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

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.

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

Summary

Given the rivalry between Norway's Olympic 1500-metre champion, and World 5000-metre champion, Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Great Britain's World 1500-metre champion, and World indoor 3000-metre champion, Josh Kerr, the men's 1500 metres at the 2024 Summer Olympics had been billed as a "Race for the Ages" by World Athletics President, middle-distance great, and double Olympic champion over the 'metric mile', Sebastian Coe.

Ingebrigtsen had won the Olympic title three years earlier and his confidence and high expectations had affected his race strategy in recent years. After comfortably winning every race he entered, at the 2022 World Championships, Ingebrigtsen was in the lead of the 1500 metres, expecting to continue to the finish. However, Great Britain's Jake Wightman, who had tracked every move but never put his face in the wind, sprinted around him in the last 200 metres to take the World 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 and regain his title, Kerr, a clubmate of Wightman since their childhoods, repeated almost exactly the Wightman tactic, tracking Ingebrigtsen while sheltering from the front, before attacking at 200 metres to go and sprinting around to take the gold.

Again Ingebrigtsen entered the 5000 meters with a point to prove, and again he won.

Ingebrigtsen came to a major championship again, the Olympic Games, 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 the reigning World Champion, Kerr who had won the one major race between them that year, the Wanamaker Mile; the returning Olympic 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, and had indeed carried injuries since 2022, having been unable to defend his title in 2023. All of the others, however, were in Paris, and qualified safely through the rounds to the final avoiding the repechage.

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 to be 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, it had become clear Ingebrigtsen meant to run the race hard and take the sprint legs away from his would-be opponents, as he had done many times on the Diamond League circuit. Although the field was strung out by the infernal pace of the Norwegian, Cheruiyot resolutely tailed the Norwegian, and the other runners were able to take single file shelter behind the two leaders. As a result the line of runners stretched, but did not break.

The clock read 2:33.5 at the bell as the pace did not ease, and at this point Kerr, having sheltered behind the Kenyan while Ingebrigtsen had taken all of the wind, began moving up on the turn. Hocker moved around Nuguse and the Kenyans to get in position for his own ferocious final 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. As they entered the home stretch, the expected duel between Kerr and Ingebrigtsen appeared to come to fruition, with the Scotsman once again looking marginally the stronger.

Kerr began to pass Ingebrigtsen, who drifted away from the rail again to ease Kerr off the shortest distance line to the finish, but in doing so, he again opened the inside lane door for the wild card, Hocker, who seeing his chance reappear, sped through with a brutal finishing kick. Ingebrigtsen was by now fading badly from his early exertions, as it became a race of the 'kickers' over the last 50 metres between the American and Kerr, but Hocker now had far more momentum, passing 20 meters before the finish to take gold. As Kerr's kick faded in the last few metres Nuguse, who had missed most of the front-of-race action, kept coming, almost nipping past the disappointed Ker on the line for silver, the two being separated by only one hundredth of a second, but being rewarded with the Olympic bronze.

Ingebrigtsen, undone by his focus on Kerr and a forlorn attempt to run the legs out of his opponents without the help of the pacemakers who facilitated the tactic on the circuit (while the same opponents were able to use Cheruiyot to pace themselves) faded out of the medals altogether in fourth.

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. The result edged the United States just ahead of Great Britain on the all-time medal table for the event.

Some days later, with his now customary recovery and determination, Ingebrigsten won the 5000 metres at a canter.

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