Zulia Inés Calatayud Torres is a Cuban runner competing mostly in the 800 metres event.
Janeth Jepkosgei Busienei is a Kenyan middle distance runner and former world champion.
Asbel Kipruto Kiprop is a Kenyan middle-distance runner, who specialises in the 1500 metres. He was awarded the 1500 m gold medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics after the original winner, Rashid Ramzi, tested positive for doping. Kiprop has won three World Championship titles in the event, in 2011, 2013 and 2015. Kiprop failed his own doping test in November 2017 and received a four-year doping ban.
Pamela Jelimo is a Kenyan middle-distance runner, specialising in the 800 metres. She won the gold medal in 800 metres at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing at the age of 18. She is the first Kenyan woman to win an Olympic gold medal and also the first Kenyan to win the Golden League Jackpot. She holds both the 800 m world junior record and the senior African record over the same distance. Jelimo is also one of the youngest women to win an Olympic gold medal for Kenya.
Halima Hachlaf is a Moroccan runner who specializes in the 800 metres. She is the younger sister of Abdelkader Hachlaf, an international steeplechase athlete. She won silver medals in the 800 m at the Mediterranean Games and Jeux de la Francophonie in 2009. Her personal best for the distance is 1:58.27.
Mariya Sergeyevna Savinova is a Russian former athlete who specialized in the 800-metres event. In 2017, she was found guilty of doping and was subsequently suspended from competition for four-years. In addition to the ban, she had three years of elite results nullified and was stripped of both her World Championship medals and her 2012 Olympic gold medal.
The women's 800 metres at the 2009 World Championships in Athletics was held at the Olympic Stadium on 16, 17 and 19 August. Prior to the championships, there was no clear favourite for the race – the twenty fastest times of the season had been run by seventeen different athletes. The reigning World and Olympic champions, Janeth Jepkosgei and Pamela Jelimo, had not shown the dominance of previous seasons. The two fastest runners of the season, Caster Semenya and Maggie Vessey, had recently set personal bests but lacked any major championships experience, while third best Anna Alminova was a 1500 metres specialist. European Indoor Champion Mariya Savinova and Svetlana Klyuka, fourth at the Olympics, were other strong competitors. The 2007 World medallists Hasna Benhassi and Mayte Martínez, and Olympic finalist Yuliya Krevsun were also predicted as medal possibilities.
Milcah Chemos Cheywa is a runner from Kenya who specialises in 3000 metres steeplechase. She was, until 2015, African record holder at the distance and is the gold medalist of the 2013 World Championships in Athletics.
Alysia Montaño is an American middle distance runner. She is a six-time USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships 800 metres champion. She gained significant publicity for the 2014 race that she competed while 8 months pregnant.
Dafne Schippers is a Dutch retired track and field athlete who competed in sprinting and the combined events. She holds the European record in the 200 metres with a time of 21.63 seconds, making her the sixth-fastest woman of all time at this distance. She also holds the Dutch records in the 100 metres and long jump, and shares the Dutch records in the 60 metres indoor and 4 × 100 metres relay.
The Women's 800 metres at the 2011 World Championships in Athletics was held at the Daegu Stadium on September 1, 2 and 4.
Lynsey Sharp is a Scottish track and field athlete who competes in the 800 metres. She is the 2012 European champion and represented Great Britain at the 2012 Olympic Games in London. She won a silver medal at the 2014 Commonwealth Games. Her personal best is 1:57.69, the seventh fastest time over 800m by a British woman, set in the final of the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
Francine Niyonsaba is a Burundian runner who specialized in the 800 metres and shifted to longer distances in 2019. She was the 2016 Rio Olympics silver medalist in the women's 800 metres. Her silver medal was the first Olympic medal for Burundi since 1996. Niyonsaba won a silver in the event at the 2017 World Championships.
Faith Chepngetich Kipyegon is a Kenyan middle- and long-distance runner. Kipyegon is the current world record holder for the 1500 metres and mile, both set in 2023, and the former world record holder for the 5000 metres. At the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Kipyegon won a gold medal in the 1500 m. She also won a gold medal in the 1500 m at the 2017, 2022 and 2023 World Athletics Championships and in the 5000 m at the 2023 World Athletics Championships.
Lydiah Tum Chepkurui is a Kenyan track and field athlete who competes in the 3000 metres steeplechase. Her best of 9:13.75 minutes ranks her in the top twenty of all-time in the event.
The women's 800 metres at the 2013 World Championships in Athletics was held at the Luzhniki Stadium on 15–18 August.
In 2014 there was no primary outdoor global athletics championship, as neither the Summer Olympics nor the World Championships in Athletics occurred in the year. The 2014 IAAF World Indoor Championships, and the 2014 IAAF Continental Cup were the foremost global events to be held in 2014. The 2014 IAAF World Relays marked the debut of the new international competition exclusively for relay races.
In 2016, the foremost athletics events will be staged at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. The two other major global level competitions in 2016 are the World Indoor Championships and World Half Marathon Championships.
Nelly Jepkosgei is a Kenyan-born female middle-distance runner who specialises in the 800 metres. She originally competed for Kenya, running at the 2010 World Junior Championships in Athletics and the 2011 All-Africa Games, but now competes for Bahrain. A dispute between the national bodies resulted in Jepkosgei being ineligible to run for Bahrain until March 2021, and she failed to represent her nation of birth at the 2019 African Games, despite being selected. She holds personal bests of 1:58.96 minutes for the 800 m and 4:00.99 minutes for the 1500 metres. She also holds the Kenyan national record for the 1000 metres with her time of 2:35.30 minutes.
Eva Cherono is a Kenyan professional long-distance runner. Cherono represented Kenya at the 2018 Commonwealth Games and was a team silver medallist at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships in 2019. She has a personal best of 14:40.25 minutes for the 5000 metres.
