Athletics at the 1896 Summer Olympics – Men's 1500 metres

Men's 1500 metres at the Games of the I Olympiad
Venue	Panathinaiko Stadium
Dates	April 7
Competitors	8 from 5 nations
Medalists
Edwin Flack Australia   Arthur Blake United States   Albin Lermusiaux France

Athletics at the 1896 Summer Olympics
Track events
100 m		men
400 m		men
800 m		men
1500 m		men
110 m hurdles		men
Road events
Marathon		men
Field events
Long jump		men
Triple jump		men
High jump		men
Pole vault		men
Shot put		men
Discus throw		men

The men's 1500 metres 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.

Albin Lermusiaux of France led for most of the race, but was caught by Flack and Blake 100m from the end and finished with a bronze medal. Edwin Flack won the race by five meters, becoming the first Australian Olympic champion. The four Greek athletes trailed the other four athletes, though records do not indicate which position the last two finished in.

Results

Place	Athlete	Time
1	Edwin Flack (AUS)	4:33.2
2	Arthur Blake (USA)	4:33.6
3	Albin Lermusiaux (FRA)	4:36.0
4	Carl Galle (GER)	4:39.0
5	Angelos Fetsis (GRE)	Unknown
6	Dimitrios Golemis (GRE)	Unknown
7-8	Konstantinos Karakatsanis (GRE)	Unknown
	Dimitrios Tomprof (GRE)	Unknown

References

• Lampros, S.P.; Polites, N.G.; De Coubertin, Pierre; Philemon, P.J. & Anninos, C. (1897). The Olympic Games: BC 776 – AD 1896. Athens: Charles Beck.  (Digitally available at la84foundation.org)
• Mallon, Bill & Widlund, Ture (1998). The 1896 Olympic Games. Results for All Competitors in All Events, with Commentary. Jefferson: McFarland. ISBN 978-0-7864-0379-0.  (Excerpt available at la84foundation.org)
• Smith, Michael Llewellyn (2004). Olympics in Athens 1896. The Invention of the Modern Olympic Games. London: Profile Books. ISBN 978-1-86197-342-9.