1500 metres world record progression

The 1500-metre run became a standard racing distance in Europe in the late 19th century, perhaps as a metric version of the mile, a popular running distance since at least the 1850s in English-speaking countries.
A distance of 1500m sometimes is called the "metric mile". The French had the first important races over the distance, holding their initial championship in 1888.
When the Olympic Games were revived in 1896, metric distances were run, including the 1500; however, most of the best milers in the world were absent, and the winning time of 4:33 1/5 by Australian Edwin Flack was 17 4/5 seconds slower than the amateur mile record, despite the fact one mile is 109.344 metres longer than 1500 metres.
The 1900 Olympics and 1904 Olympics showed improvements in times run, but it was not until the 1908 Olympics that a meeting of the top milers over the distance took place, and not until the 1912 Olympics that a true world-class race over the distance was run.
The distance has now almost completely replaced the mile in major track meets.

Men (outdoors)

Pre-[IAAF]

Time

Athlete

Date

Place

J. Borel|FRA

IAAF era

The first world record in the 1500m for men was recognized by the International Amateur Athletics Federation, now known as World Athletics, in 1912.
To July 17, 2015, the IAAF has ratified 38 world records in the event.

	Ratified
	Not ratified
	Ratified but later rescinded
	Pending ratification

Time

Auto

Athlete

Date

Place

3:55.8

Abel Kiviat.png" />Abel Kiviat|USA|1908

Women (outdoors)

Pre-IAAF

Time

Athlete

Date

Place

5:18.2

Anna Mushkina.png" />Anna Mushkina|URS|1924

IAAF era

The first world record in the 1500 m for women was recognized by the International Amateur Athletics Federation, now known as World Athletics, in 1967.

Time

Auto

Athlete

Date

Place

Ref

4:17.3+

Anne Smith|GBR

Men (indoors)

Indoor records are run over 7 laps of a shorter 200 m track. An asterisk indicates a record was repeated. All records since Gonzalez's 3:36.04 in 1986 were ratified by the IAAF.

Time	Athlete	Date	Place
3.57.0		1920-05-30	New York
3.56.2		1925-01-06	New York
3.55.8		1925-02-21	Washington
3.53.4		1932-02-27	New York
3.52.2*		1934-02-24	New York
3.52.2		1934-02-24	New York
3.50.5		1935-02-23	New York
3.49.9		1936-02-22	New York
3.48.4		1938-02-26	New York
3.48.3		1955-02-05	New York
3.44.6		1960-02-28	Berlin Est
3.43.2		1962-02-10	Los Angeles
3.42.2		1965-02-14	Berlin East
3.42.0		1965-02-21	Berlin East
3.41.9		1966-02-20	Berlin East
3.41.7		1966-02-27	Berlin East
3.40.7		1966-02-27	Lyon
3.37.8		1971-02-13	Berlin West
3.37.4		1979-01-06	Long Beach
3.36.04		1986-03-01	Oviedo
3.35.6		1989-02-10	East Rutherford
3.34.20		1990-02-27	Seville
3.34.16		1991-02-28	Seville
3.31.18		1997-02-02	Stuttgart
3.31.04		2019-02-16	Birmingham
3.30.60		2022-02-17	Liévin
3.29.63		2025-02-13	Liévin

Women (indoors)

All records since Decker-Slaney's 4:00.8 in 1980 were ratified by the IAAF.

Time	Athlete	Date	Place
4.53.2		1966-02-05	Cosford
4.40.8		1966-02-12	Cosford
4.33.3		1966-02-19	Vancouver
4.21.2		1967-02-18	Vancouver
4.21.1		1970-02-07	Seattle
4.20.5		1971-01-30	Cosford
4.19.7		1971-02-13	Berlin East
4.17.9		1971-02-13	Berlin West
4.17.4		1971-02-20	Berlin West
4.17.2		1971-03-14	Sofia
4.14.62		1972-03-12	Grenoble
4.12.2		1974-02-15	Toronto
4.10.97		1974-03-10	Göteborg
4.10.4		1975-02-14	Toronto
4.09.9		1975-02-15	San Diego
4.09.8		1975-03-03	Richmond
4.08.1		1977-02-19	Dortmund
4.05.0		1978-02-21	Budapest
4.03.0		1979-02-10	Budapest
4.00.8		1980-02-08	New York
4.00.27		1990-02-09	East Rutherford
3.59.98		2003-02-01	Boston
3.58.28		2006-02-18	Moscow
3.58.05		2008-02-10	Moscow
3.57.71		2008-03-09	Valencia
3.55.17		2014-02-01	Karlsruhe
3.53.09		2021-02-09	Liévin