Mary Teresa Slaney is an American retired middle-distance and long-distance runner. During her career, she won gold medals in the 1500 meters and 3000 meters at the 1983 World Championships and was the world-record holder in the mile, 5000 meters and 10,000 meters. In total, she set 17 official and unofficial world records, and she was the first woman to break 4:20 for the mile. She also set 36 U.S. national records at distances ranging from 800 meters to 10,000 meters, and has held the U.S. record in the 2000 meters and 3000 meters since the early 1980s, while her 1500 meters record stood for 32 years and her mile record stood for 38 years. In 2003, she was inducted into the National Track and Field Hall of Fame.
Melvin Whinfield "Peerless Mel" Sheppard was an American athlete, member of the Irish American Athletic Club, and winner of four gold medals and one silver medal at the 1908 Summer Olympics and 1912 Summer Olympics. Along with Henry Taylor of the United Kingdom, he was the most successful athlete at the 1908 Olympics.
Andrew James Baddeley is an English middle-distance runner.
Amine Laâlou is a Moroccan track and field athlete, who specializes in middle-distance running. He has represented his country at the Summer Olympics on two occasions; in 2004 and 2008. He began his career as an 800 metres specialist and made his global debut at the 2003 World Championships in Athletics. He won medals at smaller international competitions, including the 2004 Pan Arab Games and 2005 Mediterranean Games. He reached his first global final at the 2007 World Championships, taking sixth, and was a semi-finalist at the 2008 Summer Olympics.
Sally Jepkosgei Kipyego is a Kenyan-born American long- and middle-distance runner. She was the silver medalist in the 10,000 metres at the 2011 World Championships in Athletics and the silver medalist in the same race at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. She has a personal record of 30:38.35 minutes for that event and her 5000 metres best of 14:30.42 minutes makes her the second fastest Kenyan woman for the distance.
Kimberley Smith is a New Zealand middle-distance and long-distance runner who retired in 2016.
Patricia Susan "PattiSue" Plumer is an American former middle-distance and long-distance runner. She is a two-time Olympian, finishing 13th in the 3000-m final in 1988 in Seoul, before going on to finish 10th in the 1500-m final and fifth in the 3000-m final in 1992 in Barcelona. She won the 3000 meters title at the 1990 Goodwill Games. Her 5000-m best of 15:00.00 in 1989 is a former American record.
Genzebe Dibaba Keneni is an Ethiopian middle- and long-distance runner. A 1,500 metres 2016 Rio Olympics silver medalist, she won a gold medal in this event and a bronze in the 5,000 metres at the 2015 World Championships. Genzebe is the current world record holder for the indoor events of the one mile, 3,000m and 5,000m.
Shannon Solares-Rowbury is an American middle-distance runner from San Francisco, California. After competing collegiately for Duke University, she turned professional in 2007. Rowbury has represented the United States at the 2008, 2012, and 2016 Summer Olympics, winning a bronze medal in 2012, becoming the first American woman to win an Olympic medal in the event. She also represented the United States at the World Championships in 2009, 2011, 2013, 2015 and 2017, winning the bronze medal in the 1500 meters in 2009. In 2015, Rowbury helped set the world record with the U.S. team for the distance medley relay event, and set a then-American record for 1500 meters on July 17, 2015, breaking Mary Slaney's 32 year-old mark with a time of 3:56.29.
Jennifer Simpson is an American middle- and long-distance runner, formerly a steeplechaser. She won the gold medal in the 1500 meters at the 2011 World Championships, silvers at the 2013 and 2017 World Championships, and a bronze at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Alisa Harvey is a middle distance runner from the United States. She set her personal best in the women's 1,500 meters 4:08.32 on June 26, 1992, at the US Olympic Trials in New Orleans and in the 800 meters 1:59.72 in 1995. She was ranked in the U.S. top ten in the 1500 meters 8 years in a row from 1986 to 1993, achieving number 1 in 1993. After taking 1994 off for maternity, she returned to the list in 1998 and 1999. She also made the U.S. list in the 800 metres six times between 1988 and 1996. In 1998 she became the 24th American woman to break 4:30 for a mile. She is still an active masters competitor, holding several world records and pursuing more as she moves into a new age division.
The women's 1500 metres competition was an event at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, United Kingdom. The competition was held at the Olympic Stadium from 6–10 August. In 2016, the Independent called the race the dirtiest in history, with the BBC echoing this view. Six of the first nine finishers have been found to have been doping. The top two finishers were later found to have used prohibited drugs during this period and were disqualified; the runner subsequently raised to the silver medal position, Tatyana Tomashova, had served a two-year doping ban (2008–2010) for manipulating samples and was banned after the Olympics for failing another drug test, and 7th-place finisher Natallia Kareiva and 9th-place finisher Yekaterina Kostetskaya were disqualified after also being found guilty of doping. As of early September 2024, five of the initial twelve finishers had been disqualified for doping violations.
Sheila Reid is a Canadian track and field Olympian who competes in cross country, middle and long-distance running events. She competed collegiately at Villanova University. Reid won the 2010 and 2011 NCAA Women's Cross Country Championship, and in June 2011 became the first woman to win the 5000 m and the 1500 m at the NCAA Women's Outdoor Track and Field Championship. She won the Honda Sports Award as the nation's top female cross country runner in 2011, repeated as the best female cross country runner in 2012, and also won the Honda Sports Award for Track and field in 2012.
Morgan Uceny is a retired American track and field athlete who specialized in middle distance running. Uceny won three national championships and was the 2011 IAAF Diamond League Champion at 1500 meters. She ended 2011 as the first American since 1985 to be ranked number one in the world in the 1500 m by Track & Field News.
Carmen Douma-Hussar is a Canadian middle-distance runner. She is a member of the Guelph Track and Field Club and is coached by Marcus O'Sullivan and Albert Tschirhart. She was the silver medalist in the 1500 m at the 2004 IAAF World Indoor Championships.
Alan Webb is an American former track and field athlete and former triathlete. He held the American national record in the mile, with a time of 3 minutes 46.91 seconds, from July 2007 to September 2023. Webb represented the United States at the 2004 Summer Olympics in the men's 1500-meters race. He competed professionally for Nike until the end of 2013. He retired after the 2014 Millrose Games.
Kerri Gallagher is an American middle-distance runner who specialises in the 1500-meter run. She began to focus on running full-time in 2012 and consistently improved over the following years, resulting in a third-place finish at the USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in 2015. She competed collegiately for Fordham University.
Marielle Hall is a long-distance runner from the United States. She competed in the Women's 5000 meters event at the 2015 World Championships in Athletics in Beijing, China as well as the Women's 10,000 meters final at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Shelby Houlihan is an American middle distance runner, Olympian and World Record holder in the 4x1500m relay who is currently serving a doping ban. Houlihan competed in the 5000m final at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio, finishing 11th. She is a 12-time US National Champion winning seven indoor and five outdoor titles in middle-distance events. While at Arizona State University she won the 2014 NCAA 1500m championship.
Elaine Van Blunk is an American long-distance runner who finished third at the 1994 Chicago Marathon. She was the 1989 winner of the 3000 meters at the USA Track & Field Indoor Championships, and finished seventh in the 10,000 meters event at the 1991 Pan American Games.
