Athletics at the 2016 Summer Olympics – Women's 800 metres explained

Event:	Women's 800 metres
Games:	2016 Summer
Venue:	Olympic Stadium
Dates:	17 August 2016 (heats) 18 August 2016 (semifinals) 20 August 2016 (final)
Win Value:	1:55.28
Gold:	Caster Semenya
Goldnoc:	RSA
Silver:	Francine Niyonsaba
Silvernoc:	BDI
Bronze:	Margaret Wambui
Bronzenoc:	KEN
Prev:	2012
Next:	2020

The women's 800 metres event at the 2016 Summer Olympics took place between 17–20 August at the Olympic Stadium.^[1]

Summary

As the final started, Caster Semenya running in lane 3 gained a slight edge on the turn, deceptive as Margaret Wambui in lane 4 was the slowest around the turn. Francine Niyonsaba converged from lane 5 and the two assumed the lead down the backstretch. Semenya taking the curb as they began the turn, Niyonsaba on her outside shoulder with Maryna Arzamasava behind Niyonsaba, Melissa Bishop and Lynsey Sharp stacking up behind Semenya. In the second 200, Margaret Wambui moved to the outside of lane 2 and ran up to Arzamasava's shoulder. The first lap was an honest 57.59. Midway through the penultimate turn, Niyonsaba edged in front of Semenya, the other runners collapsing into lane 1 rather than following her around the now open outside. Down the backstretch, Niyonsaba opened a 2-metre lead, with Bishop cuing up tight behind Semenya, with Arzamasava boxing her to the outside, while Arzamasava was being boxed by a faster moving Wambui. Kicker Joanna Jóźwik was trailing the field eight metres back of Niyonsaba. After the final turn had started, Semenya drifted to the outside and put it in gear, moving from 2 metres behind Niyonsaba to 2 metres in front. During the home stretch she just extended her lead to an 8-metre victory. Still in second, Niyonsaba had a 2-metre gap on Bishop with Wambui on her outside. Down the homestretch Niyonsaba also extended her gap to about four metres. Wambui down a metre on the outside of Bishop, couldn't make any progress until the last 40 metres, when she finally pulled aside and then past for the bronze medal by a metre.

For Semenya, her 1:55.28 was a new South African National Record, a .05 improvement over the mark she set a month earlier at Herculis. For Bishop it was also a Canadian National Record, improving upon the mark she set the same day as Semenya in Edmonton. Semenya becomes the fifth woman to win two medals in the Women's Olympic 800. Since the disqualification of Mariya Savinova from 2012, she has become the first two time gold medalist.

The medals were presented by Barbara Kendall, IOC member, New Zealand and Hamad Kalkaba Malboum, Vice President of the IAAF.

Testosterone

Following the race, Team GB's Lynsey Sharp said that female athletes are effectively competing in "two separate races."^[2] Sharp, Canada's Melissa Bishop and Poland's Joanna Jozwik embraced after the race. "We see each other week in, week out, so we know how each other feel."^[3]

IAAF General Secretary Pierre Weisse said of Semenya, "She is a woman, but maybe not 100 per cent."

According to testing by World Athletics, all three medalists had the 46,XY karyotype and produced levels of testosterone in the male range.^[4] The IAAF has subsequently ruled that this gives them an unfair advantage. On May 8, 2019, the IAAF testosterone rule went into effect. Such athletes will be required to take testosterone suppressing drugs in order to compete with female athletes.^[5]

Competition format

The women's 800m competition consisted of heats (Round 1), semifinals and a final. Twenty-four athletes advanced from the heats to the semifinal round. The top two competitors from each of the eight heats qualified for the semifinals along with the eight fastest losers. A total of eight competitors qualified for the final from the semifinals. In the three semifinal races, the first two from each semifinal advanced to the final along with the two fastest losers.

Records

, the existing World and Olympic records were as follows.

World record	1:53.28	Munich, West Germany	26 July 1983
Olympic record	1:53.43	Moscow, Soviet Union	27 July 1980
2016 World leading	1:55.33	Fontvieille, Monaco	15 July 2016

The following national records were established during the competition:

Country	Athlete	Round	Notes
align=left	Central African Republic	align=left	Heats	2:11.70
align=left	South Africa	align=left	Final	1:55.28
align=left	Canada	align=left	Final	1:57.02
align=left	Iceland	align=left	Heats	2:00.14

Schedule

All times are Brasilia Time (UTC-3)

Date	Time	Round
Wednesday, 17 August 2016	10:55	Heats
Thursday, 18 August 2016	21:15	Semifinals
style=background:lemonchiffon	Saturday, 20 August 2016	style=background:lemonchiffon	21:15	style=background:lemonchiffon	Finals

Results

Heats

Progression rules: First 2 in each heat (Q) and the next 8 fastest (q) advance to the Semifinals

Heat 1

Rank	Lane	Time	Notes
1	4	2:00.83
2	1	2:00.99	,
3	6	2:01.38
4	8	2:02.40
5	7	2:02.73
6	2	2:03.02
7	3	2:03.32
8	5	2:07.91

Heat 2

Rank	Lane	Time	Notes
1	4	1:59.31
2	8	1:59.44	,
3	5	1:59.67
4	3	1:59.93
5	1	2:00.97
6	2	2:03.75
7	7a	2:16.64
8	7b	2:43.52
–	6

Heat 3

Rank	Lane	Time	Notes
1	2	1:59.00	,
2	6	1:59.66
3	4	1:59.80
4	7	2:00.13
5	5	2:00.27
6	3	2:00.58
7	8	2:05.20
8	1	2:10.22

Heat 4

Rank	Lane	Time	Notes
1	3	1:58.38
2	4	1:58.44	,
3	5	1:58.99	,
4	7	1:59.12
5	2	1:59.78	,
6	8	2:00.14
7	1	2:01.04
8	6	2:21.24

Heat 5

Rank	Lane	Time	Notes
1	3	1:59.83
2	2	1:59.91
3	7	1:59.96
4	8	2:00.00	,
5	1	2:00.21
6	6	2:02.77
7	4	2:07.65
8	5	2:16.98

Heat 6

Rank	Lane	Time
1	3	2:00.42
2	1	2:00.45
3	4	2:00.50
4	8	2:00.52
5	7	2:01.64
6	2	2:01.86
7	5	2:02.07
8	6	2:09.30

Heat 7

Rank	Lane	Time
1	1	2:01.58
2	6	2:01.65
3	8	2:01.85
4	4	2:02.10
5	2	2:02.19
6	5	2:02.98
7	7	2:03.76
8	3	2:03.78

Heat 8

Rank	Lane	Time	Notes
1	4	1:59.84
2	5	2:00.04	,
3	8	2:00.49
4	3	2:00.57
5	7	2:01.09
6	2	2:01.19
7	1	2:05.36
8	6	2:11.70	^[6]

Semifinals

Progression rules: First 2 in each heat (Q) and the next 2 fastest (q) advance to the Final

Semifinal 1

Rank	Lane	Time
1	3	1:59.21
2	6	1:59.59
3	7	1:59.75
4	4	1:59.95
5	1	2:00.45
6	8	2:00.63
7	2	2:00.80
8	5	2:01.29

Semifinal 2

Rank	Lane	Time	Notes
1	1	1:58.93	,
2	4	1:59.05
3	5	1:59.35
4	2	1:59.41
5	7	1:59.45
6	6	2:00.07
7	3	2:00.88
8	8	2:02.10

Semifinal 3

Rank	Lane	Time	Notes
1	5	1:58.15
2	4	1:58.65
3	6	1:58.79	,
4	3	1:58.87
5	8	1:59.78
6	7	2:01.90
7	2	2:03.81
8	1	2:04.05

Final

Rank	Lane	Time
	3	1:55.28
	5	1:56.49
	4	1:56.89
4	6	1:57.02
5	2	1:57.37
6	7	1:57.69
7	8	1:59.10
8	1	1:59.57

Notes and References

Web site: Women's 800m . Rio 2016 Organisation . 3 August 2016 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20160831125140/https://www.rio2016.com/en/athletics-standings-at-womens-800m . 31 August 2016 .
News: Knapton. Sarah. 2017-08-11. 'Intersex' athletes to learn if they will be forced to take drugs to suppress testosterone. en-GB. The Telegraph. 2021-08-23. 0307-1235.
Web site: Rathborn. Jack. 2016-08-21. Tearful Lynsey Sharp says it is 'difficult' to compete with Caster Semenya. 2021-08-23. mirror. en.
News: Reid. Scott. 2021-07-31. Francine Niyonsaba's Olympic Nightmare Continues. en-US. OC Register. 2022-01-06.
Web site: Defiant Caster Semenya urges IAAF to 'focus on doping, not us' CBC Sports.
Web site: Women's 800m – Round 1 Heat 8 Results . Rio 2016 official website . 17 August 2016 . 3 October 2016 . https://web.archive.org/web/20160920165618/https://smsprio2016-a.akamaihd.net/_odf-documents/A/T/ATW008908_Results_2016_08_17_9f91858e_4047_4fd8_99d9_afa0120e890b.pdf . 20 September 2016 . dead . dmy-all .