 With six of the top seven running personal bests, the Seoul final rewrote the all-time list, with fifth-placed Sally Gunnell (54.03) and sixth-placed Gudrun Abt (54.04), moving to number 10 and 11 on the all-time list.These were the standing World and Olympic records (in seconds) prior to the 1988 Summer Olympics.The following Olympic records were set during this competition.