1996 Summer Olympics / Athletics - 800 m (women)

sport	athletics
discipline	800 meter run
gender	Women
Attendees	36 athletes from 31 countries
Competition location	Centennial Olympic Stadium
Competition phase	July 26, 1996 (preliminary round) July 27, 1996 (semi-finals) July 29, 1996 (final)
Medalists Svetlana Masterkowa ( RUS )   Ana Fidelia Quirot ( CUB )   Maria Mutola ( MOZ )

The women's 800-meter run at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta was held on July 26, 27 and 29, 1996 at the Centennial Olympic Stadium . 36 athletes took part.

The Russian Swetlana Masterkova became Olympic champion . She won ahead of the Cuban Ana Fidelia Quirot and Maria Mutola from Mozambique.

Linda Kisabaka started for Germany and was eliminated in the semi-finals.
Athletes from Switzerland, Austria and Liechtenstein did not take part.

Current titleholders

Olympic champion in 1992	Ellen van Langen ( Netherlands )	1: 55.54 min	Barcelona 1992
World Champion 1995	Ana Fidelia Quirot ( Cuba )	1: 56.11 min	Gothenburg 1995
European champion in 1994	Lyubov Gurina ( Russia )	1: 58.55 min	Helsinki 1994
Pan American Champion 1995	Meredith Rainey ( USA )	1: 59.44 min	Mar del Plata 1995
Central America and Caribbean champion 1995	Ana Fidelia Quirot ( Cuba )	2: 01.79 min	Guatemala City 1995
South America Champion 1995	Marlene da Silva ( Brazil )	2: 04.57 min	Manaus 1995
Asian champion 1995	Jyotirmoyee Sikdar ( India )	2: 06.75 min	Jakarta 1995
African champion 1996	Naomi Mugo ( Kenya )	2: 02.8 min	Yaoundé 1996
Oceania champion 1994	Andrea Williams ( New Zealand )	2: 14.13 min	Auckland 1994

Existing records

World record	1: 53.28 min	Jarmila Kratochvilová ( Czechoslovakia )	Munich , Germany	July 26, 1983
Olympic record	1: 53.43 min	Nadija Olisarenko ( Soviet Union )	Moscow , Russia	July 27, 1980

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

Preliminary round

July 26, 1996, from 5 p.m.

The athletes competed in a total of five preliminary runs. The first two athletes qualified for the semifinals per run. 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

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)	annotation
1	Svetlana Masterkova	Russia	1: 59.67
2	Letitia Vriesde	Suriname	1: 59.71
3	Luciana Mendes	Brazil	2: 00.25
4th	Nouria Benida	Algeria	2: 02.44
5	Zhang Jian	People's Republic of China	2: 04.17
6th	Léontine Tsiba	Republic of the Congo	2: 08.58
7th	Sharette Garcia	Belize	2: 13.52
DNS	Tina Paulino	Mozambique

Forward 2

The British Diane Modahl gave up the race in her run

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)	annotation
1	Maria Mutola	Mozambique	1: 58.98
2	Jelena Afanassjewa	Russia	1: 59.18
3	Linda Kisabaka	Germany	1: 59.56
4th	Viviane Dorsile	France	2: 00.02
5	Eduarda Coelho	Portugal	2: 03.23
6th	Marta Orellana	Argentina	2: 04.99
DNF	Diane Modahl	Great Britain

Forward 3

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)	annotation
1	Natallja Duchnowa	Belarus	1: 59.23
2	Toni Hodgkinson	New Zealand	1: 59.35
3	Dawn Williams	Dominica	1: 59.65
4th	Meredith Rainey	United States	1: 59.96
5	Lyubov Tsioma	Russia	2: 00.18
6th	Charmaine Crooks	Canada	2: 00.28
7th	Yaznee Nasheeda	Maldives	2: 36.85
DNF	Ana Menéndez	Spain

Forward 4

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)	annotation
1	Ana Fidelia Quirot	Cuba	1: 59.98
2	Stella Jongmans	Netherlands	2: 00.26
3	Joetta Clark	United States	2: 00.38
4th	Malin Ewerlöf	Sweden	2: 01.61
5	Petya Straschilova	Bulgaria	2: 02.13
6th	Lisa Lightfoot	Australia	2: 02.88
7th	Restituta Joseph	Tanzania	2: 08.31

Forward 5

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)	annotation
1	Kelly Holmes	Great Britain	1: 58.80
2	Patricia Djaté-Taillard	France	1: 58.98
3	Ludmila Formanová	Czech Republic	1: 59.37
4th	Suzy Hamilton	United States	2: 00.47
5	Inez Turner	Jamaica	2: 01.48
6th	Kutre Dulecha	Ethiopia	2: 04.80
DNF	Adama Njie	Gambia

Semifinals

The Czech Ludmila Formanová was eliminated in sixth of her semi-final run

Bronze medalist Maria Mutola from Mozambique

British Olympic gold medalist Kelly Holmes

July 27, 1996, from 8:25 p.m.

From each of the two semi-finals, the first four athletes qualified for the final (highlighted in light blue).

Run 1

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)	annotation
1	Svetlana Masterkova	Russia	1: 57.95
2	Ana Fidelia Quirot	Cuba	1: 57.99
3	Kelly Holmes	Great Britain	1: 58.49
4th	Natallja Duchnowa	Belarus	1: 58.67
5	Dawn Williams	Dominica	1: 59.06
6th	Linda Kisabaka	Germany	1: 59.23
7th	Viviane Dorsile	France	2: 00.68
DNF	Stella Jongmans	Netherlands

Run 2

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)	annotation
1	Maria Mutola	Mozambique	1: 57.62
2	Jelena Afanassjewa	Russia	1: 57.77
3	Patricia Djaté-Taillard	France	1: 57.93
4th	Toni Hodgkinson	New Zealand	1: 58.25
5	Letitia Vriesde	Suriname	1: 58.29
6th	Ludmila Formanová	Czech Republic	1: 59.28
7th	Meredith Rainey	United States	1: 59.36
8th	Lyubov Tsioma	Russia	2: 02.50

final

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)	annotation
1	Svetlana Masterkova	Russia	1: 57.73
2	Ana Fidelia Quirot	Cuba	1: 58.11
3	Maria Mutola	Mozambique	1: 58.71
4th	Kelly Holmes	Great Britain	1: 58.81
5	Jelena Afanassjewa	Russia	1: 59.57
6th	Patricia Djaté-Taillard	France	1: 59.61
7th	Natallja Duchnowa	Belarus	2: 00.32
8th	Toni Hodgkinson	New Zealand	2: 00.54

July 29, 1996

Two Russian women qualified for the final. They met one starter each from France, Cuba, Mozambique, New Zealand, Great Britain and Belarus.

The favorites were Cuban reigning world champion Ana Fidelia Quirot and 1993 world champion Maria Mutola from Mozambique. Other medal contenders were the vice world champion from 1995 Letitia Vriesde from Surinam and the British World Cup third from 1995 Kelly Holmes.

In the final, the Russian Swetlana Masterkowa took the lead right after the start, when the runners were able to pull onto the inner lane. With a transit time of 58.43 s, the race was not particularly fast. So the field was initially completely closed. Above all, Mutola, Quirot and Masterkowa's compatriot Jelena Afanassjewa stayed in close contact with each other. At the beginning of the second round, the two Russians led. The runners behind them ran in pairs or threes side by side to secure good positions for the finish. There was still no increase in speed. On the back straight it got faster and faster. Quirot secured second place behind Masterkowa before the finish curve. From midfield, Holmes sped past Quirot and was in the corner next to Masterkowa. Quirot and Mutola followed. The French Patricia Djaté-Taillard also had contact with four of the leaders at the beginning of the home straight. There was a gap behind her, however. In the last eighty meters Svetlana Masterkowa was clearly the fastest runner and made her start-finish victory perfectly in front of Ana Fidelia Quirot and Maria Mutola in third place, who won the bronze medal just ahead of Kelly Holmes. Jelena Afanassjewa was fifth, who was able to displace Patricia Djaté-Taillard in sixth

Five days later, Svetlana Masterkowa also won the 1,500-meter run .

Svetlana Masterkowa was the first Olympic champion for Russia over 800 meters .

Maria Mutola won the first ever Olympic medal for Mozambique.

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. 48f

Web links

• SportsReference 800m , accessed March 7, 2018
• Official Report, Part III on the Olympic Games in Atlanta , p. 75f, English / French (PDF, 13,520 MB), accessed on March 7, 2018

Video

• Women's 800m Atlanta Olympics 1996 , published June 20, 2016 on youtube.com, accessed March 7, 2018

Individual evidence

1. ↑ IAAF Statistics Handbook, Beijing 2015, page 795 , accessed on March 7, 2018
2. ↑ 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. 75, English / French (PDF, 13,520 MB), accessed on March 7, 2018 
3. ↑ ^{a b} 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. 76, English / French (PDF, 13,520 MB), accessed on March 7, 2018