The inside lane of an Olympic running track is a standard 400 meters long. Moving towards the outside of the track, each lane becomes progressively longer, reaching a length of approximately 453 meters in the outside lane.
The lanes of the oval track are numbered one through eight from the inside lane to the outside lane. For races in which each runner must stay in his own individual, assigned lane, such as the 100-meter sprint, the 200-meter sprint or the 4x100-meter relay, the starting lines are staggered to ensure that all athletes in all lanes are running the same distance.
