Middle-distance running events are track races longer than sprints, up to 3000 metres. The standard middle distances are the 800 metres, 1500 metres and mile run, although the 3000 metres may also be classified as a middle-distance event. The 1500 m came about as a result of running 3+3⁄4 laps of a 400 m outdoor track or 7+1⁄2 laps of a 200 m indoor track, which were commonplace in continental Europe in the 20th century.
Chandra Danette Cheeseborough is a retired American sprinter. Cheeseborough broke onto the international track scene at age 16 by winning two gold medals at the 1975 Pan American Games, taking the 200 m in an American record time of 22.77 seconds. In 1976, she set the World junior record at 11.13 seconds by placing second at the U.S. Olympic trials, she then placed sixth in that event at the Montreal Olympic Games.
Madeline Manning Mims is a former American runner. Between 1967 and 1981 she won ten national titles and set a number of American records. She participated in the 1968, 1972, and 1976 Summer Olympics. She likely also would have participated in the 1980 Games in Moscow, had they not been boycotted by the United States. At the 1968 Olympics she won a gold medal in the 800 m, the only American woman to win this event. Until 2008, she was the youngest winner of the event. At the 1972 Games in Munich she won a silver medal in the 4×400 m relay with teammates Mable Fergerson, Kathy Hammond, and Cheryl Toussaint.
Andrea Blackett is a Barbadian athlete who specializes in the 400 metres hurdles. She is also an women's track assistant coach at her alma mater, Rice University.
Jillian Cheryl Richardson-Briscoe is a Canadian athlete who competed mainly in the 400 metres. She is a three-time Olympian. In 1988, she equalled Marita Payne's Canadian 400 metres record of 49.91 secs. The record still stands. She was inducted into the Athletics Canada Hall of Fame in 2017.
Diane Lynn Dixon is an American athlete who competed mainly in the 400 metres. She was born in Brooklyn, New York. She has an Olympic gold medal for running with the American 4x400 meters relay team at the 1984 Olympics, running in the preliminary rounds.
Kathryn "Kathy" Hammond is an American athlete who mainly competed in the 400 meters.
Mable Fergerson is an American athlete who mainly competed in the 400 metres. She made the Olympic team just weeks after graduating from Ganesha High School in Pomona, California. At the time before Title IX, high schools had no athletic programs for girls. Her 51.91 from the semi-final of the Olympics was the fastest on record for a high school girl to that point in time.
Vera Ivanovna Popkova was a Soviet track and field athlete who competed in the sprints. She had personal bests of 11.3 seconds for the 100 metres and 23.0 seconds for the 200 metres. Over her career, she won eight individual national titles in the sprints.
Aliann Tabitha Omalara Pompey is a Guyanese sprinter who specializes in the 400 metres. She has represented Guyana at the Summer Olympics on four separate occasions. She has competed at the World Championships in Athletics eleven times.
Delisa Walton-Floyd is a former World-Class middle distance runner who specialized in the 800 metres; she was a two-time National Collegiate champion, and two-time U.S. Open champion in her event. Delisa Walton-Floyd represented the United States at the 1987 Pan American Games; winning a silver medal at 800 meters. Walton-Floyd also competed at the World Championships in 1987 and 1991; advancing to the semi-final on both occasions.
Tousse Running Apparel is an American supplier of custom uniforms for track and field, which produces track suits, speedsuits, shorts and shirts for teams. It was founded in 1987 by Olympic Silver Medalist Cheryl Toussaint. The uniforms are licensed and manufactured by GK Elite Sportswear in Reading, Pennsylvania.
Francea ("Francie") Norma Kraker Goodridge is a former women's track and field athlete and coach from the United States. She set a world record in the 600-yard indoor event and was the first Michigan-born woman to win a place on the U.S. Olympic team. She later coached women's track at the University of Michigan, Wake Forest University and the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, where she was also the Coordinator of Women's Athletics. She has been inducted into the University of Michigan Athletic Hall of Honor, the University of Michigan Women's Track and Field Hall of Fame and the Michigan Women's Hall of Fame.
Frances Anne "Francie" Larrieu Smith is an American track and field athlete. She was the flagbearer at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona for the United States of America. Larrieu Smith was the third female American athlete to make five American Olympic teams, behind the six of fencer Jan York-Romary and Track and Field's Willye White. The feat was later equaled by basketball player Teresa Edwards, track and field's Gail Devers, cyclist/speedskater Chris Witty and swimmer Dara Torres. After one of the longest elite careers on record, she has retired from that level of competition.
Fred Sowerby is a track and field athlete from Antigua and Barbuda, known primarily for running the 400 metres.
Esther Stroy is a former American track and field athlete, who competed in the sprinting events. She is best known for competing at the 1968 Olympics in the 400-meter dash as a 15-year-old, the youngest competitor at those games.
English Gardner is an American track and field sprinter who specializes in the 100-meter dash. Her personal best of 10.74 seconds, set in 2016, ranks her in the top ten all-time for the distance.
Yvonne Saunders-Mondesire is a Jamaican-Canadian former track and field athlete. A versatile athlete, she competed in women's pentathlon, long jump, high jump, 400 metres and 800 metres. She competed internationally for Canada, Jamaica, and England during her career.
Jarvis Lavonne Scott was an American sprinter. She competed in the women's 400 metres at the 1968 Summer Olympics. She qualified by winning the 1968 Olympic Trials. She also finished third in the 800 meters behind eventual gold medalist Madeline Manning but declined her position in that event allowing Francie Kraker to run. She is the first American woman and the last American to qualify for the Olympics in both the 400 and 800.
Mavis Laing is an American former track and field sprinter and pentathlete. Her highest level honour was a gold medal at the 1971 Pan American Games, where she anchored the American women's 4 × 400 meters relay team to victory, alongside Cheryl Toussaint, Esther Stroy and Gwen Norman. It was the first time the event had been held at the competition.
