1996 Summer Olympics / Athletics - 1500 m (women)

sport	athletics
discipline	1500 meter run
gender	Women
Attendees	32 athletes from 23 countries
Competition location	Centennial Olympic Stadium
Competition phase	July 31, 1996 (preliminary round) August 1, 1996 (semi-finals) August 3, 1996 (final)
Medalists Svetlana Masterkowa ( RUS )   Gabriela Szabo ( ROM )   Theresia Kiesl ( AUT )

The women's 1,500-meter run at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta was held on July 31 and August 1 and 3, 1996 at the Centennial Olympic Stadium . 32 athletes took part.

The Russian Swetlana Masterkova became Olympic champion . She won ahead of the Romanian Gabriela Szabo and the Austrian Theresia Kiesl .

Sylvia Kühnemund and Carmen Wüstenhagen started for Germany, both of whom were eliminated in the semifinals.
Athletes from Switzerland and Liechtenstein did not take part.

Current titleholders

Olympic champion in 1992	Hassiba Boulmerka ( Algeria )	3: 55.30 min	Barcelona 1992
World Champion 1995		4: 02.42 min	Gothenburg 1995
European champion in 1994	Lyudmila Rogacheva ( Russia )	4: 18.93 min	Helsinki 1994
Pan American Champion 1995	Sarah Thorsett ( USA )	4: 21.84 min	Mar del Plata 1995
Central America and Caribbean champion 1995	Mardrea Hyman ( Jamaica )	4: 31.74 min	Guatemala City 1995
South America Champion 1995	Marta Orellana ( Argentina )	4: 21.60 min	Manaus 1995
Asian champion 1995	Kumiko Okamoto ( Japan )	4: 18.69 min	Jakarta 1995
African champion 1996	Naomi Mugo ( Kenya )	4: 12.3 min	Yaoundé 1996
Oceania champion 1994	Sharon McKenzie ( New Zealand )	4: 39.64 min	Auckland 1994

Existing records

World record	3: 50.46 min	Qu Yunxia ( People's Republic of China )	Beijing , People's Republic of China	September 11, 1993
Olympic record	3: 53.96 min	Paula Ivan ( Romania )	Final from Seoul , South Korea	October 1, 1988

Note: All times are Atlanta local time ( UTC − 5 ).

Preliminary round

July 31, 1996, from 10:00 a.m.

The athletes competed in a total of three preliminary runs. The first six female athletes qualified for the semi-finals. In addition, the six fastest drivers, the so-called lucky losers , made it through. The directly qualified runners are highlighted in light blue, the lucky losers in light green.

Forward 1

The Irish co-favorite Sonia O'Sullivan was weakened by a bowel disease as tenth of her run out

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)	annotation
1	Theresia Kiesl	Austria	4: 09.24
2	Svetlana Masterkova	Russia	4: 09.88
3	Hassiba Boulmerka	Algeria	4: 09.96
4th	Carmen Wüstenhagen	Germany	4: 10.06
5	Sinéad Delahunty	Ireland	4: 10.20
6th	Gwendolien Griffiths	South Africa	4: 10.80
7th	Anna Brzezińska	Poland	4: 11.06
8th	Leah Pells	Canada	4: 13.17
9	Frédérique Quentin	France	4: 15.95
10	Julianne Henner	United States	4: 27.14
11	Khin Khin Htwe	Myanmar	4: 30.64

Forward 2

The Spaniard Marta Domínguez was eliminated in ninth place in her preliminary run

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)	annotation
1	Lyudmila Borisova	Russia	4: 13.29
2	Naomi Mugo	Kenya	4: 13.35
3	Carla Sacramento	Portugal	4: 13.57
4th	Cătălina Gheorghiu	Romania	4: 13.82
5	Blandine Bitzner-Ducret	France	4: 13.83
6th	Maite Zúñiga	Spain	4: 14.05
7th	Sylvia Kühnemund	Germany	4: 14.35
8th	Natallja Duchnowa	Belarus	4: 14.75
9	Victoria Huber	United States	4: 14.82
10	Sonia O'Sullivan	Ireland	4: 19.77
11	Petya Straschilova	Bulgaria	4: 26.66

Forward 3

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)	annotation
1	Gabriela Szabo	Romania	4: 07.32
2	Kelly Holmes	Great Britain	4: 07.36
3	Regina Jacobs	United States	4: 07.41
4th	Margaret Crowley	Australia	4: 07.51
5	Małgorzata Rydz	Poland	4: 07.51
6th	Lyudmila Rogacheva	Russia	4: 07.61
7th	Kutre Dulecha	Ethiopia	4: 07.69
8th	Malin Ewerlöf	Sweden	4: 09.06
9	Marta Domínguez	Spain	4: 15.00
10	Paula Schnurr	Canada	4: 29.67

Semifinals

Silver medalist Gabriela Szabo from Romania

The British Kelly Holmes finished eleventh in the Olympics

August 1, 1996, from 7:30 p.m.

In the two semi-finals, the first five athletes of each run qualified for the final. In addition, the two fastest times, the so-called lucky losers , made it through. The directly qualified runners are highlighted in light blue, the lucky losers in light green.

Run 1

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)	annotation
1	Theresia Kiesl	Austria	4: 09.44
2	Gabriela Szabo	Romania	4: 09.83
3	Svetlana Masterkova	Russia	4: 10.35
4th	Małgorzata Rydz	Poland	4: 10.77
5	Gwendolien Griffiths	South Africa	4: 11.12
6th	Natallja Duchnowa	Belarus	4: 11.43
7th	Carmen Wüstenhagen	Germany	4: 11.47
8th	Blandine Bitzner-Ducret	France	4: 12.27
9	Sinéad Delahunty	Ireland	4: 12.52
10	Maite Zúñiga	Spain	4: 14.10
11	Lyudmila Rogacheva	Russia	4: 14.54
12	Hassiba Boulmerka	Algeria	4: 23.86

Run 2

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)	annotation
1	Kelly Holmes	Great Britain	4: 05.88
2	Regina Jacobs	United States	4: 06.13
3	Margaret Crowley	Australia	4: 06.21
4th	Leah Pells	Canada	4: 06.26
5	Carla Sacramento	Portugal	4: 06.70
6th	Lyudmila Borisova	Russia	4: 06.89
7th	Anna Brzezińska	Poland	4: 07.17
8th	Kutre Dulecha	Ethiopia	4: 09.03
9	Malin Ewerlöf	Sweden	4: 13.85
10	Sylvia Kühnemund	Germany	4: 16.85
11	Naomi Mugo	Kenya	4: 20.01
DSQ	Cătălina Gheorghiu	Romania

An incident occurred during the race. The Romanian Cătălina Gheorghiu had disabled the Kenyan Naomi Mugo. Gheorghiu, who crossed the finish line in ninth place with a time of 4: 09.30 min, was disqualified. The referees decided that Mugo could start in the final. However, the Kenyan did not use her right to start.

final

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)	annotation
1	Svetlana Masterkova	Russia	4: 00.83
2	Gabriela Szabo	Romania	4: 01.54
3	Theresia Kiesl	Austria	4: 03.02
4th	Leah Pells	Canada	4: 03.56
5	Margaret Crowley	Australia	4: 03.79
6th	Carla Sacramento	Portugal	4: 03.91
7th	Lyudmila Borisova	Russia	4: 03.56
8th	Małgorzata Rydz	Poland	4: 05.92
9	Gwendolien Griffiths	South Africa	4: 06.33
10	Regina Jacobs	United States	4: 07.21
11	Kelly Holmes	Great Britain	4: 07.46
12	Anna Brzezińska	Poland	4: 07.27
DNS	Naomi Mugo	Kenya		actually entitled to start after the referee's decision

August 3, 1996, 8:15 p.m.

Two Polish women and two Russian women each and one starter each from Australia, Canada, Austria, Portugal, Romania, the USA and Great Britain qualified for the final.

The 1992 Olympic champion and reigning world champion Hassiba Boulmerka from Algeria was eliminated in the semi-finals when she sustained an ankle injury in the crowd. The highly esteemed Irish rider Sonia O'Sullivan, world champion over 5000 meters , was also not in the final. She was weakened by an intestinal disease that was eliminated beforehand. The favorite role fell above all to the winner of the 800-meter run Svetlana Masterkowa from Russia. Other medal candidates were u. a. the British Vice World Champion and Vice European Champion Kelly Holmes, here in Atlanta already fourth over 800 meters, and the Portuguese World Cup third Carla Sacramento.

As in the 800 meter final, Masterkowa took the lead right after the start. Her competitors let her go and initially only looked for the best possible position behind her. Shortly before reaching the 300 meter mark, Holmes took the lead. The pace was kept within limits, the first lap was run in 1: 02.66 minutes. Holmes continued ahead of Masterkowa, the Austrian Theresia Kiesl, the American Regina Jacobs and the Romanian Gabriela Szabo. In this order, the 800 meter mark was passed in 2: 10.55 min - the second lap of 1: 07.89 min was a little slower than the first. At the beginning of the last 400 meters, the ranking was still unchanged. The 1200 meter intermediate time was 3: 16.63 min - third lap in 1: 06.08 min. It got a lot faster on the last back straight. Kiesl attacked from the outside, Holmes could no longer keep up. Szabo, Kiesl and Masterkowa sprinted in the target bend as a team of three. There was a gap behind them. On the home stretch, Svetlana Masterkova irresistibly put on her final sprint and won the first double over 800 and 1500 meters since Tatjana Kasankina's victories in 1976 . Gabriela Szabo came second, Theresia Kiesl third, ahead of Leah Pells from Canada and Margaret Crowley from Australia. Carla Sacramento took sixth place.

Svetlana Masterkowa was the first female Olympic champion for Russia over 1500 meters.

Theresia Kiesl won Austria's first Olympic medal in this discipline.

literature

• Gerd Rubenbauer (ed.), Olympic Summer Games Atlanta 1996 with reports by Britta Kruse, Johannes Ebert, Andreas Schmidt and Ernst Christian Schütt, comments: Gerd Rubenbauer and Hans Schwarz, Chronik Verlag im Bertelsmann Verlag, Gütersloh / Munich 1996, p. 49

Web links

• SportsReference 1500m , accessed March 7, 2018
• Official Report, Part III on the Olympic Games in Atlanta , p. 77, English / French (PDF, 13,520 MB), accessed on March 7, 2018

Video

• Women's 1500m Final Atlanta Olympics 1996 , posted June 22, 2016 on youtube.com, accessed March 7, 2018

Individual evidence

1. ↑ IAAF Statistics Handbook, Beijing 2015, page 795 , accessed on March 7, 2018
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Official Report, Part III on the Olympic Games in Atlanta ( Memento of the original from October 7, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , P. 77, English / French (PDF, 13,520 MB), accessed on March 7, 2018