The men's 3000 metres steeplechase at the 2004 Summer Olympics as part of the athletics program were held at the Athens Olympic Stadium from August 21 to 24. The athletes competed in a three-heat qualifying round in which the top three from each heat, together with the six fastest losing runners, were given a place in the final race. The winning margin was 0.30 seconds.
Mahiedine Mekhissi-Benabbad is a retired French professional middle-distance runner of Algerian descent who mainly competed in the 3000 metres steeplechase. He is the only man to win three Olympic steeplechase medals, claiming silver in 2008 and 2012 and bronze in 2016. He also won two bronze medals at the IAAF World Championships in Athletics in 2011 and 2013. Mekhissi-Benabbad earned titles at five consecutive editions of the European Athletics Championships between 2010 and 2018.
Evan Reese Jager is an American middle- and long-distance runner who specializes in the 3000 metres steeplechase. In his speciality event, he won a silver medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics and a bronze at the 2017 World Championships. Jager is the current NACAC area record holder in the event with a time of 8:00.45. He is sponsored by Nike and is coached by Jerry Schumacher of the Bowerman Track Club.
Vincent Zouaoui-Dandrieux is a French long-distance runner who specialises in the steeplechase. He represented France at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and at the 2012 London Olympics and competed at the World Championships in Athletics in 2007, 2009 and 2011. His personal best for the event is 8:14.74 minutes.
Zemzem Ahmed Deko is an Ethiopian steeplechase runner and road runner. She emerged as one of Ethiopia's top steeplechasers, and had broken her own personal records three times in 2007.
Matteo Villani is an Italian steeplechase runner.
Arnaud Ghislain is a Belgian sprinter, who specialized in the 400 metres. He is an indoor national senior champion for his category, and also a member of the Belgian national track relay team.
Al Mustafa Riyadh is a Bahraini marathon runner of Moroccan origin. Riyadh represented Bahrain at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, where he competed for the men's marathon, along with his compatriots Abdulhak Zakaria, and Nasar Sakar Saeed. Unfortunately, he was unable to finish the entire race for the second time since he did the same fate at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens.
Yunier Pérez Romero is a Cuban track and field athlete, who specializes in sprinting events.
Mahau Camargo Suguimati is a Brazilian track hurdler of Japanese ancestry. Since the age of eight, Suguimati had lived and studied for sixteen years in Niiza, Japan. Suguimati also attended schools around the prefecture, where he discovered his natural ability and talent of running and hurdling, under his personal coach and trainer Atsushi Hishinuma. He made his international debut, and represented his birth nation Brazil at the 2007 Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro, where he finished seventh in the final of the 400 m hurdles, with his personal best time of 49.63 seconds.
Taylor Milne is a Canadian middle distance runner. Milne made his official debut at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, where he competed in the 1500 metres. At the 2016 Olympics he was eliminated in the heats of the 3000 m steeplechase.
Rubén Palomeque Barrera is a Spanish steeplechase runner. In 2008, he set his personal best time of 8:20.07 by finishing third at the European Athletics Premium Meeting in Heusden-Zolder, Belgium.
Dimitrios Gravalos is a Greek sprinter, who specialized in the 400 metres. He won the gold medal for the 400 metres at the 2003 European Junior Championships in Tampere, Finland, with a time of 46.54 seconds.
Yoel Armando Tapia Gómez is a Dominican sprinter, who specialized in the 400 metres. He won two medals for the national relay team at the 2007 Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and also, at the 2011 Pan American Games in Guadalajara, Mexico.
Rabia Makhloufi is an Algerian steeplechase runner. Makhloufi represented Algeria at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, where he competed for the men's 3000 metres steeplechase. He ran in the first heat against twelve other athletes, including France's Bouabdellah Tahri and Kenya's Brimin Kipruto, who eventually won the gold medal in the final. He finished the race in eighth place by six hundredths of a second (0.06) ahead of Japan's Yoshitaka Iwamizu, with a time of 8:29.74. Makhloufi, however, failed to advance into the final, as he placed twenty-fifth overall and was ranked farther below four mandatory slots for the next round.
Pieter Smith is a South African sprinter, who specialized in the 400 metres. He set his personal best time of 45.63 seconds by winning the 400 metres event at the 2009 South African Championships in Stellenbosch.
William Andrew Nelson is an American steeplechase runner. He is a two-time Big 12 Conference steeplechase titleholder, a six-time NCAA All-American, and a runner-up at the 2008 NCAA Outdoor Championships. He also posted a personal best time of 8:17.27 by finishing eleventh at the 2011 Diamond League Meet in Monaco. In the same year, Nelson claimed his first ever career title at the U.S. Outdoor Track & Field Championships, with a time of 8:28.46.
Mourad Marofit is a Moroccan long-distance runner. He set his personal best time of 13:02.84, by winning the men's 5000 metres at the KBC Night of Athletics in Heusden-Zolder, Belgium.
Abdelaziz Ennaji El-Idrissi is a Moroccan long-distance runner. He set his personal best time of 13:06.81 in the men's 5,000 metres at the KBC Night of Athletics in Heusden-Zolder, Belgium.
Donna Tyberek-MacFarlane is an Australian middle distance and steeplechase runner. She set both an Australian record and her personal best time of 9:18.35, by finishing third in the women's 3000 metres steeplechase at the 2008 IAAF Golden League Meeting in Oslo, Norway.
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