The 1,500 metres (or meters) is a premier middle distance track event.
In modern times, it has become more of a prolonged sprint with each lap averaging under 55 seconds for the world record performance by Hicham El Guerrouj of Morocco in 1998 at Rome.[1] The 1500 is three and three-quarter laps around a 400 metre track. Through the 1980s the event was dominated by British runners, but through the 1990s the African runners began to take over, with runners from Kenya, Morocco and Algeria winning the Olympic titles.
In American high schools, the one mile (which is 1609.344 metres) and 1600 m, also colloquially referred to as "metric mile," are more frequently run than the 1500 m, since Imperial units are better-known in the US. Which is used depends on the state the high school is in, and, for convenience, national rankings are standardized by converting all 1600 m times to their one mile equivalents.[citation needed]
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1,500 metres is also an event in swimming and speed skating. The world records for the distance in swimming are 14:10.10 (swum in a 25 metre pool) and 14:34.56 (swum in a 50 metre pool) by Grant Hackett, and 15:32.90 (swum in a 25 metre pool) and 15:42.54 by Kate Ziegler.
The world records for the distance in speed skating are 1:42.01 by Denny Morrison and 1:51.79 by Cindy Klassen.[2]
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