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 – 2012 Women: 1928 , 1960 – 2012
Olympic record
Men	1:40.91 David Rudisha (2012)
Women	1:53.43 Nadezhda Olizarenko (1980)
Reigning champion
Men	David Rudisha (KEN)
Women	Caster Semenya (RSA)

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. However it was not held again until 1960, since when it has been a permanent fixture. 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 Nadezhda 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 and the joint second-longest after the men's long jump record by Bob Beamon. Her time remains the second fastest ever for the event. The 800 metres world record has been broken ten times at the Olympics; the men's record was broken in 1912, 1932, 1968, 1976 and 2012; the women's record was bettered in 1928, 1960, 1964, 1976 and 1980.

Four men have won back-to-back 800 m Olympic titles: Douglas Lowe (1924/1928), Mal Whitfield (1948/1952), Peter Snell (1960/1964), and Rudisha (2012/2016). No women have won multiple titles in the event; Maria Mutola and Kelly Holmes are the only women's gold medalists to have reached the podium on two occasions. No athlete of either sex has won more than two medals. Historically, athletes in this event have also had success in the 1500 metres at the Olympics. 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.