Letitia Alma Vriesde is a former track and field athlete from Suriname, who specialised in the 800 metres but was also successful over 1500 metres. She is the first sportsperson from Suriname to compete at five Olympic Games. She won a silver medal at the 1995 World Championships and a bronze medal at the 2001 World Championships. Vriesde holds the South American records for the 800 metres, 1000 metres and 1500 metres and also for the 3000 metres (indoors).
Lee Jin-Il is a retired South Korean athlete who competed in the 800 metres. His personal best time is 1.44.14 in 800 metres, achieved in June 17, 1994 in the South Korean Athletics Championships. This is the current South Korean record. It was also the Asian record until it was broken by Yusuf Saad Kamel in 2004.
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.
Jemma Louise Simpson OLY is a British athlete who competes in the 800 metres and 1500 metres. She is a former British champion over 800m, winning both 2007, 2009 and 2010 British Championships. She was formerly coached by Olympic medallist Mark Rowland.
Tintu Luka is an Indian track and field athlete, who predominantly competes in the middle-distance running events. Born in Valathode, Kerala, she is the national record holder in the women's 800 metres. Luka represented India at the 2012 and 2016 Summer Olympics. In addition to being the 2015 Asian Champion in the 800 meters, she has won a total of six medals at the Asian Athletics Championships.
Marcel Eric Hug is a Paralympic athlete from Switzerland competing in category T54 wheelchair racing events. Hug, nicknamed 'The Silver Bullet', has competed in four Summer Paralympic Games for Switzerland, winning two bronze medals in his first Games in Athens in 2004. In 2010 he set four world records in four days, and at the 2011 World Championships he won a gold in the 10,000 metres and four silver medals, losing the gold in three events to long term rival David Weir. This rivalry continued into the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London, where Hug won two silvers, in the 800m and the marathon. In the 2013 World Championships Hug dominated the field, winning five golds and a silver. During the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio, Hug was one of the most consistent competitors in the T54 class, winning two golds, in the 800m and marathon, and two silvers medals, in the 1500m and 5000m.
Nijel Carlos Amilfitano Amos is a Botswana middle-distance runner who competes in the 800 metres. He won the silver medal at the 2012 London Olympics, which was Botswana's first-ever Olympic medal. Amos claimed gold medals at the 2014 Commonwealth Games and 2015 All-Africa Games. At the African Championships in Athletics, he took golds in 2014, 2016 and 2018.
Lynsey Sharp is a former Scottish track and field athlete who competed 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.
Amel Tuka is a Bosnian middle-distance runner who competes in the 800 metres. His achievements include a silver medal at the 2019 World Championships as well as a bronze medal at the 2015 World Championships. Tuka holds national records in the 400 m and 800 m disciplines.
The men's 800 metres event at the 2016 Summer Olympics took place between 12–15 August at the Olympic Stadium. Fifty-eight athletes from 39 nations competed. The event was won by 0.46 seconds by David Rudisha of Kenya, the fourth man to successfully defend Olympic gold in the 800 metres. Taoufik Makhloufi of Algeria took silver, the first medal for the nation in the 800 metres since 2000. The United States had an even longer medal-less streak broken, as Clayton Murphy's bronze was their first since 1992.
Guy Learmonth is a Scottish and Great British athlete specialising in the 800 metres. His PB currently stands as 1:44.73 and he is the 3rd fastest Scottish 800m athlete of all time. Learmonth reached the final at the 2014 Commonwealth Games and the 2015 European Indoor Championships, finishing 6th in both. He was named the GB&NI captain for the European Indoor Championships in 2019. Guy has broken the Scottish 800m Junior Record 9 times and holds the English AAA U20 Indoor & BUCS Championship records.
Veronica Shanti Pereira is a Singaporean track and field athlete who specialises in the 100 m, 200 m, 4 x 100 m, and 4 x 400 m. She holds the 100 m national record (11.20s), 200 m national record (22.57s), 400 m national record (53.67s), 200 m SEA Games record (22.69s), and the 200 m Asian Athletics Championships games record (22.70s). She was ranked 1st in Asia in 2023 for both the 100 m and 200 m based on World Athletics' records.
Ann Margaret Griffiths is a retired English athlete who competed in middle-distance events. In the 800 meters, she won a silver medal at the 1990 Commonwealth Games and finished seventh in the final at the 1991 World Championships, before going on to represent Great Britain in the 1500 metres at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona.
Nagmeldin "Peter" Bol is an Australian middle-distance runner who competes in the 800 metres. He represented Australia at the 2016 Rio Olympics, placed fourth at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and won the silver medal at the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
Nimali Waliwarsha Konda Liyanarachchi is a Sri Lankan 800 m runner and current national record holder in women's 1500m event. She is also believed to be the first Sri Lankan woman to have competed in steeplechase events. She became the first Sri Lankan woman to complete the distance of 3000 metres in steeplechase event under 11 minutes. She won the best athlete award twice at the Presidential award ceremonies by the Sports Ministry including the Most Outstanding Sportswoman of the Year in 2015. She is currently attached to Sri Lanka Air Force.
Chee Swee Lee is a Singaporean retired middle-distance runner who competed in the women's 800 metres at the 1976 Summer Olympics. She was the first Singaporean woman to clinch a gold in athletics at the Asian Games—achieved at the women's 400 metres in 1974—and remained the only one until Shanti Pereira's victory at the women's 200 metres in 2023.
Marco Arop is a Canadian track and field athlete competing in the middle distance events. Arop is the reigning world champion in the 800 m, winning gold at the 2023 World Athletics Championship, after winning bronze the previous year at the 2022 World Athletics Championships. He was the first Canadian to win a world championship in the 800 m. Arop was also the 2019 Pan American Games champion in 800 m.
Bryce Hoppel is an American middle-distance runner who specializes in the 800 metres. He is the reigning 800 metres world indoor champion having won gold at the 2024 World Indoor Championships in Glasgow. He also is a seven-time U.S. champion and two-time NCAA champion over the distance. At the 2024 Summer Olympics, Hoppel set an American record in the event, with a time of 1:41.67 to become the seventh fastest man and the second fastest North American man at the distance.
Mary Moraa is a Kenyan athlete who specialises in the 800 metres. She won the gold medal at the 2023 World Athletics Championships, a bronze medal in the event at the 2022 World Athletics Championships and a gold at the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
Keely Nicole Hodgkinson is an English middle-distance runner. She won the gold medal in the 800 metres at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Hodgkinson was voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year for 2024.
