| Event: | Men's individual cross country |
| Games: | 1920 Summer |
| Venue: | Olympisch Stadion |
| Date: | August 23 |
| Competitors: | 47 |
| Nations: | 12 |
| Gold: | Paavo Nurmi |
| Goldnoc: | FIN |
| Silver: | Eric Backman |
| Silvernoc: | SWE |
| Bronze: | Heikki Liimatainen |
| Bronzenoc: | FIN |
| Prev: | 1912 |
| Next: | 1924 |
The men's individual cross country event was part of the track and field athletics programme at the 1920 Summer Olympics. It was the second appearance of this event. The competition was held on Monday, August 23, 1920. Forty-seven runners from 12 nations competed.[1]
The course was about 8 kilometers long, shorter than the previous Olympic cross-country race and a distance still widely competed in at the collegiate level. The records for 8-kilometer cross country race individual times were as follows:
The first three runners for each nation to finish in this event were also counted towards the cross country team result.
| Place | Athlete | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 27:15.0 | |
| 2 | 27:17.6 | |
| 3 | 27:37.0 | |
| 4 | 27:45.2 | |
| 5 | 27:57.0 | |
| 6 | 27:57.2 | |
| 7 | 28:00.0 | |
| 8 | 28:10.0 | |
| 9 | 28:12.0 | |
| 10 | 28:16.0 | |
| 11 | 28:17.0 | |
| 12 | 28:20.0 | |
| 13 | ||
| 14 | ||
| 15 | ||
| 16 | ||
| 17 | ||
| 18 | ||
| 19 | ||
| 20 | ||
| 21 | ||
| 22 | ||
| 23 | ||
| 24 | ||
| 25 | ||
| 26 | ||
| 27 | ||
| 28 | ||
| 29 | ||
| 30 | ||
| 31 | ||
| 32 | ||
| 33 | ||
| 34 | ||
| 35 | ||
| 36 | ||
| 37 | ||
| 38 | ||
| 39 | ||
| 40 | ||
| 41 | ||
| 42 | ||
| — | DNF | |
| DNF | ||
| DNF | ||
| DNF | ||
| DNF |