Olympic Games Running Records

What are the Olympic Records in the main running races? We look at the fastest times run in the Olympics over 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m, 1500m, 5000m, 10,000m and the marathon, and compare them to the World Records in the same events.

HOW DO THE OLYMPIC AND WORLD RECORDS COMPARE?

We’ve listed the Olympic Record and the World Record for all the events below. It’s only in the women’s 200m and the men’s 400m and 800m that the World Record was run at the Olympic Games.

One reason is that the Olympics are only every four years, and can come with additional pressure on performance, while in middle-, long-distance and marathon races the events tend to be more tactical at the Olympics compared to regular season meets, with runners not wanting to blast ahead and burn up, preferring to pace it better to win medals over breaking records. The weather at summer games can also be a factor in faster times.

All details on all major running World Records can be found here. Or you can see the top 20 men and women marathon times here.

WOMEN’S OLYMPIC RECORDS

DISTANCE	WHO	OLYMPIC GAMES	OLYMPIC RECORD	WORLD RECORD
100m	Elaine Thompson-Herah	Tokyo 2021	00:10.61	00:10.49
200m	Florence Griffith-Joyner	Seoul 1988	00:21.34	00:21.34
400m	Marie-Jose Perec	Atlanta 1996	00:48.25	00:47.60
800m	Nadezhda Olizarenko	Moscow 1980	01:53.43	1:53.28
1500m	Faith Kipyegon	Tokyo 2021	03:53.11	3:49.04
5,000m	Vivian Cheruiyot	Rio 2016	14:26.17	14:00.21
10,000m	Almaz Ayana	Rio 2016	29:17.45	28:54.14
Marathon	Sifan Hassan	Paris 2024	02:22:55	02:09:56

MEN’S OLYMPIC RECORDS

DISTANCE	WHO	OLYMPIC GAMES	OLYMPIC RECORD	WORLD RECORD
100m	Usain Bolt	London 2012	00:09.63	00:09.58
200m	Usain Bolt	Beijing 2008	00:19.30	00:19.19
400m	Wayne van Niekerk	Rio 2016	00:43.03	00:43.03
800m	David Rudisha	London 2012	01:40.91	01:40.91
1500m	Cole Hocker	Paris 2024	03:27.65	03:26.00
5,000m	Kenenisa Bekele	Beijing 2008	12:57.82	12:35.36
10,000m	Joshua Cheptegei	Paris 2024	26:43.14	26:11.00
Marathon	Tamirat Tola	Paris 2024	02:06:26	02:00:35