Guy Butler (athlete)
Guy Montagu Butler was a British sprinter, winner of the gold medal in the 4 × 400 m relay at the 1920 Summer Olympics. With four Olympic medals Guy Butler shares the British record for the number of medals in athletics with Sebastian Coe and Mo Farah.
Butler was born in Harrow, Middlesex, to Edward Montagu Butler and Gertrude Mary Fair. He was the grandson of academic Henry Montagu Butler and nephew of Sir James Ramsay Montagu Butler and Sir Nevile Butler.
He attended the prestigious Harrow School, the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, and Trinity College, Cambridge. His father also attended Harrow and competed in cricket and athletics at the national level. At the Antwerp Olympics in 1920, Butler won the silver medal in the individual 400 m and anchored the British 4 × 400 m relay team to a gold medal in 3:22.2. At the 1924 Summer Olympics, he won bronze in the 400 m and again anchored the British 4 × 400 m relay team, this time winning bronze in 3:17.4. In 1928 he became the first British track and field athlete to compete in three Olympics; he reached a 200 m quarterfinal, and retired shortly thereafter.
Butler won the British AAA Championships in in 1919 and in in 1926. He also ran the world record of 30.6 in 1926.
In retirement, Butler was a schoolmaster, then an athletics journalist, and a pioneer of filming athletes in action. He contributed to the design of the White City Stadium and worked as the athletics correspondent for The Morning Post until it was merged with The Daily Telegraph in 1937.
