2024 World Athletics Indoor Championships – Women's 400 metres

The women's 400 metres had been contested at every edition of the World Athletics Indoor Championships, meaning the event had taken place eighteen times before. The 2024 World Athletics Indoor Championships were held at the indoor 200-metres track of the Commonwealth Arena in Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom. On 18 February 2024, Femke Bol of the Netherlands had broken the 400 metres short track world record with a time of 49.24 s at the Dutch Indoor Athletics Championships. The championship record of 50.04 s had been set by Olesya Forsheva of Russia in 2006. ==Qualification==

For this event, the qualification period was from 1 January 2023 until 18 February 2024. Athletes could qualify by running the entry standards (or faster) of 51.60 s on 200-metre indoor tracks or 50.50 s on 400-metre outdoor tracks, by receiving a wild card for winning the event at the World Athletics Indoor Tour in 2023 or 2024, or by their position on the World Athletics Ranking for the event up to the target of 30 athletes. ==Results==

Round 1 The four heats of round 1 were held on 1 March, starting at 10:22 (UTC) in the morning. Of the 24 competing athletes, the first two in each heat () and the next four fastest () qualified for the semi-finals. In the second heat, Susanne Gogl-Walli set an Austrian record () of 51.43 seconds. In the third heat, three athletes finished second in 52.229 seconds and all were advanced to the next round (), leaving only two instead of four time-fastest spots () for the semi-finals. In an interview, Klaver said about the warning: "I immediately felt that my left leg was trembling a bit, so I knew that if they are giving something like a card, then it will be yellow for me. Yeah, I wasn't worried." Final ahead of the other competitors right after she broke the world record in the final The final was held on 2 March, starting at 21:02 (UTC) in the evening. Femke Bol of the Netherlands led early in the race and had the fastest intermediate times at 100 metres of 11.89 s, at 200 metres of 23.61 s, and at 300 metres of 36.06 s. Bol won the race in 49.17 seconds, improving her own 400 metres short track world record () by 0.07 seconds and the championship record by Olesya Forsheva by 0.87 seconds. She was followed 0.99 seconds later by Lieke Klaver of the Netherlands, who finished in second place in 50.16 seconds. Alexis Holmes of the United States finished third in 50.24 seconds in a new personal best (). Laviai Nielsen also ran a personal best of 50.89 seconds, and Susanne Gogl-Walli set another Austrian record () of 51.37 seconds. For Reuters, Lori Ewing wrote that Bol "made it look effortless". For Olympics.com, Rory Jiwani reported that Bol "enhanced her status as one of the stars of track and field with a stunning triumph". Bol herself said in an interview: "I knew I needed a really good race to win this gold. I knew I had to open fast, and once you open fast you have to keep going because you'll die anyway! It's amazing to also run a world record again. I was hoping to be in the 49... my coaches thought I could do it but I really wanted the gold." ==Notes==