Athletics at the 1948 Summer Olympics – Men's 800 metres

The competitors all started from a crouch start. In the final, Marcel Hansenne bolted from the blocks to take the lead. The tall Arthur Wint worked his way through the crowd and moved into the marking position by the end of the turn. Mal Whitfield smoothly ran around the crowd, past Wint and Hansenne into the lead. Whitfield kept going, extending his lead to five metres uncontested. Ingvar Bengtsson moved forward to challenge Hansenne, holding the edge through the final turn. Coming off the final turn, Wint ran around both of them and set off in chase of Whitfield. He was able to close down a couple of meters but the gap was too much, Whitfield winning easily. Behind them, Herb Barten ran around the outside of Bengtsson and challenged Hansenne to the line, but Hansenne took the bronze.

This was the 11th appearance of the event, which is one of 12 athletics events to have been held at every Summer Olympics. None of the finalists from the pre-war 1936 Games returned. Noted contenders included Mal Whitfield of the United States, Arthur Wint of Jamaica, Doug Harris of New Zealand, and Marcel Hansenne of France.^[1]

Egypt, Iceland, Jamaica, South Korea, and Trinidad and Tobago appeared in the event for the first time. Great Britain and the United States each made their 10th appearance, tied for the most among all nations.

The event used the three-round format introduced in 1912. There were six first-round heats, each with 7 and 8 athletes (before withdrawals); the top four runners in each heat advanced to the semifinals. There were three semifinals with 8 athletes each; the top three runners in each semifinal advanced to the nine-man final.^[1][3]

These were the standing world and Olympic records (in minutes) prior to the 1948 Summer Olympics.

World record	Rudolf Harbig (GER)	1:46.6	Milan, Italy	15 July 1939
Olympic record	Tommy Hampson (GBR)	1:49.7	Los Angeles, United States	2 August 1932

Mal Whitfield broke the Olympic record with a time of 1:49.2 in the final.

All times are British Summer Time (UTC+1).

Round 1

The first four in each heat qualified for the semifinals.^[4]

Heat 1

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Marcel Hansenne	France	1:54.6	Q
2	John Parlett	Great Britain	1:55.0	Q
3	Bill Ramsay	Australia	1:55.0	Q
4	Karl Volkmer	Switzerland	1:55.3	Q
5	Adán Torres	Argentina	1:56.7
6	Lee Yun-seok	South Korea	2:01.4
7	Rashid Khadr	Egypt	Unknown

Heat 2

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Herb Barten	United States	1:55.6	Q
2	Doug Harris	New Zealand	1:56.6	Q
2	Tom White	Great Britain	1:56.6	Q
4	Raymond Rosier	Belgium	1:56.7	Q
5	Vasilios Mavroidis	Greece	1:57.4
6	Antero Mongrut	Peru	1:58.7
7	Cahit Önel	Turkey	Unknown
—	Herluf Christensen	Denmark	DNF

Heat 3

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Niels Holst-Sørensen	Denmark	1:54.2	Q
2	Bjørn Vade	Norway	1:54.2	Q
3	Bob Chambers	United States	1:54.3	Q
4	Joseph Brys	Belgium	1:55.4	Q
5	Óskar Jónsson	Iceland	1:55.4
6	Bill Parnell	Canada	1:55.7
7	Juan Adarraga	Spain	Unknown
—	Joe Kelly	Ireland	DNS

Heat 4

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Arthur Wint	Jamaica	1:53.9	Q
2	Frits de Ruijter	Netherlands	1:54.4	Q
3	Josy Barthel	Luxembourg	1:54.8	Q
4	Václav Winter	Czechoslovakia	1:55.1	Q
5	Ezra Henniger	Canada	1:55.4
6	Wilfred Tull	Trinidad and Tobago	1:55.7
7	Seydi Dinçtürk	Turkey	Unknown

Heat 5

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Olle Ljunggren	Sweden	1:56.1	Q
2	Robert Chef d'Hôtel	France	1:56.2	Q
3	Hans Streuli	Switzerland	1:56.5	Q
4	Harry Tarraway	Great Britain	1:56.6	Q
5	Guillermo Avalos	Argentina	1:56.6
6	Riza Maksut İşman	Turkey	2:01.1
7	Georgios Karageorgos	Greece	Unknown

Heat 6

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Mal Whitfield	United States	1:52.8	Q
2	Ingvar Bengtsson	Sweden	1:52.9	Q
3	Jack Hutchins	Canada	1:55.5	Q
4	Gaston Mayordomo	France	1:55.7	Q
5	Stylianos Stratakos	Greece	2:02.2
—	Bruno Schneider	Austria	DNS
	Dermot McDermott	Ireland	DNS

Semifinals

Semifinal 1

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Marcel Hansenne	France	1:50.5	Q
2	Mal Whitfield	United States	1:50.7	Q
3	John Parlett	Great Britain	1:50.9	Q
4	Jack Hutchins	Canada	1:52.6
5	Joseph Brys	Belgium	1:53.2
6	Josy Barthel	Luxembourg	1:54.6
7	Bjørn Vade	Norway	1:55.39	[5]
—	Karl Volkmer	Switzerland	DNF

Semifinal 2

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Ingvar Bengtsson	Sweden	1:51.2	Q
2	Arthur Wint	Jamaica	1:52.7	Q
3	Bob Chambers	United States	1:52.9	Q
4	Gaston Mayordomo	France	1:54.3
5	Bill Ramsay	Australia	1:54.9
6	Václav Winter	Czechoslovakia	1:57.7
—	Harry Tarraway	Great Britain	DNF
	Doug Harris	New Zealand	DNF

Semifinal 3

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Herb Barten	United States	1:51.7	Q
2	Robert Chef d'Hôtel	France	1:52.0	Q
3	Niels Holst-Sørensen	Denmark	1:52.4	Q
4	Olle Ljunggren	Sweden	1:52.5
5	Tom White	Great Britain	1:53.0
6	Frits de Ruijter	Netherlands	1:54.6
7	Raymond Rosier	Belgium	Unknown
—	Hans Streuli	Switzerland	DNF

Final

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
	Mal Whitfield	United States	1:49.2	OR
	Arthur Wint	Jamaica	1:49.5
	Marcel Hansenne	France	1:49.8
4	Herb Barten	United States	1:50.1
5	Ingvar Bengtsson	Sweden	1:50.5
6	Bob Chambers	United States	1:52.1
7	Robert Chef d'Hôtel	France	1:53.0
8	John Parlett	Great Britain	1:53.4
9	Niels Holst-Sørensen	Denmark	1:54.0