The men's

1500 metres The 1500 metres or 1,500-metre run (typically pronounced 'fifteen-hundred metres') 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 Athletic ...

race, the longest flat-track race of the 1896 Summer Olympics programme, was the last event on 7 April. It was run in a single heat, with eight athletes competing.

Summary

Albin Lermusiaux Albin Georges Lermusiaux (9 August 1874 – 20 January 1940) was a French athlete and sport shooter who competed at the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens. Career In total Lermusiaux competed in four different events at the 1896 Summer Olympics, he ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

led for most of the race, but was caught by Flack and Blake 100m from the end and finished with a

bronze medal A bronze medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of bronze awarded to the third-place finisher of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc. The outright winner receive ...

Edwin Flack Edwin Harold Flack (5 November 1873 – 10 January 1935) was an Australian athlete and tennis player. Also known as "Teddy", he was Australia's first Olympian, being its only representative in 1896, and the first Olympic champion in the ...

won the race by five meters, becoming the first

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

n Olympic champion. The four Greek athletes trailed the other four athletes, though records do not indicate which position the last two finished in.

Background

This was the first appearance of the event, which is one of 12 athletics events to have been held at every Summer Olympics.

of France had held the unofficial world record for two weeks in 1895; the two men who had broken his record since then were not present in Athens. Arthur Blake of the United States and

of Australia were also significant distance runners competing.

Competition format

The competition consisted of a single round.Official Report, pp. 71–72. The track was 330 metres in circumference (unlike modern tracks which are 400 metres), so the race was slightly more than 4.5 laps. The track had very sharp turns and was made of loose

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s, making running difficult. Runners turned clockwise rather than the current counterclockwise turns.

Records

set the initial Olympic record of 4:15.6 in the only race held.

Schedule

The precise times of the events are not recorded. The 1500 metres was the final event of the second day.

Results

References

Notes

* (Digitally available a
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* (Excerpt available a
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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Athletics at the 1896 Summer Olympics - Men's 1500 metres Men's 1500 metres 1500 metres at the Olympics