Olympic Games Running Records [Updated July 2025]

What are the Olympic Records in the main running races? We look at the fastest times run in the Olympics and compare them to the World Records in the same events. 

Updated July 2025.

We’ve listed all the running Olympic records below. We’ve also compared them all to the World Record times in each event, including: 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m, 1500m, 5000m, 10,000m and the marathon.

The only events where the world record was run in the Olympic Games are:

Women’s 200m

Men’s 400m

Men’s 800m  

WHY ARE OLYMPIC RECORDS SLOWER THAN WORLD RECORDS?

As we’ve listed above, only three current running world records were run at an Olympic Games.

One reason is that the Olympics are only every four years, and come with additional pressure on performance, because winning an Olympic medal – especially a gold medal – can be a life-changing achievement for a runner.

In short distance races, it’s an all-out effort to win, so we see faster times. But in middle distance, long distance and marathon races the events become more tactical at the Olympics compared to regular season meets, with runners not wanting to push ahead and burn up. It’s more important to win a medal than to break a record in the Olympic Games. The weather at summer games can also be a factor in faster times.

All details on all major running World Records can be found here. Or you can see the top 20 men and women marathon times here. 

WOMEN’S OLYMPIC RECORDS

MEN’S OLYMPIC RECORDS

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Photo by Hannah Peters/Getty Images