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.
Mireia Belmonte García is a Spanish Olympic, world, and European champion swimmer. She is the world record holder in the short course 200 metre butterfly and 400 metre individual medley. Formerly, she held the world record in the short course 400 metre freestyle, 800 metre freestyle, and 1500 metre freestyle. She was the first Spanish woman to win a gold medal in swimming at an Olympic Games and is widely considered to be the greatest Spanish swimmer of all time.
David Lekuta Rudisha, MBS is a Kenyan middle-distance runner who specialized in the 800 metres. He is a two-time back-to-back Olympic champion from the 2012 London and 2016 Rio Olympics, a two-time World champion from the 2011 and 2015 World Championships in Athletics, and a world record holder at the event with a time of 1:40.91, set at the 2012 London Games on 9 August 2012. Rudisha is the first and only person to ever run 800 metres under 1:41, and he holds the three fastest, six of the eight fastest, and half of the twenty fastest times ever run in this event.
Ryan Andrew Cochrane is a retired Canadian competitive swimmer who specialised in freestyle distance events. Cochrane is an Olympic silver and bronze medallist as well as a triple gold medallist from the Pan Pacific Swimming Championships. He is also a four-time Commonwealth Games champion in the 400-metre and 1,500-metre having won both medals in 2010 and 2014. He holds six world championship medals from the 800-metre and 1500-metre, this also makes Cochrane Canada's all-time leading medallist for a swimmer at the World Aquatics Championships. Cochrane also won gold medals in the 400 and 1,500 m freestyle at the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto, as well as a bronze in the 4 x 200 m freestyle at the 2015 Games. From the year 2008 - 2015, Cochrane was named the Canadian male swimmer of the year - winning the award 8 times in a row.
Gregorio Paltrinieri is an Italian competitive swimmer. He is a former world record holder in the short course 1500 metre freestyle. He holds the European record in the long course 800 metre and 1500 metre freestyle events with times of 7:39.27 and 14:32.80, respectively. In the 1500 metre freestyle, he is a 2016 Olympic, three-time world long course, two-time world short course, three-time European long course, and three-time European short course champion. In the 800 metre freestyle, he is a 2019 world long course, 2022 world short course, three-time European long course, and 2021 European short course champion. In the 10 kilometre open water swim, he is a 2022 world and 2020 European champion. In the 5 kilometre open water swim, he is a two-time European champion.
Melissa Bishop-Nriagu is a Canadian runner who specializes in the 800 metres. She competed at the 2012, 2016 Olympics and 2020 Olympics. She won a silver medal at the 2015 World Athletics Championships. Her World Championship medal was a Canadian woman's first-ever medal in the 800 m. Bishop-Nriagu graduated from University of Windsor and was only the third Canadian woman to achieve a time under 2:00 minutes in the 800 m. She is currently the national record holder for this distance.
Taoufik Makhloufi is an Algerian athlete who specialises in middle-distance running. He became the 1500 metres Olympic champion at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, England. In 2016, Makhloufi took the silver medal in the 800m and 1500 m at the Summer Olympics in Rio, Brazil.
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. His personal best is 1:42.51 in the 800 metres.
Winnie Nanyondo is a Ugandan middle- and long-distance runner. She has represented her native country in several important international events, including both the 2016 Rio Olympics and 2020 Tokyo Olympics, the 2014 World University Cross Country Championships, the 2014 Commonwealth Games, the 2013 Summer Universiade, and the 2012 World Junior Championships in Athletics.
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 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.
Clayton Murphy is an American middle-distance runner. He won the bronze medal in the 800-meter run at the 2016 Olympic Games. He was the gold medalist in the 800-meter run at the 2015 Pan American Games. He ran collegiately for the University of Akron, before signing with Nike in June 2016 and joining the Nike Oregon Project.
Habitam Alemu Bayih is an Ethiopian middle-distance runner specialising in the 800 metres.
Kate Grace is an American middle-distance runner. A multiple All-American runner for Yale University, she turned professional in 2011. Grace competed for the United States at the 2016 Summer Olympics, making it to the final of the 800 metres.
Adelle Tracey is an American-born middle-distance runner competing for Jamaica since 2022, having previously represented Great Britain, where she grew up. Tracey competes primarily in the 800 metres. She placed fourth in the event at the 2018 European Athletics Championships, but claimed a bronze in the North American equivalent, the 2022 NACAC Championships representing her new country, Jamaica. The following day, Tracey won silver for Jamaica in the 1500 metres event in the same championships.
Ciara Mageean is a middle-distance runner from Portaferry in Northern Ireland who specialises in the 1500 metres. She is a three-time European Athletics Championship medallist at the event, with bronze in 2016 and silver in 2022 outdoors, and bronze in 2019 indoors. Mageean also won silver at the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
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.
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.
Mohamed Ali Gouaned is an Algerian middle-distance runner specializing in the 400 meters and 800 meters. He holds the Junior World best in 600 meters with a time of 1:14:79 set in Algiers on 26 March 2021 breaking the record held by Wilfred Bungei since 1 September 1999 with a time of 1:14:94.
Djamel Sedjati (جمال سجاتي), May 3, 1999, Tiaret) is an Algerian middle-distance runner specializing in the 800 meters. Unknown in Algeria, he came to prominence in 2021 after running a few meetings in Algeria. He finished second to Mohamed Ali Gouaned in 600 meters with a time of 1:17:40 during the Algerian Winter Championships held in Algiers on 26 March 2021. He also ran 1:45.99 in Batna meeting on 12 April 2021 defeating Mohamed Ali Gouaned, and finishing second behind Mohamed Belbachir in Algiers meeting on 7 May 2021 clocking a personal best of 1:45.86.
