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

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. 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. 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.

## Background

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.

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.

## Competition

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.

## Records

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

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.

## Schedule

|Date|Time|Round|
| --- | --- | --- |
|Wednesday, 5 August 1936|**17:00**|**Semifinals**|
|Thursday, 6 August 1936|**16:15**|**Final**|

### Semifinals

The 3 fastest runners in each heat went to the final rounds.

#### Semifinal 1

|Rank|Athlete|Nation|Time|Notes|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1|Eric Ny||3:54.8||
|2|Glenn Cunningham||3:54.8||
|3|Werner Böttcher||3:55.0||
|4|Ossi Teileri||3:55.6||
|5|Mihály Iglói||3:56.0||
|6|Grigorios Georgakopoulos||4:01.4||
|7|René Geeraert||Unknown||
|8|Børge Larsen||Unknown||
|9|Pierre Hemmer||Unknown||
|10|Paul Martin||Unknown||
|—|Kumao Aochi||||

#### Semifinal 2

|Rank|Athlete|Nation|Time|Notes|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1|Gene Venzke||4:00.4||
|2|Jerry Cornes||4:00.6||
|3|Jack Lovelock||4:00.6||
|4|Pierre Leichtnam||4:01.0||
|5|Clarke Scholtz||4:02.0||
|6|Kiyoshi Nakamura||4:04.8||
|7|Emil Goršek||4:13.0||
|8|Emil Hübscher||Unknown||
|9|Jack Liddle||Unknown||
|10|Miguel Castro||Unknown||
|—|Martti Matilainen||||
|—|Pat Boot||||
|Stavros Velkopoulos|||||

#### Semifinal 3

|Rank|Athlete|Nation|Time|Notes|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1|Luigi Beccali||3:55.6||
|2|Miklós Szabó||3:55.6||
|3|Phil Edwards||3:56.2||
|4|Bobby Graham||3:56.6||
|5|Bedřich Hošek||3:59.4||
|6|André Glatigny||3:59.6||
|7|Gerald Backhouse||Unknown||
|8|Harry Mehlhose||Unknown||
|9|Reginald Uba||4:26.2||
|10|Jia Lianren||Unknown||
|11|Emilio Torres||Unknown||
|—|Ivan Krevs||||

#### Semifinal 4

|Rank|Athlete|Nation|Time|Notes|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1|Robert Goix||3:54.0||
|2|Archie San Romani||3:55.0||
|3|Fritz Schaumburg||3:55.2||
|4|Joseph Mostert||3:56.6||
|5|Niilo Hartikka||3:59.0||
|6|Franz Eichberger||3:59.2||
|7|Ragnar Ekholdt||Unknown||
|8|Sydney Wooderson||Unknown||
|9|Hugh Thompson||Unknown||
|10|Charles Stein||Unknown||
|11|Francisco Váldez||Unknown||
|—|Toshinao Tomie||||

### Final

|Rank|Athlete|Nation|Time|Notes|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
||Jack Lovelock||3:47.8||
||Glenn Cunningham||3:48.4||
||Luigi Beccali||3:49.2||
|4|Archie San Romani||3:50.0||
|5|Phil Edwards||3:50.4|** **|
|6|Jerry Cornes||3:51.4||
|7|Miklós Szabó||3:53.0||
|8|Robert Goix||3:53.8||
|9|Gene Venzke||3:55.0||
|10|Fritz Schaumburg||3:56.2||
|11|Eric Ny||3:57.6||
|12|Werner Böttcher||4:04.2||

## Infobox (olympic event)

- **event**: Men's 1500 metres
- **games**: 1936 Summer
- **image**: Olympic Athletics.svg
- **image size**: 200
- **caption**: Olympic Athletics
- **venue**: Olympiastadion (Berlin), Olympiastadion: Berlin, Germany
- **dates**: August 4 (heats)
August 6 (final)
- **competitors**: 43
- **nations**: 27
- **win value**: 3:47.8
- **longnames**: yes
- **gold**: Jack Lovelock
- **goldnoc**: NZL
- **silver**: Glenn Cunningham (runner), Glenn Cunningham
- **silvernoc**: USA
- **bronze**: Luigi Beccali
- **bronzenoc**: ITA
- **prev**: Athletics at the 1932 Summer Olympics – Men's 1500 metres, 1932
- **next**: Athletics at the 1948 Summer Olympics – Men's 1500 metres, 1948