1,500 metres, Women

Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon was the overwhelming favorite. She was the two-time defending gold medalist, had just improved her own world record in 7 July 2024 with 3:49.04 at the Paris Diamond League meeting, and won the World Championships in 2017, 2022, and 2023. The only runner who was thought able to challenge her was the Netherlands’ Sifan Hassan, but she opted to run the distance triple of 5000, 10000, and marathon. Both Ethiopia’s Gudaf Tsegay and Diribe Welteji, as well as Australia’s Jessica Hull-Jolliffe, were clear contenders for the silver medal.

Kipyegon easily made the final, winning the first semi-final, although Welteji won a very fast second semi-final in 3:55.10. Twelve runners broke 4-minutes in that second semi. The final was very fast, as Tsegay took the field through the first lap in 59.23. The pace slowed on the second lap as Kipyegon moved into second place, behind Tsegay, as the field bunched. Kipyegon took the lead by the bell as Tsegay could not maintain the pace. Kipyegon strung out the runners behind but had too much for all of them and increased her lead throughout the final lap, winning by over 10 metres from Hull-Jolliffe, who passed Britain’s Georgia Bell and Welteji on the final straight.

Kipyegon finished in 3:51.29, shattering the Olympic record. It was her third gold medal and fourth Olympic medal, as five days earlier she had taken silver in the 5,000 metres. Kipyegon achieved a rare Olympic three-peat with her victory, joining American Ryan Crouser and Belgian Nafi Thiam, who had already done so in Paris in the men’s shot put and the women’s heptathlon, respectively. Kipyegon became only the third woman to record an Olympic three-peat in athletics, after Thiam, and Polish hammer thrower Anita Włodarczyk, who won in 2012-2020.