10000 metres

The 10,000 metres at the Summer Olympics is the longest track running event held at the multi-sport event. The men's 10,000 m has been present on the Olympic athletics programme since 1912. The women's event was added to the programme over seventy years later, at the 1988 Olympics. It is the most prestigious 10,000 m race at elite level. The competition format is a straight final between around 30 athletes, although prior to 2004 a qualifying round was held.

The Olympic records for the event were both set by Ethiopians at the 2008 Beijing Olympics: Kenenisa Bekele set the men's record at 27:01.17 minutes, while Tirunesh Dibaba set the women's mark at 29:54.66 minutes. The 10,000 metres world record has been broken at the Olympics on only one occasion; Lasse Virén's winning time of 27:38.35 minutes in 1972 stood as the record for less than a year.^[1]

Five men have won the Olympic title twice: Paavo Nurmi became the first in 1928 and he was followed by Emil Zátopek, Lasse Virén, Haile Gebrselassie and Kenenisa Bekele. Two women have achieved the feat: Derartu Tulu won her second title in 2004 and Tirunesh Dibaba had back-to-back wins in 2008 and 2012. Derartu Tulu is the only athlete to have reached the podium on three occasions. Historically, athletes in this event have also had success in the 5000 metres at the Olympics. The winner of the men's Olympic 10,000 m has completed a long-distance track double on eight occasions, the most recent being Mo Farah at the 2012 London Olympics. Tirunesh Dibaba is the only woman to complete this double, having done so at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Ethiopia is the most successful nation in the event, with nine gold medals among its total of 21. Finland is the next most successful, with six gold medals and thirteen overall. Finland's period of great success in early 20th century led to wide usage of the nickname the Flying Finns; Kaarlo Maaninka was the last Finnish athlete to medal over 10,000 m, in 1980. Kenya has won nine medals, although Naftali Temu is the only Kenyan to have won Olympic gold.

History, Records and Statistics of Men's 10000 metres

History, Records and Statistics of Women's 10000 metres

Medal summary

Men

Games	Gold	Silver	Bronze
1912 Stockholm	Hannes Kolehmainen  Finland	Lewis Tewanima  United States	Albin Stenroos  Finland
1920 Antwerp	Paavo Nurmi  Finland	Joseph Guillemot  France	James Wilson  Great Britain
1924 Paris	Ville Ritola  Finland	Edvin Wide  Sweden	Eero Berg  Finland
1928 Amsterdam	Paavo Nurmi  Finland	Ville Ritola  Finland	Edvin Wide  Sweden
1932 Los Angeles	Janusz Kusociński  Poland	Volmari Iso-Hollo  Finland	Lasse Virtanen  Finland
1936 Berlin	Ilmari Salminen  Finland	Arvo Askola  Finland	Volmari Iso-Hollo  Finland
1948 London	Emil Zátopek  Czechoslovakia	Alain Mimoun  France	Bertil Albertsson  Sweden
1952 Helsinki	Emil Zátopek  Czechoslovakia	Alain Mimoun  France	Aleksandr Anufriyev  Soviet Union
1956 Melbourne	Vladimir Kuts  Soviet Union	József Kovács  Hungary	Al Lawrence  Australia
1960 Rome	Pyotr Bolotnikov  Soviet Union	Hans Grodotzki  United Team of Germany	Dave Power  Australia
1964 Tokyo	Billy Mills  United States	Mohammed Gammoudi  Tunisia	Ron Clarke  Australia
1968 Mexico City	Naftali Temu  Kenya	Mamo Wolde  Ethiopia	Mohammed Gammoudi  Tunisia
1972 Munich	Lasse Virén  Finland	Emiel Puttemans  Belgium	Miruts Yifter  Ethiopia
1976 Montreal	Lasse Virén  Finland	Carlos Lopes  Portugal	Brendan Foster  Great Britain
1980 Moscow	Miruts Yifter  Ethiopia	Kaarlo Maaninka  Finland	Mohamed Kedir  Ethiopia
1984 Los Angeles	Alberto Cova  Italy	Mike McLeod  Great Britain	Michael Musyoki  Kenya
1988 Seoul	Brahim Boutayeb  Morocco	Salvatore Antibo  Italy	Kipkemboi Kimeli  Kenya
1992 Barcelona	Khalid Skah  Morocco	Richard Chelimo  Kenya	Addis Abebe  Ethiopia
1996 Atlanta	Haile Gebrselassie  Ethiopia	Paul Tergat  Kenya	Saleh Hissou  Morocco
2000 Sydney	Haile Gebrselassie  Ethiopia	Paul Tergat  Kenya	Assefa Mezgebu  Ethiopia
2004 Athens	Kenenisa Bekele  Ethiopia	Sileshi Sihine  Ethiopia	Zersenay Tadese  Eritrea
2008 Beijing	Kenenisa Bekele  Ethiopia	Sileshi Sihine  Ethiopia	Micah Kogo  Kenya
2012 London	Mo Farah  Great Britain	Galen Rupp  United States	Tariku Bekele  Ethiopia
2016 Rio de Janeiro	Mo Farah  Great Britain	Paul Tanui  Kenya	Tamirat Tola  Ethiopia

Multiple medalists

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Olympics	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1=	Paavo Nurmi	Finland (FIN)	1920–1928	2	0	0	2
1=	Emil Zátopek	Czechoslovakia (TCH)	1948–1952	2	0	0	2
1=	Lasse Virén	Finland (FIN)	1972–1976	2	0	0	2
1=	Haile Gebrselassie	Ethiopia (ETH)	1996–2000	2	0	0	2
1=	Kenenisa Bekele	Ethiopia (ETH)	2004–2008	2	0	0	2
1=	Mo Farah	Great Britain (GBR)	2012–2016	2	0	0	2
7	Ville Ritola	Finland (FIN)	1924–1928	1	1	0	2
8	Miruts Yifter	Ethiopia (ETH)	1972–1980	1	0	1	2
9=	Alain Mimoun	France (FRA)	1948–1952	0	2	0	2
9=	Paul Tergat	Kenya (KEN)	1996–2000	0	2	0	2
9=	Sileshi Sihine	Ethiopia (ETH)	2004–2008	0	2	0	2
12=	Edvin Wide	Sweden (SWE)	1924–1928	0	1	1	2
12=	Volmari Iso-Hollo	Finland (FIN)	1932–1936	0	1	1	2
12=	Mohammed Gammoudi	Tunisia (TUN)	1968–1972	0	1	1	2

Medals by country

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Finland (FIN)	7	4	4	15
2	Ethiopia (ETH)	5	3	6	14
3	Great Britain (GBR)	2	1	2	5
4=	Soviet Union (URS)	2	0	1	3
4=	Morocco (MAR)	2	0	1	3
6	Czechoslovakia (TCH)	2	0	0	2
7	Kenya (KEN)	1	4	3	8
8	United States (USA)	1	2	0	3
9	Italy (ITA)	1	1	0	2
10	Poland (POL)	1	0	0	1
11	France (FRA)	0	3	0	3
12	Sweden (SWE)	0	1	2	3
13	Tunisia (TUN)	0	1	1	2
14=	Hungary (HUN)	0	1	0	1
14=	United Team of Germany (EUA)	0	1	0	1
14=	Belgium (BEL)	0	1	0	1
14=	Portugal (POR)	0	1	0	1
18	Australia (AUS)	0	0	3	3
19	Eritrea (ERI)	0	0	1	1

Women

Women

Games	Gold	Silver	Bronze
1988 Seoul	Olga Bondarenko  Soviet Union	Liz McColgan  Great Britain	Yelena Zhupiyeva-Vyazova  Soviet Union
1992 Barcelona	Derartu Tulu  Ethiopia	Elana Meyer  South Africa	Lynn Jennings  United States
1996 Atlanta	Fernanda Ribeiro  Portugal	Wang Junxia  China	Gete Wami  Ethiopia
2000 Sydney	Derartu Tulu  Ethiopia	Gete Wami  Ethiopia	Fernanda Ribeiro  Portugal
2004 Athens	Xing Huina  China	Ejagayehu Dibaba  Ethiopia	Derartu Tulu  Ethiopia
2008 Beijing	Tirunesh Dibaba  Ethiopia	Elvan Abeylegesse  Turkey	Shalane Flanagan  United States
2012 London	Tirunesh Dibaba  Ethiopia	Sally Kipyego  Kenya	Vivian Cheruiyot  Kenya
2016 Rio de Janeiro	Almaz Ayana  Ethiopia	Vivian Cheruiyot  Kenya	Tirunesh Dibaba  Ethiopia

Multiple medalists

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Olympics	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1=	Derartu Tulu	Ethiopia (ETH)	1992–2004	2	0	1	3
1=	Tirunesh Dibaba	Ethiopia (ETH)	2008–2016	2	0	1	3
3	Fernanda Ribeiro	Portugal (POR)	1996–2000	1	0	1	2
4=	Gete Wami	Ethiopia (ETH)	1996–2000	0	1	1	2
4=	Vivian Cheruiyot	Kenya (KEN)	2012–2016	0	1	1	2

Medalists by country

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Ethiopia (ETH)	5	2	3	10
2	China (CHN)	1	1	0	2
3=	Soviet Union (URS)	1	0	1	2
3=	Portugal (POR)	1	0	1	2
5	Kenya (KEN)	0	2	1	3
6=	Great Britain (GBR)	0	1	0	1
6=	South Africa (RSA)	0	1	0	1
6=	Turkey (TUR)	0	1	0	1
9	United States (USA)	0	0	2	2