1500 metres

The 1500 metres at the Summer Olympics has been contested since the first edition of the multi-sport event. The men's 1500 m has been present on the Olympic athletics programme since 1896. The women's event was not introduced until over seventy years later, but it has been a permanent fixture since it was first held in 1972. It is the most prestigious 1500 m race at elite level. The competition format comprises three rounds: a heats stage, semi-finals, then a final typically between twelve athletes.

The Olympic records for the event are 3:32.07 minutes for men, set by Noah Ngeny in 2000, and 3:53.96 minutes for women, set by Paula Ivan in 1988. The 1500 metres world record has been broken several times at the Olympics: the men's record was beaten in 1900, 1936, and 1960, while the women's record was improved in 1972 (three times) and in 1980.

Only two athletes have defended the Olympic 1500 m title: Tatyana Kazankina became the first person to win two gold medals in the event in 1980 (repeating her 1976 win) and, soon after, Sebastian Coe became the first man to do so in 1984. No athlete of either sex has won more than two medals. Historically, athletes in this event have also had success in the 800 metres at the Olympics. Kelly Holmes was the last athlete to win both events at the same Olympics in 2004, but no male athlete has reached both middle-distance podiums since Sebastian Coe in 1984.

Great Britain is the most successful nation in the event, having won six gold medals and a total of fourteen. Kenya has the next highest number of gold medals, with five, while the United States has the next highest medal total with thirteen. The United States is the only nation to have swept the medals in the event, having done so in St. Louis in 1904, albeit in a final between seven Americans and two foreigners.

History, Records and Statistics of Men's 1500 metres

History, Records and Statistics of Women's 1500 metres

Medal summary

Men

Games	Gold	Silver	Bronze
1896 Athens	Edwin Flack  Australia	Arthur Blake  United States	Albin Lermusiaux  France
1900 Paris	Charles Bennett  Great Britain	Henri Deloge  France	John Bray  United States
1904 St. Louis	Jim Lightbody  United States	Frank Verner  United States	Lacey Hearn  United States
1908 London	Mel Sheppard  United States	Harold Wilson  Great Britain	Norman Hallows  Great Britain
1912 Stockholm	Arnold Jackson  Great Britain	Abel Kiviat  United States	Norman Taber  United States
1920 Antwerp	Albert Hill  Great Britain	Philip Baker  Great Britain	Lawrence Shields  United States
1924 Paris	Paavo Nurmi  Finland	Willy Schärer  Switzerland	H. B. Stallard  Great Britain
1928 Amsterdam	Harri Larva  Finland	Jules Ladoumègue  France	Eino Purje  Finland
1932 Los Angeles	Luigi Beccali  Italy	Jerry Cornes  Great Britain	Phil Edwards  Canada
1936 Berlin	Jack Lovelock  New Zealand	Glenn Cunningham  United States	Luigi Beccali  Italy
1948 London	Henry Eriksson  Sweden	Lennart Strand  Sweden	Willem Slijkhuis  Netherlands
1952 Helsinki	Josy Barthel  Luxembourg	Bob McMillen  United States	Werner Lueg  Germany
1956 Melbourne	Ron Delany  Ireland	Klaus Richtzenhain  United Team of Germany	John Landy  Australia
1960 Rome	Herb Elliott  Australia	Michel Jazy  France	István Rózsavölgyi  Hungary
1964 Tokyo	Peter Snell  New Zealand	Josef Odložil  Czechoslovakia	John Davies  New Zealand
1968 Mexico City	Kipchoge Keino  Kenya	Jim Ryun  United States	Bodo Tümmler  West Germany
1972 Munich	Pekka Vasala  Finland	Kipchoge Keino  Kenya	Rod Dixon  New Zealand
1976 Montreal	John Walker  New Zealand	Ivo Van Damme  Belgium	Paul-Heinz Wellmann  West Germany
1980 Moscow	Sebastian Coe  Great Britain	Jürgen Straub  East Germany	Steve Ovett  Great Britain
1984 Los Angeles	Sebastian Coe  Great Britain	Steve Cram  Great Britain	José Manuel Abascal  Spain
1988 Seoul	Peter Rono  Kenya	Peter Elliott  Great Britain	Jens-Peter Herold  East Germany
1992 Barcelona	Fermín Cacho  Spain	Rachid El Basir  Morocco	Mohamed Suleiman  Qatar
1996 Atlanta	Noureddine Morceli  Algeria	Fermín Cacho  Spain	Stephen Kipkorir  Kenya
2000 Sydney	Noah Ngeny  Kenya	Hicham El Guerrouj  Morocco	Bernard Lagat  Kenya
2004 Athens	Hicham El Guerrouj  Morocco	Bernard Lagat  Kenya	Rui Silva  Portugal
2008 Beijing	Asbel Kiprop  Kenya	Nick Willis  New Zealand	Mehdi Baala  France
2012 London	Taoufik Makhloufi  Algeria	Leonel Manzano  United States	Abdalaati Iguider  Morocco
2016 Rio de Janeiro	Matthew Centrowitz Jr.  United States	Taoufik Makhloufi  Algeria	Nick Willis  New Zealand

Multiple medalists

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Olympics	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Sebastian Coe	Great Britain (GBR)	1980–1984	2	0	0	2
2	Kipchoge Keino	Kenya (KEN)	1968–1972	1	1	0	2
2	Fermin Cacho	Spain (ESP)	1992–1996	1	1	0	2
2	Hicham El Guerrouj	Morocco (MAR)	2000–2004	1	1	0	2
2	Taoufik Makhloufi	Algeria (ALG)	2012–2016	1	1	0	2
6	Luigi Beccali	Italy (ITA)	1932–1936	1	0	1	2
7	Nick Willis	New Zealand (NZL)	2008-2016	0	1	1	2

Medals by country

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Great Britain (GBR)	5	5	3	13
2	Kenya (KEN)	4	2	2	8
3	United States (USA)	3	7	4	14
4	New Zealand (NZL)	3	1	3	7
5	Finland (FIN)	3	0	1	4
6	Algeria (ALG)	2	1	0	3
7	Australia (AUS)	2	0	1	3
8	Morocco (MAR)	1	2	1	4
9	Spain (ESP)	1	1	1	3
10	Sweden (SWE)	1	1	0	2
11	Italy (ITA)	1	0	1	2
12=	Ireland (IRL)	1	0	0	1
12=	Luxembourg (LUX)	1	0	0	1
14	France (FRA)	0	3	2	5
15=	East Germany (GDR)	0	1	1	2
15=	Germany (GER)[nb]	0	1	1	2
17=	Belgium (BEL)	0	1	0	1
17=	Czechoslovakia (TCH)	0	1	0	1
17=	Switzerland (SUI)	0	1	0	1
20	West Germany (FRG)	0	0	2	2
21=	Canada (CAN)	0	0	1	1
21=	Hungary (HUN)	0	0	1	1
21=	Netherlands (NED)	0	0	1	1
21=	Portugal (POR)	0	0	1	1
21=	Qatar (QAT)	0	0	1	1

• ^nb The German total includes teams both competing as Germany and the United Team of Germany, but not East or West Germany.

Intercalated Games

The 1906 Intercalated Games were held in Athens and at the time were officially recognised as part of the Olympic Games series, with the intention being to hold a games in Greece in two-year intervals between the internationally held Olympics. However, this plan never came to fruition and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) later decided not to recognise these games as part of the official Olympic series. Some sports historians continue to treat the results of these games as part of the Olympic canon.

At this event a men's 1500 m was held and the reigning 800 metres and 1500 m champion from the 1904 Olympics, James Lightbody, was the winner. Two 1908 Olympic participants, Britain's John McGough and Sweden's Kristian Hellström were the minor medalists.

Games	Gold	Silver	Bronze
1906 Athens	James Lightbody (USA)	John McGough (GBR)	Kristian Hellström (SWE)

Women

Games	Gold	Silver	Bronze
1972 Munich	Lyudmila Bragina  Soviet Union	Gunhild Hoffmeister  East Germany	Paola Pigni  Italy
1976 Montreal	Tatyana Kazankina  Soviet Union	Gunhild Hoffmeister  East Germany	Ulrike Klapezynski  East Germany
1980 Moscow	Tatyana Kazankina  Soviet Union	Christiane Wartenberg  East Germany	Nadiya Olizarenko  Soviet Union
1984 Los Angeles	Gabriella Dorio  Italy	Doina Melinte  Romania	Maricica Puică  Romania
1988 Seoul	Paula Ivan  Romania	Laimutė Baikauskaitė  Soviet Union	Tetyana Samolenko  Soviet Union
1992 Barcelona	Hassiba Boulmerka  Algeria	Lyudmila Rogachova  Unified Team	Qu Yunxia  China
1996 Atlanta	Svetlana Masterkova  Russia	Gabriela Szabo  Romania	Theresia Kiesl  Austria
2000 Sydney	Nouria Mérah-Benida  Algeria	Violeta Szekely  Romania	Gabriela Szabo  Romania
2004 Athens	Kelly Holmes  Great Britain	Tatyana Tomashova  Russia	Maria Cioncan  Romania
2008 Beijing	Nancy Langat  Kenya	Iryna Lishchynska  Ukraine	Nataliya Tobias  Ukraine
2012 London	Maryam Yusuf Jamal  Bahrain	Tatyana Tomashova  Russia	Abeba Aregawi  Ethiopia
2016 Rio de Janeiro	Faith Kipyegon  Kenya	Genzebe Dibaba  Ethiopia	Jennifer Simpson  United States

Multiple medalists

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Olympics	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Tatyana Kazankina	Soviet Union (URS)	1976–1980	2	0	0	2
2	Gunhild Hoffmeister	East Germany (GDR)	1972–1976	0	2	0	2
3	Gabriela Szabo	Romania (ROU)	1996–2000	0	1	1	2

Medalists by country

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Soviet Union (URS)	3	1	2	6
2=	Algeria (ALG)	2	0	0	2
2=	Kenya (KEN)	2	0	0	2
4	Romania (ROU)	1	3	3	7
5	Russia (RUS)	1	1	0	2
6	Italy (ITA)	1	0	1	2
7	Great Britain (GBR)	1	0	0	1
8	East Germany (GDR)	0	3	1	4
9	Ukraine (UKR)	0	1	1	2
10=	Unified Team (EUN)	0	1	0	1
10=	Turkey (TUR)	0	1	0	1
10=	Ethiopia (ETH)	0	1	0	1
13=	Austria (AUT)	0	0	1	1
13=	Bahrain (BRN)	0	0	1	1
13=	China (CHN)	0	0	1	1
13=	United States (USA)	0	0	1	1