Athletics at the 2024 Summer Olympics – Men's 1500 metres

Men's 1500 metres at the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad
Venue	Stade de France, Paris, France
Dates	2 August 2024 (heats) 3 August 2024 (repechage round) 4 August 2024 (semi-finals) 6 August 2024 (final)
Winning time	3:27.65 OR
Medalists
Cole Hocker  United States Josh Kerr  Great Britain Yared Nuguse  United States

The men's 1500 metres at the 2024 Summer Olympics was held in four rounds at the Stade de France in Paris, France, between 2 and 6 August 2024. This was the 30th time that the men's 1500 metres was contested at the Summer Olympics. A total of 45 athletes were able to qualify for the event by entry standard or ranking.

Summary

Given the rivalry between Norway's Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Great Britain's Josh Kerr, the men's 1500 metres at the 2024 Summer Olympics has been billed as a "Race for the Ages" by World Athletics President and former middle distance runner Sebastian Coe. Ingebrigtsen won the Olympic title three years earlier and had high expectations which affect his race strategy. After comfortably winning every race he entered, at the 2022 World Championships, as Ingebrigtsen was in the lead, expecting to continue to the finish, Jake Wightman sprinted around to take the gold. Ingebrigtsen then entered his secondary event, the 5000 meters, with a chip on his shoulder where his speed from the shorter distance overwhelmed the distance oriented runners. Again at the 2023 World Championships, as Ingebrigtsen was in the lead, expecting to continue to the finish, Kerr sprinted around to take the gold. Again Ingebrigtsen entered the 5000 meters and won. Ingebrigtsen came to a major championship again as the world leader, his 3:26.73 came close to Hicham El Guerrouj's 26 year old world record of 3:26.00. Behind him is the returning silver medalist Timothy Cheruiyot, Brian Komen, Yared Nuguse, Cole Hocker, Neil Gourley and World Championship bronze medalist Narve Gilje Nordås. Wightman was injured before the British trials, all of the others qualified through the rounds to the final.

All of the favorites survived the semi-final round. From the gun, Ingebrigtsen ran around the outside to take the lead as they entered the first turn. This move was immediately shadowed by Cheruiyot, Kerr, Komen, Nuguse, Hocker and Hobbs Kessler largely in a row. This was not a slow, strategic race that usually plagues championship finals, 54.9 for the first 400 was one of the fastest in history. On the second lap, Ingebrigtsen kept pushing splitting 1:51.5 opening up a gap stringing out suitors in same order. 2:33.5 at bell. Kerr began moving up on the turn. Hocker moved around Nuguse and the Kenyans to get in position for his kick to be effective. As they entered the final turn Hocker started to apply his speed getting close behind. Kerr moved onto Ingebrigtsen's shoulder so Ingebrigtsen instinctively drifted out to make Kerr run farther. Hocker was headed for a hole along the rail but Ingebrigtsen moved back closing the door, leaving Hocker in a box, having to slow to look for an opening. They entered the home stretch, the duel between Kerr and Ingebrigtsen came to fruition. Kerr began to pass Ingebrigtsen who drifted away from the rail again, opening the door for the wild card, Hocker, who sped through. Ingebrigtsen was fading, now it was a race with Kerr, but Hocker had more speed passing 20 meters before the finish to take gold. As Kerr struggled, Nuguse kept coming almost nipping him on the line, the two being separated by only one hundredth of a second.

With Hocker's gold and Nuguse's bronze, the 2024 1500 meter final was the first time in 112 years that two Americans made it on the Olympic podium in the event. Another American, Hobbs Kessler, made it into and competed well in the final, finishing 5th in a new personal best.

Background

The men's 1500 metres has been present on the Olympic athletics programme since the inaugural edition in 1896.

Global records before the 2024 Summer Olympics

Record	Athlete (nation)	Time (s)	Location	Date
World record	Hicham El Guerrouj (MAR)	3:26.00	Rome, Italy	14 July 1998
Olympic record	Jakob Ingebrigtsen (NOR)	3:28.32	Tokyo, Japan	7 August 2021
World leading		3:26.73	Fontvieille, Monaco	12 July 2024

Area records before the 2024 Summer Olympics

Area record	Athlete (nation)	Time (s)
Africa (records)	Hicham El Guerrouj (MAR)	3:26.00 WR
Asia (records)	Rashid Ramzi (BHR)	3:29.14
Europe (records)	Jakob Ingebrigtsen (NOR)	3:26.73
North, Central America and Caribbean (records)	Yared Nuguse (USA)	3:29.02
Oceania (records)	Oliver Hoare (AUS)	3:29.41
South America (records)	Hudson de Souza (BRA)	3:33.25

Qualification

Main article: Athletics at the 2024 Summer Olympics – Qualification § Men's 1500 m

For the men's 1500 metres event, the qualification period was between 1 July 2023 and 30 June 2024. 45 athletes were able to qualify for the event, with a maximum of three athletes per nation, by running the entry standard of 3:33.50 seconds or faster or by their World Athletics Ranking for this event.

Results

Heats

The heats were held on 2 August, starting at 11:05 (UTC+2) in the morning. The first 6 in each heat (Q) advanced to the semi-final, while all others (Re) advanced to the repechage round (except DNS, DNF, DQ).

Heat 1

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Josh Kerr	Great Britain	3:35.83	Q, SB
2	Brian Komen	Kenya	3:36.31	Q
3	Narve Gilje Nordås	Norway	3:36.41	Q
4	Anass Essayi	Morocco	3:36.44	Q
5	Yared Nuguse	United States	3:36.56	Q
6	Robert Farken	Germany	3:36.62	Q
7	Jochem Vermeulen	Belgium	3:36.66
8	Samuel Pihlström	Sweden	3:36.80
9	Cathal Doyle	Ireland	3:37.82
10	Mario García	Spain	3:37.90
11	Filip Rak	Poland	3:38.12
12	Ryan Mphahlele	South Africa	3:38.48
13	Oliver Hoare	Australia	3:39.11
14	Abdisa Fayisa	Ethiopia	3:39.67
15	Ossama Meslek	Italy	3:39.96

Heat 2

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Ermias Girma	Ethiopia	3:35.21	Q
2	Cole Hocker	United States	3:35.27	Q
3	Pietro Arese	Italy	3:35.30	Q
4	Niels Laros	Netherlands	3:35.38	Q, SB
5	Timothy Cheruiyot	Kenya	3:35.39	Q
6	Isaac Nader	Portugal	3:35.44	Q
7	Marius Probst	Germany	3:35.65
8	Luke McCann	Ireland	3:35.73
9	Adel Mechaal	Spain	3:35.81
10	George Mills	Great Britain	3:35.99
11	Stewart Mcsweyn	Australia	3:36.55
12	Ruben Verheyden	Belgium	3:36.62
13	Tshepo Tshite	South Africa	3:36.87
14	Charles Philibert-Thiboutot	Canada	3:36.92
15	Maël Gouyette	France	3:37.87

Heat 3

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Stefan Nillessen	Netherlands	3:36.77	Q
2	Hobbs Kessler	United States	3:36.87	Q
3	Jakob Ingebrigtsen	Norway	3:37.04	Q
4	Reynold Kipkorir Cheruiyot	Kenya	3:37.12	Q
5	Neil Gourley	Great Britain	3:37.18	Q
6	Samuel Tefera	Ethiopia	3:37.34	Q
7	Ignacio Fontes	Spain	3:37.50
8	Adam Spencer	Australia	3:37.68
9	Azeddine Habz	France	3:37.95
10	Kieran Lumb	Canada	3:38.11
11	Raphael Pallitsch	Austria	3:38.20
12	Maciej Wyderka	Poland	3:38.79
13	Sam Tanner	New Zealand	3:39.87
14	Federico Riva	Italy	3:41.78
15	Andrew Coscoran	Ireland	3:42.07

Repechage round

The repechage round was held on 3 August, and started at 19:05 (UTC+2) in the evening. The first 3 in each Repechage heat (Q) advanced to the semi-final, while all others were eliminated.

Heat 1

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Cathal Doyle	Ireland	3:34.92	Q
2	Azeddine Habz	France	3:35.10	Q
3	Ossama Meslek	Italy	3:35.32	Q
4	Tshepo Tshite	South Africa	3:35.35
5	Kieran Lumb	Canada	3:35.76
6	Jochem Vermeulen	Belgium	3:36.14
7	Luke McCann	Ireland	3:36.50
8	Marius Probst	Germany	3:36.54
9	Maciej Wyderka	Poland	3:36.79
10	Abdisa Fayisa	Ethiopia	3:36.82
11	Mario García	Spain	3:37.01
12	Stewart Mcsweyn	Australia	3:37.49
13	Raphael Pallitsch	Austria	3:39.32

Heat 2

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Federico Riva	Italy	3:32.84	Q, PB
2	Charles Philibert-Thiboutot	Canada	3:33.53	Q, SB
3	George Mills	Great Britain	3:33.56	Q
4	Samuel Pihlström	Sweden	3:33.58	PB
5	Oliver Hoare	Australia	3:34.00
6	Adam Spencer	Australia	3:34.45	SB
7	Filip Rak	Poland	3:34.53
8	Ignacio Fontes	Spain	3:35.04
9	Maël Gouyette	France	3:35.42
10	Ruben Verheyden	Belgium	3:36.06
11	Ryan Mphahlele	South Africa	3:36.64
12	Andrew Coscoran	Ireland	3:39.45
13	Sam Tanner	New Zealand	3:40.71
14	Adel Mechaal	Spain	3:42.79

Semi-finals

The semi-finals were held on 4 August, and started at 21:15 (UTC+2) in the evening. The first 6 in each heat (Q) advanced to the final.

Heat 1

Yared Nuguse, the 2024 bronze medalist, pictured at the 2023 World Championships.

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Yared Nuguse	United States	3:31.72	Q
2	Hobbs Kessler	United States	3:31.97	Q
3	Neil Gourley	Great Britain	3:32.11	Q
4	Niels Laros	Netherlands	3:32.22	Q
5	Timothy Cheruiyot	Kenya	3:32.30	Q
6	Narve Gilje Nordås	Norway	3:32.34	Q
7	Anass Essayi	Morocco	3:32.49	PB
8	Ossama Meslek	Italy	3:32.77	PB
9	Samuel Tefera	Ethiopia	3:33.02
10	Cathal Doyle	Ireland	3:33.15	PB
11	Charles Philibert-Thiboutot	Canada	3:33.29
12	Azeddine Habz	France	3:34.35

Heat 2

Pre-race favorites Josh Kerr and Jakob Ingebrigtsen pictured at the 2023 World Championships, finishing 2nd and 4th respectively in the 2024 Olympic 1500m final

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Jakob Ingebrigtsen	Norway	3:32.38	Q
2	Josh Kerr	Great Britain	3:32.46	Q
3	Cole Hocker	United States	3:32.54	Q
4	Brian Komen	Kenya	3:32.57	Q
5	Stefan Nillessen	Netherlands	3:32.73	Q, PB
6	Pietro Arese	Italy	3:33.03	Q
7	Robert Farken	Germany	3:33.35
8	Isaac Nader	Portugal	3:34.75
9	Federico Riva	Italy	3:35.26
10	Reynold Kipkorir Cheruiyot	Kenya	3:35.32
11	George Mills	Great Britain	3:37.12
12	Ermias Girma	Ethiopia	3:40.27

Final

The final was held on 6 August at 20:50 (UTC+2) in the evening.

The race, as expected, was led by the defending Olympic champion and Olympic record holder Jakob Ingebrigtsen nearly wire-to-wire. However in the final 100 metres, Josh Kerr began to move quickly on the outside. As Kerr attempted to pass, Ingebrigtsen drifted slightly from the rail to force Kerr to run wide, allowing Cole Hocker of the United States, known for his finishing kick, to pass on the inside. Kerr appeared to be in position to pull away and win down the home stretch, but Hocker, having run less distance out of the turn, caught him with about 10 metres remaining to win.

Yared Nuguse took third, nearly catching Kerr, with Ingebrigtsen shockingly having finished out of a medal position.

Cole Hocker, the 2024 Olympic Champion, pictured winning the 1500m at the 2024 USA Indoor Track and Field Championships

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
	Cole Hocker	United States	3:27.65	OR, AR
	Josh Kerr	Great Britain	3:27.79	NR
	Yared Nuguse	United States	3:27.80	PB
4	Jakob Ingebrigtsen	Norway	3:28.24
5	Hobbs Kessler	United States	3:29.45	PB
6	Niels Laros	Netherlands	3:29.54	NR, AU20R
7	Narve Gilje Nordås	Norway	3:30.46	SB
8	Pietro Arese	Italy	3:30.74	NR
9	Stefan Nillessen	Netherlands	3:30.75	PB
10	Neil Gourley	Great Britain	3:30.88
11	Timothy Cheruiyot	Kenya	3:31.35
12	Brian Komen	Kenya	3:35.59