5000 metres at the Olympics

The 5000 metres at the Summer Olympics has been contested since the fifth edition of the multi-sport event. The men's 5000 m has been present on the Olympic athletics programme since 1912. The 3000 metres was the first women's Olympic long-distance track event, making its initial appearance at the 1984 Olympics, and this distance was extended to match the men's event from 1996 onwards. It is the most prestigious 5000 m race at elite level. The competition format typically has two qualifying heats leading to a final between fifteen athletes.

5000 metres at the Olympic Games
The 2012 Olympic men's 5000 m final
Overview
Sport	Athletics
Gender	Men and women
Years held	Men: 1912 – 2016 Women: 1984 – 2016
Olympic record
Men	12:57.82 Kenenisa Bekele (2008)
Women	14:26.17 Vivian Cheruiyot (2016)
Reigning champion
Men	Mo Farah (GBR)
Women	Vivian Cheruiyot (KEN)

The Olympic records for the event are 12:57.82 minutes for men, set by Kenenisa Bekele in 2008, and 14:40.79 minutes for women, set by Gabriela Szabo in 2000. At the inaugural 1912 Olympic 5000 metres, Hannes Kolehmainen set the first official IAAF world record for the event. However, this remains the only time that the 5000 metres world record has been broken in Olympic competition. The best time recorded for the women's Olympic 3000 m was 8:26.53 minutes by Tetyana Dorovskikh (then Samolenko) at the 1988 Seoul Olympics; the world record for that event was not improved during an Olympic race.

Only three athletes have won multiple titles in the event. Lasse Virén became the first with his back-to-back wins in 1972 and 1976, while Meseret Defar became the first woman to win two titles in 2012, having previously won in 2004. Mo Farah became the third person with multiple titles, and the second with back-to-back wins, in 2012 and 2016. Three athletes have reached the podium on three occasions: Defar was also the 2008 bronze medallist, Tirunesh Dibaba won medals from 2004–2012, and Paavo Nurmi won medals in the period from 1920–1928. Historically, athletes in this event have also had success in the 10,000 metres at the Olympics. The winner of the men's Olympic 5000 m has completed a long-distance track double on nine occasions, the most recent being Farah at the 2016 Rio Olympics. Tirunesh Dibaba is the only woman to complete this double, having done so at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Ethiopia is the most successful nation in the event, having taken six gold medals and fifteen medals in total. The next most successful nation, depending on definition, is either Finland or Kenya. In terms of gold medals, Finland is equal with Ethiopia at six, but has a total of twelve overall medals to Ethiopia's 15. Finland's period of great success in the 1920s and 1930s led to the wide usage of the nickname the Flying Finns; Kaarlo Maaninka was the last Finnish athlete to medal over 5000 m, in 1980. Kenya have won fourteen medals in the 5000 m, second only to Ethiopia in total medals in the event, although John Ngugi and Vivian Cheruiyot are the only Kenyans to have won Olympic gold.

Medal summary

Men

Games	Gold	Silver	Bronze
1912 Stockholm	Hannes Kolehmainen  Finland	Jean Bouin  France	George Hutson  Great Britain
1920 Antwerp	Joseph Guillemot  France	Paavo Nurmi  Finland	Eric Backman  Sweden
1924 Paris	Paavo Nurmi  Finland	Ville Ritola  Finland	Edvin Wide  Sweden
1928 Amsterdam	Ville Ritola  Finland	Paavo Nurmi  Finland	Edvin Wide  Sweden
1932 Los Angeles	Lauri Lehtinen  Finland	Ralph Hill  United States	Lauri Virtanen  Finland
1936 Berlin	Gunnar Höckert  Finland	Lauri Lehtinen  Finland	Henry Jonsson  Sweden
1948 London	Gaston Reiff  Belgium	Emil Zátopek  Czechoslovakia	Wim Slijkhuis  Netherlands
1952 Helsinki	Emil Zátopek  Czechoslovakia	Alain Mimoun  France	Herbert Schade  Germany
1956 Melbourne	Vladimir Kuts  Soviet Union	Gordon Pirie  Great Britain	Derek Ibbotson  Great Britain
1960 Rome	Murray Halberg  New Zealand	Hans Grodotzki  United Team of Germany	Kazimierz Zimny  Poland
1964 Tokyo	Bob Schul  United States	Harald Norpoth  United Team of Germany	Bill Dellinger  United States
1968 Mexico City	Mohammed Gammoudi  Tunisia	Kipchoge Keino  Kenya	Naftali Temu  Kenya
1972 Munich	Lasse Virén  Finland	Mohammed Gammoudi  Tunisia	Ian Stewart  Great Britain
1976 Montreal	Lasse Virén  Finland	Dick Quax  New Zealand	Klaus-Peter Hildenbrand  West Germany
1980 Moscow	Miruts Yifter  Ethiopia	Suleiman Nyambui  Tanzania	Kaarlo Maaninka  Finland
1984 Los Angeles	Saïd Aouita  Morocco	Markus Ryffel  Switzerland	António Leitão  Portugal
1988 Seoul	John Ngugi  Kenya	Dieter Baumann  West Germany	Hansjörg Kunze  East Germany
1992 Barcelona	Dieter Baumann  Germany	Paul Bitok  Kenya	Fita Bayisa  Ethiopia
1996 Atlanta	Vénuste Niyongabo  Burundi	Paul Bitok  Kenya	Khalid Boulami  Morocco
2000 Sydney	Million Wolde  Ethiopia	Ali Saïdi-Sief  Algeria	Brahim Lahlafi  Morocco
2004 Athens	Hicham El Guerrouj  Morocco	Kenenisa Bekele  Ethiopia	Eliud Kipchoge  Kenya
2008 Beijing	Kenenisa Bekele  Ethiopia	Eliud Kipchoge  Kenya	Edwin Soi  Kenya
2012 London	Mo Farah  Great Britain	Dejen Gebremeskel  Ethiopia	Thomas Pkemei Longosiwa  Kenya
2016 Rio de Janeiro	Mo Farah  Great Britain	Paul Kipkemoi Chelimo  United States	Hagos Gebrhiwet  Ethiopia

Multiple medalists

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Olympics	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Mohamed Farah	Great Britain (GBR)	2012–2016	2	0	0	2
2	Lasse Viren	Finland (FIN)	1972–1976	2	0	0	2
3	Paavo Nurmi	Finland (FIN)	1920–1928	1	2	0	3
4	Ville Ritola	Finland (FIN)	1924–1928	1	1	0	2
5	Lauri Lehtinen	Finland (FIN)	1932–1936	1	1	0	2
6	Emil Zátopek	Czechoslovakia (TCH)	1948–1952	1	1	0	2
7	Mohammed Gammoudi	Tunisia (TUN)	1968–1972	1	1	0	2
8	Dieter Baumann	Germany (GER)	1988–1992	1	1	0	2
9	Kenenisa Bekele	Ethiopia (ETH)	2004–2008	1	1	0	2
10	Paul Bitok	Kenya (KEN)	1992–1996	0	2	0	2
11	Eliud Kipchoge	Kenya (KEN)	2004–2008	0	1	1	2
12	Edvin Wide	Sweden (SWE)	1924–1928	0	0	2	2

Medals by country

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Finland (FIN)	6	4	2	12
2	Ethiopia (ETH)	3	2	2	7
3	Great Britain (GBR)	2	1	3	6
4	Morocco (MAR)	2	0	2	4
5	Kenya (KEN)	1	4	4	9
6=	Germany (GER)^[nb]	1	2	1	4
6=	United States (USA)	1	2	1	4
8	France (FRA)	1	2	0	3
9=	Czechoslovakia (TCH)	1	1	0	2
9=	New Zealand (NZL)	1	1	0	2
9=	Tunisia (TUN)	1	1	0	2
12=	Belgium (BEL)	1	0	0	1
12=	Burundi (BDI)	1	0	0	1
12=	Soviet Union (URS)	1	0	0	1
15	West Germany (FRG)	0	1	1	2
16=	Algeria (ALG)	0	1	0	1
16=	Switzerland (SUI)	0	1	0	1
16=	Tanzania (TAN)	0	1	0	1
19	Sweden (SWE)	0	0	4	4
20=	East Germany (GDR)	0	0	1	1
20=	Netherlands (NED)	0	0	1	1
20=	Poland (POL)	0	0	1	1
20=	Portugal (POR)	0	0	1	1

• ^nb The German total includes teams both competing as Germany and the United Team of Germany, but not East or West Germany.

Women's 3000 metres

Games	Gold	Silver	Bronze
1984 Los Angeles	Maricica Puică  Romania	Wendy Smith-Sly  Great Britain	Lynn Williams  Canada
1988 Seoul	Tetyana Samolenko  Soviet Union	Paula Ivan  Romania	Yvonne Murray  Great Britain
1992 Barcelona	Yelena Romanova  Unified Team	Tetyana Dorovskikh  Unified Team	Angela Chalmers  Canada

Multiple medalists

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Olympics	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Tetyana Dorovskikh	Soviet Union (URS)  Unified Team (EUN)	1988–1992	1	1	0	2

Medalists by country

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1=	Romania (ROU)	1	1	0	2
1=	Unified Team (EUN)	1	1	0	2
3	Soviet Union (URS)	1	0	0	1
4	Great Britain (GBR)	0	1	1	2
5	Canada (CAN)	0	0	2	2

Women's 5000 metres

Games	Gold	Silver	Bronze
1996 Atlanta	Wang Junxia  China	Pauline Konga  Kenya	Roberta Brunet  Italy
2000 Sydney	Gabriela Szabo  Romania	Sonia O'Sullivan  Ireland	Gete Wami  Ethiopia
2004 Athens	Meseret Defar  Ethiopia	Isabella Ochichi  Kenya	Tirunesh Dibaba  Ethiopia
2008 Beijing	Tirunesh Dibaba  Ethiopia	Meseret Defar  Ethiopia	Sylvia Kibet  Kenya
2012 London	Meseret Defar  Ethiopia	Vivian Cheruiyot  Kenya	Tirunesh Dibaba  Ethiopia
2016 Rio de Janeiro	Vivian Cheruiyot  Kenya	Hellen Obiri  Kenya	Almaz Ayana  Ethiopia

Multiple medalists

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Olympics	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Meseret Defar	Ethiopia (ETH)	2004–2012	2	0	1	3
2	Tirunesh Dibaba	Ethiopia (ETH)	2004–2012	1	0	2	3
3	Vivian Cheruiyot	Kenya (KEN)	2012–2016	1	1	0	2

Medalists by country

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Ethiopia (ETH)	3	0	5	8
2	Kenya (KEN)	1	4	0	5
3=	China (CHN)	1	0	0	1
3=	Romania (ROU)	1	0	0	1
5=	Ireland (IRL)	0	1	0	1
5=	Turkey (TUR)	0	1	0	1
7	Italy (ITA)	0	0	1	1

References

Participation and athlete data

• Athletics Men's 5000 metres Medalists. Sports Reference. Retrieved on 2014-02-07.
• Athletics Women's 5000 metres Medalists. Sports Reference. Retrieved on 2014-02-07.
• Athletics Women's 3000 metres Medalists. Sports Reference. Retrieved on 2014-02-07.

Olympic record progressions

• Mallon, Bill (2012). TRACK & FIELD ATHLETICS – OLYMPIC RECORD PROGRESSIONS. Track and Field News. Retrieved on 2014-02-07.

Specific

External links

• IAAF 5000 metres homepage
• Official Olympics website
• Olympic athletics records from Track & Field News