track athlete

By South African Index Editorial Desk · Published · Updated

Wayde van Niekerk at the 2017 World Athletics Championships
Photograph: Erik van Leeuwen · Source · CC BY-SA 4.0. Resized and converted to WebP for this site.

Wayde van Niekerk won the men’s 400 metres at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games in 43.03 seconds, a world record at the time. He had already won the world title in 2015 and defended it in 2017. [2][1][3]

Biography

World Athletics lists van Niekerk as a South African athlete born on 15 July 1992. At the 2015 World Athletics Championships in Beijing he won the 400-metre final in 43.48 seconds. That result established him as a world champion before his Olympic record run. [1]

In the Rio Olympic final on 14 August 2016, he ran 43.03 seconds from lane eight and won the gold medal. World Athletics reported that the performance broke Michael Johnson’s previous 400-metre world record. The event and time, rather than an unsourced ranking of athletes, define this achievement. [2]

At the London World Athletics Championships in 2017 he won the 400 metres again, this time in 43.98 seconds. The results show three separate victories: world titles in 2015 and 2017, with the Olympic title and record between them. [3][2][1]

Key contributions

Set the men’s 400-metre world record at the 2016 Olympic Games, according to the event organiser’s report. [2]

Won two world championship 400-metre finals, in 2015 and 2017. [1][3]

Career timeline

  1. Won the World Championships 400-metre final in Beijing. [1]

  2. Won Olympic gold in Rio with a 43.03-second world record. [2]

  3. Defended the world 400-metre title in London. [3]

Sources

  1. World Athletics, Final: 400 Metres Men, Beijing 2015. Original source. Accessed 2026-09-23. ↩
  2. World Athletics, Report: men’s 400m final – Rio 2016 Olympic Games, 2016-08-14. Original source. Accessed 2026-09-23. ↩
  3. World Athletics, 400 Metres Result: IAAF World Championships London 2017. Original source. Accessed 2026-09-23. ↩