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.
Jack Lloyd Yerman is an American former athlete and winner of the gold medal in the 4 × 400 m relay at the 1960 Summer Olympics.
A metric mile is a colloquial term used in some countries for the 1500 meters, the premier middle distance running event in international track and field. The term 'metric mile' was applied to this distance because it approximates one statute mile (1609.344 m). The term is most commonly used in track running, speed skating and swimming.
Joe Falcon is a former US middle-distance runner whose greatest success was his victory in the 1990 Oslo Dream Mile with a time of 3:49.31 minutes, which was the fastest mile in the world in 1990. In the course of the race, he ran a personal best over 1500 m of 3:33.6. Also, in 1990 Joe won the 5000 meter at the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Oregon in 13:20, with a last lap under 53 seconds.
The distance medley relay (DMR) is an athletic event in which four athletes compete as part of a relay. With its inclusion in the IAAF World Relays program, the IAAF announced on May 1, 2015 that the event would be an official world record event.
German Fernandez is a retired American professional runner from Riverbank, California, known for his performance in high school and collegiate cross country and track and field. Later he trained under Jerry Schumacher for the Bowerman Track Club. He is most well known for running the California Cross Country State Meet course record (14:24), as well as running a new American high-school record, 8:34.40 for two miles, at the 2008 Nike Outdoor Nationals championship. He also holds the World Junior Indoor Mile record at 3:55.02. A local meet in Riverbank, California, the German Fernandez Distance Carnival, is named after him.
Christopher Lukezic, known simply as Chris Lukezic, is an American retired middle distance runner. He represented the United States in the men's 1500-meter at the 2005 World Championships in Athletics and the men's 1500-meter at the 2006 IAAF World Indoor Championships.
Tyler Mulder is an American track and field athlete. He was the 2008 NCAA Indoor Track and Field National Champion in the 800 meter run.
Brian Baker is a retired American long-distance runner and current coach at Gardner-Webb University.
The sprint medley relay (SMR) is a track and field event in which teams of four athletes compete over sprinting distances as part of a relay race. Unlike most track relays, each member of the team runs a different distance. The sprint medley is rather uncommon, run most frequently at non-championship track meets which are focused on relays. Since these are not championship events, specific criteria for the event are not in common rulebooks. This leads to localized variations.
Polly Anne Plumer is an American track and field athlete who set the National High School record holder in the Mile run at 4:35.24, in open competition at UCLA May 16, 1982 while a student at University High School. That distance is no longer run in high school competition since the NFHS converted to metric distances in 1980, but it is still an international record event. Her record lasted over 30 years until it was surpassed on January 26, 2013 by Mary Cain, indoors, running 4:32.78 at the New Balance Games. Cain later improved her own mark to 4:28.25, also indoors at the Millrose Games. Because Cain's marks were set on an indoor track, which is generally considered to be more difficult, they were not recognized by Track and Field News the ratifier of high school records in non-NFHS sanctioned events, so Plumer retains the record as published. Christine Babcock, born 8 years and 3 days after Plumer's record, running for Woodbridge High School, also in Irvine, took the record in the more commonly run but shorter 1600 meters to an equitable 4:33.82 in 2008. Babcock's record was improved to 4:33.29 in 2014 by Alexa Efraimson.
Brenda Martinez is an American middle-distance runner and Olympian. Born in Upland, California, she won a silver medal in the 800 meters at the 2013 IAAF World Championships in Moscow and finished first in the 800 meters at the 2014 Diamond League Final. She represented the US at the 2012 IAAF World Indoor Championships in the 1500 meters. Martinez twice set the world record in the Distance Medley Relay at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix in Boston; first on February 7, 2015, and then breaking her own record on January 28, 2017. In 2016, Martinez qualified for the U.S. Olympic team competing in the 1500 meters after beating Amanda Eccleston by 0.03 seconds.
Alexa Efraimson is an American former professional middle distance runner from Camas, Washington who competed for Nike. Efraimson is training and in graduate school to become a Registered Dietitian in 2022-24. During the 2014 indoor and outdoor season, as a junior, she set a pair of U.S. high-school records, breaking Mary Cain's 2013 mark in the indoor 3,000 meters (9:02.10) with a time of 9:00.16 and running 4:33.29 in the 1,600 meters to shave 0.53 seconds from Christine Babcock's 4:33.82, set in 2008. Efraimson captured the bronze medal in the 1,500 meters at the 2013 World (U18) Youth Championships in Donetsk, Ukraine.
Colleen Quigley is an American middle-distance runner, steeplechase specialist and an Olympian from St. Louis, Missouri. She is the current World Record holder in the 4x1500 meters relay. Competing in the 3000 meters steeplechase, she finished 8th at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio and 12th at the 2015 World Championships in Athletics in Beijing. She was the 2019 US National Indoor Champion in the one-mile event running 4:29.47 to capture the title and was the 2015 NCAA Champion in the 3000 meters steeplechase. In 2023, Quigley announced that she would start competing in triathlon events, but that she still plans to race track and field through 2024.
Harun Iman is a Somali-American former middle-distance runner who specialized in the 800 meters. He began running competitively at Wakefield High School of Arlington, Virginia, after which he competed for a noted generation of the Arkansas track team. After his spell at Arkansas, he qualified for and raced in the men's 800 at the 2006 USA Outdoor T&F Championships.
Raevyn Rogers is an American middle-distance athlete. She won a bronze medal in the 800 meters at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, becoming the fourth fastest woman in U.S. history in the event. At the 2019 World Championships, Rogers came from seventh with 100m remaining in the race to place silver over USA teammate Ajeé Wilson in bronze. She earned a world indoor title as a member of national 4x400 m relay squad that took gold at the 2018 World Indoor Championships.
Andrew James Hunter is an American middle distance runner from Purcellville, Virginia, who competes professionally for Adidas on the running group Tinman Elite. He set the national indoor mile record for high school boys in 2016. He was named Gatorade National Cross-Country Runner of the Year in 2016. He committed to the University of Oregon on November 12, 2015 but instead decided to pursue a professional career by signing a 10-year contract with Adidas on July 8, 2016.
Roisin Willis is an American middle-distance runner. She won the gold medal in the 800 meters at the 2022 World Under-20 Championships, adding second title for the women's 4x400 m relay.
3200 metres is an uncommon long middle-distance, or short long-distance, track and field running event that is 200m longer than the much more common 3,000 metre run, and slightly shorter than the two mile run.
Hicham El Guerrouj 3:41.83+ (1999)
Faith Kipyegon 4:06.20+ (2023)
