800 metres at the Olympics

800 metres at the Olympic Games
The 2012 Olympic women's 800 m final
Overview
Sport	Athletics
Gender	Men and women
Years held	Men: 1896 – 2024 Women: 1928 , 1960 – 2024
Olympic record
Men	1:40.91 David Rudisha (2012)
Women	1:53.43 Nadiya Olizarenko (1980)
Reigning champion
Men	Emmanuel Wanyonyi (KEN)
Women	Keely Hodgkinson (GBR)

The 800 metres at the Summer Olympics has been contested since the first edition of the multi-sport event. The men's 800 m has been present on the Olympic athletics programme since 1896. The women's event was first held in 1928, making it the first distance running event for women. The women's race was not held again until 1960; it has been a permanent fixture since. It is the most prestigious 800 m race at elite level. The competition format typically has three rounds: a qualifying round, semi-final stage, and a final between eight runners.

The Olympic records are held by David Rudisha, who ran a world record of 1:40.91 minutes in 2012, and Nadiya Olizarenko, who ran a former world record of 1:53.43 minutes in 1980. Olizarenko's mark is the joint longest-standing women's Olympic record (technically set three days after Ilona Slupianek's shot put record) and the joint second-longest overall after the men's long jump record by Bob Beamon. Her time remains the second fastest ever for the event.^[1] The 800 metres world record has been broken or equalled ten times at the Olympics; the men's record was broken in 1912, 1932, 1968, 1976 and 2012; the women's record was improved in 1928, 1960, 1964, 1976 and 1980.^[2]

Four men have won consecutive 800 m Olympic titles: Douglas Lowe (1924/1928), Mal Whitfield (1948/1952), Peter Snell (1960/1964), and Rudisha (2012/2016). Only Caster Semenya (2012/2016) has won the women's title twice, but Maria Mutola, Kelly Holmes, Pamela Jelimo and Keely Hodgkinson have won gold and reached the podium twice. No athlete of either sex has won more than two medals. Historically, athletes in this event have also been successful at the 1500 metres at the Olympics. Holmes was the last athlete to win both events at the same Olympics in 2004. 2012 1500m gold medalist Taoufik Makhloufi made both podiums without winning gold in 2016. Alberto Juantorena in 1976 also won the 400 metres gold medal in the same Olympics, only three other men and one woman have been able to win a medal in both events.^[3]

The United States is the most successful nation, having won 10 gold medals and 26 medals overall, followed by Great Britain with nine gold among its 14 medals and Kenya with eight gold among its 20 medals.