Athletics at the 1936 Summer Olympics – Men's 1500 metres

Men's 1500 metres at the Games of the XI Olympiad
Olympic Athletics.svg Olympic Athletics
Venue	Olympiastadion: Berlin, Germany
Dates	August 4 (heats) August 6 (final)
Competitors	43 from 27 nations
Winning time	3:47.8 WR
Medalists
Jack Lovelock  New Zealand   Glenn Cunningham  United States   Luigi Beccali  Italy
«1932	1948»

Athletics at the 1936 Summer Olympics
Track events
100 m	men	women
200 m	men
400 m	men
800 m	men
1500 m	men
5000 m	men
10,000 m	men
80 m hurdles		women
110 m hurdles	men
400 m hurdles	men
3000 m steeple	men
4 × 100 m relay	men	women
4 × 400 m relay	men
Road events
Marathon	men
50 km walk	men
Field events
Long jump	men
Triple jump	men
High jump	men	women
Pole vault	men
Shot put	men
Discus throw	men	women
Javelin throw	men	women
Hammer throw	men
Combined events
Decathlon	men

The men's 1500 metres event at the 1936 Olympic Games was on August 4 and August 6. There were 43 athletes. These athletes were from 27 different nations.^[1] Each nation could have up to 3 athletes in this event. This rule was set in the 1930 Olympic Congress. The final was won by Kiwi Jack Lovelock. He beat the world record time.^[2] This was New Zealand's first medal in this event. Glenn Cunningham of the United States won 2nd place. This was the first time that the United States was in the top 3 since 1920. Luigi Beccali of Italy won the event in 1932. In this race, he came in 3rd. He became the first man to have 2 medals in this event.

This was the 10th time this event was run. It was one of 12 athletics that has been at every Summer Olympics. The event had many fast runners. 6 of the 7 fastest runners from 1932 raced. All of the medalists from 1932 raced. The winner in 1932 was Luigi Beccali of Italy. Jerry Cornes of Great Britain was in 2nd. Phil Edwards of Canada was in 3rd. Glenn Cunningham of the United States was in 4th. Eric Ny of Sweden was in 5th place. Jack Lovelock of New Zealand was in 7th place. All 6 of these people ran in both 1932 and 1936. Sydney Wooderson of Great Britain, Archie San Romani of the United States, and Gene Venzke of the United States also ran in both 1932 and 1936. The world record was 3:48.8 by Bill Bonthron. In the Olympic qualification races, he lost to 3 other American runners. This meant that he was not in the team.^[1]

This was the first time that Chile, China, Colombia, Luxembourg, and Peru were in the Olympic games. This was the 10th time that the United States was in the Olympics. The United States was the only nation that was in every men's 1500 metres until 1936.

The competition had 2 rounds. This format was used since 1908. There were now 4 semifinals rounds again. Each semifinal had either 10 or 11 runners. The 3 fastest runners in each heat went to the final. This meant that there was 12 people in the final round.^[1][3]

The graph shows the world record and Olympic records before the 1996 Summer Olympics.

World record	Bill Bonthron (USA)	3:48.8	Milwaukee, United States	30 June 1934
Olympic record	Luigi Beccali (ITA)	3:51.2	Los Angeles, United States	4 August 1932

Jack Lovelock beat the World Record. His time was 3:47.8. Lovelock and Glenn Cunningham were both under the old world record The 5 fastest runners all beat the old Olympic record.