The men's 800 metres at the 2004 Summer Olympics as part of the athletics program was held at the Athens Olympic Stadium from August 25 to 28. Seventy-two athletes from 58 nations competed. The event was won by Yuriy Borzakovskiy of Russia, the first medal for the nation in the event. Wilson Kipketer of Denmark became the 10th man to win a second medal in the 800 metres.
Honorary Captain Sriram Singh Shekhawat is a former Indian middle-distance runner.
Thomas Chamney is an Irish runner who was born in Clonmel and brought up in Dublin. He specialises in the 800 metres event. He was educated at Kilkenny College and at Saint Columba's College, Dublin. Chamney runs for the Crusaders AC club whilst in Dublin and has been on an athletics scholarship at the University of Notre Dame, South Bend, Indiana where he studied English from 2002–2007. He is a four-time Irish Senior 800m champion and competed at the Beijing Olympics in that event in 2008.
Nicholas Boone Symmonds is an American YouTube personality and retired middle-distance track athlete, from Boise, Idaho, who specialized in the 800 meters and 1500 meters distances. Symmonds signed with Brooks Running in January 2014 after a 7-year sponsorship with Nike. In college at Willamette University he won seven NCAA Division III titles in outdoor track. Symmonds is a 6-time US National 800 meters champion. He has competed in the 800m at two Olympic Games, reaching the semi-finals in Beijing 2008; in London 2012, he finished fifth in the final, running a personal best of 1:42.95 behind David Rudisha's world record. He won a silver medal in the 800 meters at the 2013 World Championships, having previously finished third in the 2009 final and Third in 2011.
Djibouti has participated in nine Summer Olympic Games as of the completion of the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. They have never competed in the Winter Olympic Games. Djibouti debuted at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, United States of America with three athletes, but did not take home a medal. The highest number of Djiboutian athletes participating in a summer Games is eight in the 1992 games in Barcelona, Spain. Only one Djiboutian athlete has ever won a medal at the Olympics, marathon runner Hussein Ahmed Salah, who won a bronze medal in the 1988 marathon.
Geena Gall, is an Olympic American mid-distance runner who ran for the University of Michigan. Gall's achievements include back to back NCAA Outdoor Championships in the 800m in 2008 and 2009, representing the USA at the 2012 Olympic Games in London and 2009 World Championships in Athletics in Berlin, Germany in the 800m. She also competed at the North American Central American Caribbean Championships in San Salvador, El Salvador in 2007 and Toluca, Mexico in 2008. Gall was a member of the "Fab Four" who set two collegiate records at the 2007 Penn Relays, a ten-time NCAA All-American, owning two Big Ten 800 meter records and two DMR records, 10 Big Ten championships, numerous U of M school records, and at Grand Blanc High School she was a three-time national champion.
Haiti sent a delegation to compete in the 2008 Summer Olympics held in Beijing, People's Republic of China, from August 8 to August 24, 2008. Its participation in Beijing marked its seventh consecutive appearance at the summer Olympics and its fourteenth appearance overall, with its first being at the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris. The Haitian Olympic team included seven athletes participating in track and field, boxing, and judo. More women participated for Haiti in 2008 than at any single Olympic games prior. Although Pierre and Dorival advanced to quarterfinals in their events, there were no Haitian medalists in Beijing. Brutus carried his country's flag at the ceremonies.
Sudan sent a delegation to compete at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China. Nine competitors, all from the Darfur region and northern Sudan, represented Sudan at the Beijing games.
Alejandro Gómez Perez is a Venezuelan swimmer. At the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, he participated in the men's 1500 metre freestyle, but was eliminated in the qualifying heats. His mother Maria competed in the 1976 Summer Olympics in the 200 and 400m freestyle events.
Anthony William Whiteman is a male British former middle distance runner who competed in the 1996 Summer Olympics and in the 2000 Summer Olympics.
Benjamín Manuel Enzema Owono is an Equatorial Guinean athlete. In the 1500 m event at the 2009 World Championships in Berlin, he set a personal best time of 4:13.17. At the 2012 IAAF World Indoor Championships in Istanbul, Enzema set a new national record time in the 800 m with a 1:58.19. Three months later at the 2012 African Championships in Porto-Novo, Benin, he shaved a further 1.9 seconds off the record, lowering it to 1:56.29.
Jeffrey "Jeff" Riseley is an Australian middle-distance athlete. Riseley competed in the 2008, 2012, 2016 and 2020 Summer Olympics.
Jan Sekpona is a retired Togolese middle-distance runner, who specialized in the 800 metres. Sekpona qualified for the Togolese squad in the men's 800 metres at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens by attaining an entry time and a personal best of 1:52.40. Running against seven other athletes in heat three, Sekpona crossed the finish line by nearly ten minutes behind leader Wilson Kipketer of Denmark with an eighth-place time in 1:54.25. Sekpona failed to advance into the semifinals as he placed farther from two automatic slots for the next round and ranked no. 70 overall in the prelims. Sekpona was also appointed as the Togolese flag bearer by the National Olympic Committee in the opening ceremony.
Djibouti competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 5 to 21 August 2016. The nation's participation marked its eighth appearance at the Summer Olympics. Djibouti did not field any athletes at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens.
Naib Subedar Jinson Johnson is an Indian middle-distance runner and an Indian Army Junior Commissioned Officer (JCO) who specialises in the 800 and 1500 metres event. He participated in the 800 metres event at the 2016 Summer Olympics. In 2018 Commonwealth Games he finished fifth setting a new national record in the 1500 metres race by breaking 23 year old record of Bahadur Prasad. Later in 2018, he went on to win the gold medal in the men's 1500m at the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta, Indonesia with a timing of 3:44.72 in the final event, as well as a silver medal in 800 metres.
Luke Mathews is an Australian middle-distance runner who competes in the 800 metres and 1500 metres. He represented his country in both events at the 2016 Summer Olympics. As well as in the 4 × 800 m at the 2017 IAAF World Relays, the 1500m at the 2017 IAAF World Championships and in both events at the 2018 Commonwealth Games. He also competed for Australia at 2019 World Athletics Championships in the 800 m.
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.
Guilherme Pereira da Costa is a Brazilian swimmer. He is the 400m freestyle bronze medalist at the 2022 World Championships. At the Pan American Games, he was champion of the 400, 800 and 1500 metre freestyle. He is also currently the South American record holder in the 400, 800, and 1500 metre freestyle.
Abdirahman Saeed Hassan is a Qatari athlete who specializes in the 800m and 1500m.
Charlie Hunter is an Australian middle-distance runner who specializes in the 800 metres.
