Ian Stewart MBE is a Scottish former long-distance running athlete. Ian Stewart was one of the world's leading distance runners between the late 1960s and mid-1970s. Stewart won the bronze medal in the Men's 5000 metres at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich. Stewart also won the following championships: European 5,000 metres (1969), Commonwealth 5,000 metres (1970), European Indoor and World Cross Country (1975).
Lasse Artturi Virén is a Finnish former long-distance runner, winner of four gold medals at the 1972 and 1976 Summer Olympics. Virén recaptured the image of the "Flying Finns" promoted by runners like Hannes Kolehmainen, Paavo Nurmi and Ville Ritola in the 1920s. He was elected Finnish Sportsman of the Year in 1972 and 1976 and later became a politician and a member of Finland's parliament in 1999–2007 and 2010–2011.
Carlos Alberto de Sousa Lopes, GCIH is a Portuguese former long-distance runner.
Alberto Cova is a retired Italian long-distance track athlete, winner of the 10,000 m at the 1984 Summer Olympics and 1983 World Championships.
Sir Brendan Foster is a British former long-distance runner, athletics commentator and road race organiser. He founded the Great North Run, one of the sport's most high profile half-marathon races. As an athlete, he won the bronze medal in the 10,000 metres at the 1976 Summer Olympics and the gold medal in the 5,000 metres at the 1974 European Championships and the 10,000 metres at the 1978 Commonwealth Games. He later provided commentary and analysis on athletics, particularly long-distance events, for BBC Sport.
John Treacy is an Irish Olympian and former athlete, now a sporting administrator.
Olaf Beyer is a former East German 800 metres runner.
Markus Ryffel is a former long-distance runner from Switzerland who won the silver medal in the 5000 metres at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
Thomas Wessinghage is a German former middle- and long-distance runner who won the 1982 European Championships' final over 5000 metres beating the British world-record holder David Moorcroft. Because he was already thirty at the time, and had been an international-level runner for a decade, this victory was a long-awaited one for him. He admitted that he decided to run the 5,000 metres instead of the 1,500 metres, because he lost to Ovett and Coe so often in the shorter distance. The fairly slow pace of the 1982 European Athletics Championships 5,000-metre final favoured Wessinghage, because he was in top form - having set a European record at 2,000 metres shortly before the Championships - and because he was the fastest 1,500-metre runner in the final, having run that distance in 3 minutes 31.6 seconds in 1980. Shortly after he started his final sprint with over 250 metres to go, Wessinghage moved into a decisive lead, stretching it into five metres by 4,800 metres and almost doubling it by 4,900 metres.
Agberto João Conceição Guimarães is a former Brazilian middle distance runner who competed at the international level in the 1980s. He set a personal best 800 metres time of 1:43.63 min in Koblenz 1984, a performance which made him temporarily the second-fastest South American 800m runner ever.
Hans-Peter Ferner is a (West) German former middle-distance runner who won the gold medal over 800 m at the 1982 European Championships in Athletics in Athens where he unexpectedly defeated world-record holder Sebastian Coe. Those were Ferner's second and last European Athletics Championships, because he had competed already in the 1978 European Championships in Prague, where he had been eliminated in the 800-metre heats or semifinals. Coe had suffered from injuries and a glandular sickness which made him underachieve in Athens.
Werner Schildhauer is a retired German track and field athlete, who represented the former East Germany at the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow in the 10,000 meter run and placed 7th behind his teammate Jörg Peter.
Hansjörg Kunze is a German track and field athlete. He represented East Germany as a long distance runner.
Martti Olavi Vainio is a Finnish former long-distance runner. In Finland he is recognized as the last of the great runners of the famous "V-line", the previous ones being Juha Väätäinen, Lasse Virén, and Pekka Vasala. Each of them won at least one gold medal either at the Summer Olympics or the European Athletics Championships in the 1970s. Vainio's accomplishments are tarnished though, for testing positive for PEDs on at least two occasions. One of those events was the 1984 Olympic Games where he was disqualified and stripped of his medal and later suspended from sport.
Sir Mohamed Muktar Jama Farah is a British retired long-distance runner. Considered one of the greatest runners of all time, his ten global championship gold medals make him the most successful male track distance runner ever, and he is the most successful British track athlete in modern Olympic Games history. Farah is the first ever global Goodwill Ambassador of the International Organisation for Migration as announced on 28 November 2023 at the 114th Session of the IOM Council.
Andrew James Baddeley is an English middle-distance runner.
Fernando Eugénio Pacheco Mamede, ComM is a former Portuguese athlete, a long distance running specialist. He held the 10,000 metres world record until 1989.
Christoph Herle is a retired West German long-distance runner who specialized in the 10000 metres and cross-country running. His first major international track race occurred in the 1978 European Athletics Championships in Prague, former Czechoslovakia, where he placed fourteenth in the 5,000-metre final. He ran slightly better in the 1982 European Athletics Championships 5,000-metre final in Athens, Greece, placing thirteenth. Herle ran best in 1983 and 1984, placing eighth at the 1983 World Championships in Athletics – Men's 10,000 metres in Helsinki, Finland, and fifth at the final in the Athletics at the 1984 Summer Olympics – Men's 10,000 metres final in Los Angeles, the United States. He never managed to break through to the very top of international long-distance runners, however. His final major international championships race was the 1986 European Athletics Championships 10,000-metre race in Stuttgart, then West Germany, where he placed a disappointed fifteenth.
These are the official results of the Men's 5,000 metres event at the 1982 European Championships in Athens, Greece, held at Olympic Stadium "Spiros Louis" on 8 and 11 September 1982.
Andrew Butchart is a British runner who competed in the 5000 metres event at the 2016 and 2020 Summer Olympics. He is the current Scottish record holder in the 3000, 5000 and 10,000 metre events. In June 2023, he broke the parkrun “world-record”.
