Athletics at the 1924 Summer Olympics – Men's 800 metres

This was the seventh appearance of the event, which is one of 12 athletics events to have been held at every Summer Olympics. Two finalists from 1920 returned: fourth-place finisher Edgar Mountain of Great Britain and seventh-place finisher Adriaan Paulen of the Netherlands. The favorites for 1924 were Schuyler Enck of the United States (who had the best time in 1924 with 1:53.2), H. B. Stallard of Great Britain (AAA champion), and Paul Martin of Switzerland.[2]

Austria, Brazil, Haiti, Ireland, Mexico, and Poland appeared in the event for the first time. Great Britain and the United States each made their sixth appearance, tied for the most among all nations.

The competition used the three-round format introduced in 1912, with the nine-man final introduced in 1920. There were eight first-round heats of between 4 and 7 athletes each; the top three 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.[2][3]

These were the standing world and Olympic records (in minutes) prior to the 1924 Summer Olympics.

World record	Ted Meredith (USA)	1:51.9	Stockholm, Sweden	8 July 1912
Olympic record	Ted Meredith (USA)	1:51.9	Stockholm, Sweden	8 July 1912

No world or Olympic records were set during the competition.

The rounds were each on separate days again, following a one-time experiment with the semifinals and final being held one after the other in 1920.

• Olympic Report
• Wudarski, Pawel (1999). "Wyniki Igrzysk Olimpijskich" (in Polish). Archived from the original on 14 October 2008. Retrieved 7 October 2008.