Athletics at the 2004 Summer Olympics – Women's 4 × 400 metres relay

The women's 4×400 metres relay at the 2004 Summer Olympics as part of the athletics program was held at the Athens Olympic Stadium from August 27 to 28. The sixteen teams competed in a two-heat qualifying round in which the first three teams from each heat, together with the next two fastest teams, were given a place in the final race.[1]

Women's 4×400 metres relay at the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad
Venue	Athens Olympic Stadium
Dates	27–28 August
Competitors	64 from 16 nations
Winning time	3:19.01
Medalists
United States (USA) DeeDee Trotter, Monique Henderson, Sanya Richards, Monique Hennagan, Moushaumi Robinson*  Russia (RUS) Olesya Krasnomovets, Natalya Nazarova, Olesya Zykina, Natalya Antyukh, Tatyana Firova*, Natalia Ivanova*  Jamaica (JAM) Novlene Williams, Michelle Burgher, Nadia Davy, Sandie Richards, Ronetta Smith* * Indicates the athlete only competed in the preliminary heats.

Athletics at the 2004 Summer Olympics
Track events
100 m	men	women
200 m	men	women
400 m	men	women
800 m	men	women
1500 m	men	women
5000 m	men	women
10,000 m	men	women
100 m hurdles		women
110 m hurdles	men
400 m hurdles	men	women
3000 m steeplechase	men
4×100 m relay	men	women
4×400 m relay	men	women
Road events
Marathon	men	women
20 km walk	men	women
50 km walk	men
Field events
Long jump	men	women
Triple jump	men	women
High jump	men	women
Pole vault	men	women
Shot put	men	women
Discus throw	men	women
Javelin throw	men	women
Hammer throw	men	women
Combined events
Heptathlon		women
Decathlon	men
Wheelchair races

Russian Olesya Krasnomovets was out hard down the backstretch, passing Britain's Donna Fraser on her outside and opening up a lead over American DeeDee Trotter chasing to the inside. But Trotter did not let Krasnomovets go, gaining steadily through the second turn and speeding down the final straightaway to draw even by the handoff to Monique Henderson, giving the U.S. the lead. Novlene Williams put Jamaica in strong contention a couple of metres behind the Russians. Through her leg, Henderson expanded the American gap to six metres. Natalya Nazarova also opened up a little more space on Jamaica.

During the second handoff while in sixth place, Greece's Dimitra Dova was given an inadvertent flat tire by teammate Hrisoula Goudenoudi. Dova tried to fix her shoe, then stepped into the infield in frustration before returning to the track. Greece would eventually finish 17 seconds behind the next to last finisher.

Through the third leg, Sanya Richards held a steady three metre lead over Olesya Zykina, while Nadia Davy slightly gained on Zykina from behind. Coming onto the final straight, Richards exploded, pulling away as Davy pulled to the outside to put her move on Zykina. They ran even for half the straightaway before Zykina was able to regain command. Monique Hennagan left with a clear lead for America, the Russians exchanged cleanly with Natalya Antyukh in hot pursuit. But as the Jamaicans exchanged, Sandie Richards ran into the back of Zykina. As Richards stopped and sidestepped, she lost several metres and the chance at silver. Hennigan opened up to about 12 meters halfway through the lap, slowing the second half to cross the finish line with just less than a ten-meter advantage in the gold-medal time of 3:19.01.[2][3]

In 2010, Crystal Cox, who ran for the U.S. team in the qualifying round, admitted to using anabolic steroids from 2001 to 2004. As a result, all of her results from that time period were deleted, and she agreed to a four-year suspension until January 2014.[4][5] In 2013, both the IAAF and the IOC announced that the result would stand and the American squad, except Cox, would be allowed to retain their gold medals as the rules of the time did not allow for a team to be disqualified because of a doping offense by an athlete who did not compete in the final.[6][7]

Russia's Tatyana Firova, who ran in the qualifying round in 2004, became one of two Russian athletes to cause disqualification in 2008; Russia was also disqualified in 2012 for three doping violations, and the Russian athletics team was banned in 2016 for its state-sponsored doping program.