1500 metres
The 1500 metres or 1,500-metre run is the foremost middle distance track event in athletics. The distance has been contested at the Summer Olympics since 1896 and the World Championships in Athletics since 1983. It is equivalent to 1.5 kilometers or approximately miles.
The demands of the race are similar to that of the 800 metres, but with a slightly higher emphasis on aerobic endurance and a slightly lower sprint speed requirement. The 1500 metre race is predominantly aerobic, but anaerobic conditioning is also required.
Each lap run during the world-record race run by Hicham El Guerrouj of Morocco in 1998 in Rome, Italy averaged just under 55 seconds. 1,500 metres is three and three-quarter laps around a 400-metre track. During the 1970s and 1980s this race was dominated by British runners, along with an occasional Finn, American, or New Zealander, but through the 1990s many African runners began to win Olympic medals in this race, especially runners from Kenya, Morocco and Algeria.
In the Modern Olympic Games, the men's 1,500-metre race has been contested from the beginning, and at every Olympic Games since. The first winner, in 1896, was Edwin Flack of Australia, who also won the first gold medal in the 800-metre race. The women's 1,500-metre race was first added to the Summer Olympics in 1972, and the winner of the first gold medal was Lyudmila Bragina of the Soviet Union. During the Olympic Games of 1972 through 2008, the women's 1,500-metre race has been won by three Soviets plus one Russian, one Italian, one Romanian, one Briton, one Kenyan, and two Algerians. The 2012 Olympic results are still undecided as a result of multiple doping cases. The best women's times for the race were controversially set by Chinese runners, all set in the same race on just two dates 4 years apart at the Chinese National Games. At least one of those top Chinese athletes has admitted to being part of a doping program. The women's record was finally surpassed by Genzebe Dibaba of Ethiopia in 2015.
In American high schools, the mile run and the 1,600-metre run, also colloquially referred to as "metric mile", are more frequently run than the 1,500-metre run, since US customary units are better-known in America. Which distance is used depends on which state the high school is in, and, for convenience, national rankings are standardized by converting all 1,600-metre run times to their mile run equivalents.
Strategy
Many 1500 metres events, particularly at the championship level, turn into slow, strategic races, with the pace quickening and competitors jockeying for position in the final lap to settle the race in a final sprint. Such is the difficulty of maintaining the pace throughout the duration of the event, most records are set in planned races led by pacemakers who sacrifice their opportunity to win by leading the early laps at a fast pace before dropping out.Continental records
All-time top 25 middle-distance runners
Men
- Correct as of October 2019.
| Rank | Result | Athlete | Nation | Date | Location | Ref |
| 1 | 3:26.00 | Hicham El Guerrouj | 14 July 1998 | Rome | ||
| 2 | 3:26.34 | Bernard Lagat | 24 August 2001 | Brussels | ||
| 3 | 3:26.69 | Asbel Kiprop | 17 July 2015 | Monaco | ||
| 4 | 3:27.37 | Noureddine Morceli | 12 July 1995 | Nice | ||
| 5 | 3:27.64 | Silas Kiplagat | 18 July 2014 | Monaco | ||
| 6 | 3:28.12 | Noah Ngeny | 11 August 2000 | Zürich | ||
| 7 | 3:28.41 | Timothy Cheruiyot | 20 July 2018 | Monaco | ||
| 8 | 3:28.75 | Taoufik Makhloufi | 17 July 2015 | Monaco | ||
| 9 | 3:28.79 | Abdalaati Iguider | 17 July 2015 | Monaco | ||
| 10 | 3:28.80 | Elijah Manangoi | 21 July 2017 | Monaco | ||
| 11 | 3:28.81 | Mo Farah | 19 July 2013 | Monaco | ||
| 11 | 3:28.81 | Ronald Kwemoi | 18 July 2014 | Monaco | ||
| 13 | 3:28.95 | Fermín Cacho | 13 August 1997 | Zürich | ||
| 14 | 3:28.98 | Mehdi Baala | 5 September 2003 | Brussels | ||
| 15 | 3:29.02 | Daniel Kipchirchir Komen | 14 July 2006 | Rome | ||
| 16 | 3:29.14 | Rashid Ramzi | 14 July 2006 | Rome | ||
| 17 | 3:29.18 | Venuste Niyongabo | 22 August 1997 | Brussels | ||
| 18 | 3:29.29 | William Chirchir | 24 August 2001 | Brussels | ||
| 19 | 3:29.46 | Said Aouita | 23 August 1985 | Berlin | ||
| 20 | 3:29.46 | Daniel Komen | 16 August 1997 | Monaco | ||
| 21 | 3:29.47 | Augustine Choge | 14 June 2009 | Berlin | ||
| 22 | 3:29.50 | Caleb Ndiku | 19 July 2013 | Monaco | ||
| 23 | 3:29.51 | Ali Saidi-Sief | 4 July 2001 | Brussels | ||
| 24 | 3:29.53 | Amine Laalou | 22 July 2010 | Monaco | ||
| 25 | 3:29.58 | Ayanleh Souleiman | 18 July 2014 | Monaco |
Women
- Correct as of October 2019.
| Rank | Res. | Athlete | Nation | Date | Location | Ref |
| 1 | 3:50.07 | Genzebe Dibaba | 17 July 2015 | Monaco | ||
| 2 | 3:50.46 | Yunxia Qu | 11 September 1993 | Beijing | ||
| 3 | 3:50.98 | Bo Jiang | 18 October 1997 | Shanghai | ||
| 4 | 3:51.34 | Yinglai Lang | 18 October 1997 | Shanghai | ||
| 5 | 3:51.92 | Junxia Wang | 11 September 1993 | Beijing | ||
| 6 | 3:51.95 | Sifan Hassan | 5 October 2019 | Doha | ||
| 7 | 3:52.47 | Tatyana Kazankina | 13 August 1980 | Zürich | ||
| 8 | 3:53.91 | Lili Yin | 18 October 1997 | Shanghai | ||
| 9 | 3:53.96 | Paula Ivan | 1 October 1988 | Seoul | ||
| 10 | 3:53.97 | Lixin Lan | 18 October 1997 | Shanghai | ||
| 11 | 3:54.22 | Faith Kipyegon | 5 October 2019 | Doha | ||
| 12 | 3:54.23 | Olga Dvirna | 27 July 1982 | Kiev | ||
| 13 | 3:54.38 | Gudaf Tsegay | 5 October 2019 | Doha | ||
| 14 | 3:54.52 | Zhang Ling | 18 October 1997 | Shanghai | ||
| 15 | 3:54.99 | Shelby Houlihan | 5 October 2019 | Doha | ||
| 16 | 3:55.07 | Yanmei Dong | 18 October 1997 | Shanghai | ||
| 17 | 3:55.22 | Laura Muir | 27 August 2016 | Saint-Denis | ||
| 18 | 3:55.30 | Hassiba Boulmerka | 8 August 1992 | Barcelona | ||
| 19 | 3:55.33 | Sureyya Ayhan | 5 September 2003 | Brussels | ||
| 20 | 3:55.68 | Yuliya Fomenko | 8 July 2006 | Paris | ||
| 21 | 3:56.12 | Gabriela DeBues-Stafford | 5 October 2019 | Doha | ||
| 22 | 3:56.14 | Zamira Zaitseva | 27 July 1982 | Kiev | ||
| 23 | 3:56.18 | Maryam Yusuf Jamal | 27 August 2006 | Rieti | ||
| 24 | 3:56.29 | Shannon Rowbury | 17 July 2015 | Monaco | ||
| 25 | 3:56.31 | Dong Liu | 17 October 1997 | Shanghai |
Non-legal
The following athlete had their performance annulled due to a doping violation:- Mariem Selsouli 3:56.15
Olympic medalists
Men
Women
World Championship medalists
Men
Women
European Championship medalists
Men
Women
World Indoor Championships medalists
Men
Women
- Known as the World Indoor Games
Season's bests
Men
Women
- "i" indicates performance on 200m indoor track
Other sports
The world records for the distance in speed skating are 1:40.17 by Kjeld Nuis and 1:49.83 by Miho Takagi.