Sir Peter George Snell was a New Zealand middle-distance runner. He won three Olympic gold medals, and is the only man since 1920 to have won the 800 and 1500 metres at the same Olympics, in 1964.
Ann Elizabeth PackerMBE is an English former sprinter, hurdler and long jumper. She won a gold medal in the 800 metres and a silver in the 400 metres at the 1964 Summer Olympics.
Australia competed at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, Italy. 189 competitors, 160 men and 29 women, took part in 122 events in 17 sports. Australian athletes have competed in every Summer Olympic Games.
Brenda Jones is a retired Australian middle-distance runner. At the 1958 national championships she won the 440 yards and 880 yards races. In 1960 she was fifth in 440 yards and second in 880 yards. At the 1960 Olympics, she led the 800 m race, but in the last few metres lost to Lyudmila Shevtsova, who equalled her world record.
Judith Florence Amoore-Pollock is an Australian former runner. She was born in Melbourne, Victoria.
Pamela Kilborn-Ryan, AM, MBE is an Australian former athlete who set world records as a hurdler. For three years, she was ranked as the world's top woman hurdler.
Marise Ann Millicent Chamberlain, was a New Zealand middle-distance runner. At the time of her death in 2024, she was the only New Zealand woman to have won an Olympic medal in track athletics. She set world records over 440 yards, 400 metres and 1 mile.
Lyudmila Ivanovna Gurevitch is a retired Russian-Ukrainian athlete who competed mainly in the 800 metres. On 3 July 1960, she set a world record in this event at 2 min 4.3 seconds. She equaled this time while winning the 800 m gold at the 1960 Olympics two months later. Two Australians, Brenda Jones and Dixie Willis led the race. With 50–70 m left, Willis stepped on the curb and dropped out of competition, while Shevtsova gradually reached Jones and won in the last meters.
Thomas Francis Farrell represented the United States of America in two Olympic Games, in the 800 metres race. He placed fifth in Tokyo in 1964 and won the bronze medal in Mexico City in 1968.
Wilson Arap Chuma Kiprugut was a Kenyan sprinter and middle-distance runner. He competed at the 1964 Tokyo and 1968 Mexico Olympics and won two medals in the 800 metres event; in 1964 he also ran 400 metres, but failed to reach the final. He was the first person from Kenya ever to win an Olympic medal.
Gerarda "Gerda" Maria Kraan is a retired female middle distance runner from the Netherlands, who twice represented her native country at the Summer Olympics: 1960 (Rome) and 1964 (Tokyo). In 1962 she won the gold medal in the women's 800 metres race at the 1962 European Championships in Belgrade.
Diane Susan Leather Charles was an English athlete who was the first woman to run a sub-5-minute mile.
The women's 800 metres middle distance event at the 1960 Olympic Games took place between September 6 and September 7. This was the return of the event for the first time since 1928.
MariaLeontievna Itkina was a Soviet runner who set multiple world records in various sprint events. She competed at the 1956, 1960, and 1964 Olympics and finished four times in fourth place. Domestically Itkina held 17 Soviet sprint titles.
The 400 metres at the Summer Olympics has been contested since the first edition of the multi-sport event. The men's 400 m has been present on the Olympic athletics programme since 1896 but nearly seventy years passed before the introduction of the women's 400 m, which has been held continuously since the 1964 Games. It is the most prestigious 400 m race at elite level. The competition format typically has two qualifying rounds leading to a final race between eight athletes.
The 800 metres at the Summer Olympics has been contested since the first edition of the multi-sport event. The men's 800 m has been present on the Olympic athletics programme since 1896. The women's event was first held in 1928, making it the first distance running event for women. The women's race was not held again until 1960; it has been a permanent fixture since. It is the most prestigious 800 m race at elite level. The competition format typically has three rounds: a qualifying round, semi-final stage, and a final between eight runners.
Combined events at the Summer Olympics have been contested in several formats at the multi-sport event. There are two combined track and field events in the current Olympic athletics programme: a men's decathlon and a women's heptathlon.
Joy Wilhelmina Jordan is a former British 800 metres athlete in the early 1960s, who held the world record for 880 yards in 1960. In 1959, she was ranked third in the world at 800m.
Anthony Arthur Crampton Blue was an Australian middle-distance runner. He competed in the 800 metres at the 1960 Summer Olympics and the 1964 Summer Olympics. Blue won a bronze medal in the 880 yards at the 1962 British Empire and Commonwealth Games.
Phyllis Else Maureen Perkins was a British middle-distance runner. She competed in the women's 800 metres at the 1960 Summer Olympics. She also represented England in the 880 yards at the 1962 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Perth, Australia.
