Maryam Yusuf Jamal is an Ethiopian-born Bahraini middle-distance runner. She is the first Bahraini athlete to win an Olympic medal, a gold in the 1,500m women's race, in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. This was also the first Olympic medal won by a woman representing a Gulf state. Born in Ethiopia, 2005 was her first full season. She gained the national record and ran the fastest 3000 m of the year, with a time of 8:28.87 at a race in Oslo. Jamal is a two-time world champion in the 1,500 m, having won at the 2007 and 2009 World Championships in Athletics.
The 1500 metres or 1,500-metre run is the foremost middle distance track event in athletics. The distance has been contested at the Summer Olympics since 1896 and the World Championships in Athletics since 1983. It is equivalent to 1.5 kilometers or approximately 15⁄16 miles. The event is closely associated with its slightly longer cousin, the mile race, from which it derives its nickname "the metric mile".
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 a retired American middle- and long-distance runner. 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.
Hannah England is a British middle-distance running athlete who specialised in the 800 metres, 1500 metres and mile run. At 1500 m, she is the 2011 World Championship silver medallist and finished fourth at the 2013 World Championships. She also competed at the 2012 Olympic Games in London. England is one of only five British women in history to have run under two minutes for 800 m and nine minutes for 3000 m, the others being Christina Boxer, Kirsty Wade, Jessica Judd and Laura Muir. She announced her retirement from athletics on 14 January 2020.
The women's 1500 metres at the 2009 World Championships in Athletics was held at the Olympic Stadium between 18–23 August. The winning margin was 0.01 seconds which as of 2024 is the narrowest winning margin in the women's 1500 metres at these championships.
Aslı Çakır Alptekin is a Turkish former female middle-distance runner. A member of the Üsküdar Belediyespor in Istanbul, she is coached by her husband, runner Ihsan Alptekin. She was banned for life from competition in 2017 for repeated doping offenses.
The athletics competitions at the 2012 Olympic Games in London were held during the last 10 days of the Games, on 3–12 August. Track and field events took place at the Olympic Stadium in east London. The road events, however, started and finished on The Mall in central London.
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 to 10 August. In 2016, the British daily newspaper 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, and 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. In 2024, she was stripped of her reallocated silver medal in this event and her record was disqualified. 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.
The Women's 1500 metres at the 2011 World Championships in Athletics was held at the Daegu Stadium on August 28 & 30, and September 1.
Gamze Bulut is a Turkish middle-distance runner.
Abeba Aregawi Gebretsadik is an Ethiopian-born Swedish retired middle-distance runner who specialised in the 1,500 metres. She won the silver medal in the 1,500 m at the 2012 Summer Olympics and a gold medal at the World Championships in 2013. She represented Ethiopia internationally until December 2012, and afterwards represented Sweden.
The women's 1500 metres at the 2012 European Athletics Championships were held at the Helsinki Olympic Stadium on 30 June and 1 July.
Faith Chepngetich Kipyegon is a Kenyan middle- and long-distance runner. Kipyegon is the current world record holder for the 1,500 metres and mile, and the former world record holder for the 5,000 metres. Kipyegon is the only three-time Olympic champion in the 1500 metres race, having won a gold medal each at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, 2020 Tokyo Olympics and the 2024 Paris Olympics. She also won a gold medal in the 1,500 m at the 2017, 2022 and 2023 World Athletics Championships and in the 5,000 m at the 2023 World Athletics Championships. At the 2024 Paris Olympics, Kipyegon became the first athlete ever to win three consecutive gold medals in the 1500m women's race, where she also set a new Olympic record. Kipyegon had earlier on in the 2024 Paris Olympics also earned a silver medal in the women's 5000m race, an event marked by controversy. Initially disqualified for obstruction, Kipyegon's second-place finish was later reinstated. Beatrice Chebet edged her out to win the gold.
Laura Muir is a Scottish middle- and long-distance runner. She is the 2020 Tokyo Olympic silver medallist in the 1500 metres, having previously finished seventh in the event at the 2016 Rio Olympics. Muir won the bronze medal at the 2022 World Championships, and has three other top five placings in 1500 m finals at the World Athletics Championships, finishing fifth in 2015, fourth in 2017 and fifth in 2019. She is a two-time European 1500 m champion from 2018 and 2022 as well as the 2022 Commonwealth Games 1500 m champion and 800 metres bronze medallist.
The 1500 metres at the Summer Olympics has been contested since the first edition of the multi-sport event. The men's 1500 m has been present on the Olympic athletics programme since 1896. The women's event was not introduced until over seventy years later, but it has been a permanent fixture since it was first held in 1972. The Olympics final and the World Athletics Championships final are the most prestigious 1500 m races at an elite level. The competition format comprises three rounds: a heats stage, semi-finals, then a final typically between twelve athletes.
Gudaf Tsegay Desta is an Ethiopian middle- and long-distance runner. She is the current women’s world record holder for 5,000 m (14:00.21), set at the 2023 final Diamond League event, the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Oregon. Eugene is also where she won the World Athletics Championships on 5,000 m in 2022. At the World Athletics Championships, Gudaf also won the gold medal for 10,000 metres in 2023; a bronze for the 1,500 metres in 2019, and silver in 2022. She is the 2020 Tokyo Olympic bronze medallist in the women's 5,000 metres. She is a two-time World Indoor Championship 1,500 m medallist, claiming bronze in 2016 and gold in 2022. She is also the world indoor record holder for the 1,500 m, setting previously in this event world under-18 (current) and U20 (former) records.
Ravilya Agletdinova was a Soviet middle-distance runner who competed in 800 metres, 1500 metres and 3000 metres events.
Freweyni Hailu is an Ethiopian middle-distance runner. She won the gold medal at the 2024 World Athletics Indoor Championships over 1500 metres.
