1924 Summer Olympics / Athletics - 800 m (men)

sport	athletics
discipline	800 meter run
gender	Men
Attendees	43 athletes from 21 countries
Competition location	Stade de Colombes
Competition phase	July 6, 1924 (preliminary round) July 11, 1924 (semi-finals / finals)
Medalist Douglas Lowe ( GBR )   Paul Martin ( SUI )   Schuyler Enck ( USA )

The men's 800-meter race at the 1924 Olympic Games in Paris was held on July 6th and 7th, 1924 in the Stade de Colombes . 43 athletes took part.

The Olympic champion was the Briton Douglas Lowe ahead of the Swiss Paul Martin . Bronze went to US runner Schuyler Enck .

A special feature of this race was that the stadium circuit in Colombes was 500 meters long.

Existing records

• World record : 1: 51.9 min - Ted Meredith ( USA ), Stockholm , July 8, 1912
• Olympic record : 46.2s - Bill Carr ( USA ), Stockholm final , July 8, 1912

Conducting the competition

The runners started a total of eight heats on July 6th. The three best runners in each case qualified for the semi-finals that took place the next day. From the three semi-finals, the first three placed came into the final, which was contested on July 8, 1924.

Note: The qualified athletes are highlighted in light blue.

Prelims

Date: July 6, 1924

Not all times have been passed down.

Forward 1

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	René Wiriath	France	1: 59.0 min
2	William Richardson	United States	1: 59.6 min
3	Gosta Jansson	Finland	1: 59.9 min
4th	Clifford Davis	South African Union	k. A.

Forward 2

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Clarence Oldfield	South African Union	1: 58.0 min
2	Harry Houghton	Great Britain	1: 58.4 min
3	Schuyler Enck	United States	1: 58.6 min
4th	Maurice Grosclaude	France	k. A.
5	Giuseppe Bonini	Italy	k. A.
5	Eduard Riedl	Czechoslovakia	2: 02.5 min

Forward 3

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Paul Martin	Switzerland	2: 00.2 min
2	Sven Lundgren	Sweden	2: 01.4 min
3	Jack Harris	Canada	2: 01.6 min
4th	Malcolm Boyd	Australia	k. A.

Forward 4

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Adriaan Paulen	Netherlands	1: 59.2 min
2	John Watters	United States	1: 59.8 min
3	Tom McKay	Canada	2: 00.1 min
4th	Puccio Pucci	Italy	k. A.
5	Roy Norman	Australia	k. A.
6th	Narciso Costa	Brazil	k. A.

Forward 5

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Rudolf Johansson	Sweden	1: 57.6 min
2	François Morren	Belgium	k. A.
3	Edgar Mountain	Great Britain	k. A.
4th	Ferruccio Bruni	Italy	k. A.
5	Hector Phillips	Canada	k. A.
6th	Stefan Ołdak	Poland	2: 09.0 min

Forward 6

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Kai Jensen	Denmark	1: 58.4 min
2	Norman MacEachern	Irish Free State	k. A.
3	Ray Dodge	United States	k. A.
4th	Stefan Kostrzewski	Poland	2: 01.6 min
5	Menso Menso	Netherlands	k. A.
6th	Jack Newman	Australia	k. A.
7th	Christophe Mirgain	Luxembourg	k. A.

Forward 7

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Henry Stallard	Great Britain	1: 57.6 min
2	Louis Philipps	France	1: 58.6 min
3	Albert Larsen	Denmark	1: 58.8 min
4th	Tokushige Noto	Japan	k. A.
5	Erik Byléhn	Sweden	k. A.

Forward 8

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Douglas Lowe	Great Britain	1: 58.0 min
2	Georges Baraton	France	1: 59.2 min
3	Charles Hoff	Norway	2: 02.1 min
4th	Karel Přibyl	Czechoslovakia	2: 03.8 min
5	Guillermo Amparan	Mexico	k. A.

Semifinals

Date: July 7, 1924

Not all times have been passed down.

Run 1

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Henry Stallard	Great Britain	1: 54.2 min
2	William Richardson	United States	1: 55.0 min
3	Paul Martin	Switzerland	1: 55.6 min
4th	Rudolf Johansson	Sweden	1: 55.7 min
5	Kai Jensen	Denmark	k. A.
6th	Clarence Oldfield	South African Union	k. A.
7th	Georges Baraton	France	1: 57.6 min
8th	Tom McKay	Canada	1: 58.5 min

Run 2

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Douglas Lowe	Great Britain	1: 56.8 min
2	Harry Houghton	Great Britain	1: 57.3 min
3	John Watters	United States	1: 57.4 min
4th	Sven Lundgren	Sweden	1: 57.6 min
5	Norman MacEachern	Irish Free State	1: 58.3 min
6th	François Morren	Belgium	1: 58.5 min
7th	René Wiriath	France	1: 59.6 min
8th	Albert Larsen	Denmark	2: 00.2 min

Run 3

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Ray Dodge	United States	1: 57.0 min
2	Schuyler Enck	United States	1: 57.6 min
3	Charles Hoff	Norway	1: 58.4 min
4th	Adriaan Paulen	Netherlands	1: 58.8 min
5	Gosta Jansson	Finland	1: 59.4 min
6th	Jack Harris	Canada	k. A.
7th	Edgar Mountain	Great Britain	k. A.
8th	Louis Philipps	France	k. A.

final

space	Surname	nation	Time	annotation
1	Douglas Lowe	Great Britain	1: 52.4 min
2	Paul Martin	Switzerland	1: 52.5 min
3	Schuyler Enck	United States	1: 52.9 min
4th	Henry Stallard	Great Britain	1: 53.0 min
5	William Richardson	United States	1: 53.7 min
6th	Ray Dodge	United States	1: 54.2 min
7th	John Watters	United States	1: 54.8 min
8th	Charles Hoff	Norway	1: 56.7 min
9	Harry Houghton	Great Britain	1: 58.0 min

Date: July 8, 1924

Henry Stallard, who had become British champion and had also defeated Douglas Lowe, came as the favorite. But in his intermediate run Stallard injured himself and was handicapped. He sought his salvation in flight, leading to the 600-meter mark after a 400-meter passage time of 54.0 s. Then his strength faded. Douglas Lowe, Paul Martin and, most recently, Schuyler Enck passed him. Right at the front there was a tough duel for gold, which Lowe narrowly won against the outsider Martin.

The times were top notch, Ted Meredith's world record from 1912 was missed by only half a second. Amazingly, here was the eighth place that Charles Hoff achieved. He was actually a world-class pole vaulter and would have started as a favorite at these games. But he sustained an injury that made it impossible for him to continue practicing this sport. So he switched to the middle distance at very short notice with impressive success .

While Douglas Lowe made for the second British victory over 800 meters in a row, Paul Martin won the first medal for Switzerland in athletics.

Picture gallery

• 

  Olympic Champion Douglas Lowe (GBR)

• 

  Henry Stallard (GBR) takes 4th place

• 

  Charles Hoff (NOR) is eighth

• 

  Erik Byléhn (SWE) fails in the preliminary run

literature

• Ekkehard zur Megede , The History of Olympic Athletics, Volume 1: 1896-1936, Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 2nd edition 1970, pp. 159f

Web links

• SportsReference 800m , accessed September 5, 2017

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Ekkehard zur Megede , The History of Olympic Athletics, Volume 1: 1896–1936, Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 2nd edition 1970, p. 160
2. ↑ Official report, pages 109 - 110 (French) ( Memento of the original from April 10, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
3. ↑ SportsReference (Eng.)