The men's 800 metres at the 2004 Summer Olympics as part of the athletics program was held at the Athens Olympic Stadium from August 25 to 28. Seventy-two athletes from 58 nations competed. The event was won by Yuriy Borzakovskiy of Russia, the first medal for the nation in the event. Wilson Kipketer of Denmark became the 10th man to win a second medal in the 800 metres.
The women's 800 metres at the 2009 World Championships in Athletics was held at the Olympic Stadium on 16, 17 and 19 August. Prior to the championships, there was no clear favourite for the race – the twenty fastest times of the season had been run by seventeen different athletes. The reigning World and Olympic champions, Janeth Jepkosgei and Pamela Jelimo, had not shown the dominance of previous seasons. The two fastest runners of the season, Caster Semenya and Maggie Vessey, had recently set personal bests but lacked any major championships experience, while third best Anna Alminova was a 1500 metres specialist. European Indoor Champion Mariya Savinova and Svetlana Klyuka, fourth at the Olympics, were other strong competitors. The 2007 World medallists Hasna Benhassi and Mayte Martínez, and Olympic finalist Yuliya Krevsun were also predicted as medal possibilities.
Mokgadi Caster Semenya OIB is a South African middle-distance runner and winner of two Olympic gold medals and three World Championships in the women's 800 metres. She first won gold at the World Championships in 2009 and went on to win at the 2016 Olympics and the 2017 World Championships, where she also won a bronze medal in the 1500 metres. After the doping disqualification of Mariya Savinova, she was also awarded gold medals for the 2011 World Championships and the 2012 Olympics.
The Women's 800 metres competition at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, United Kingdom. The event was held at the Olympic Stadium on 8–11 August. The race was won by Mariya Savinova, but she has since been stripped of the gold medal for doping.
The Women's 800 metres at the 2011 World Championships in Athletics was held at the Daegu Stadium on September 1, 2 and 4.
The women's 800 metres at the 2012 European Athletics Championships was held at the Helsinki Olympic Stadium on 28 and 29 June.
Lynsey Sharp is a Scottish track and field athlete who competes in the 800 metres. She is the 2012 European champion and represented Great Britain at the 2012 Olympic Games in London. She won a silver medal at the 2014 Commonwealth Games. Her personal best is 1:57.69, the seventh fastest time over 800m by a British woman, set in the final of the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
Melissa Bishop-Nriagu is a Canadian runner who specializes in the 800 metres. She competed at the 2012, 2016 Olympics and 2020 Olympics. She won a silver medal at the 2015 World Athletics Championships. Her World Championship medal was a Canadian woman's first-ever medal in the 800 m. Bishop-Nriagu graduated from University of Windsor and was only the third Canadian woman to achieve a time under 2:00 minutes in the 800 m. She is currently the national record holder for this distance.
Francine Niyonsaba is a Burundian runner who specialized in the 800 metres and shifted to longer distances in 2019. She was the 2016 Rio Olympics silver medalist in the women's 800 metres. Her silver medal was the first Olympic medal for Burundi since 1996. Niyonsaba won a silver in the event at the 2017 World Championships.
The women's 800 metres at the 2013 World Championships in Athletics was held at the Luzhniki Stadium on 15–18 August.
Dutee Chand is an Indian professional sprinter and current national champion in the women's 100 metres event. She is the first Indian to win a gold medal in 100m race in a global competition. She is the third Indian woman to ever qualify for the Women's 100 metres event at the Summer Olympic Games. However, in the 2016 Summer Olympics, her 11.69 s in the preliminary round did not qualify her for the next round. In 2018, Chand clinched silver in women's 100m at the Jakarta Asian Games. It was India's first medal in this event since 1998. In 2019, she became the first Indian sprinter to win gold at the Universiade, clocking 11.32 seconds in the 100 m race.
Burundi competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 5 to 21 August 2016. This was the nation's sixth consecutive appearance at the Summer Olympics.
The women's 800 metres at the 2015 World Championships in Athletics was held at the Beijing National Stadium on 26, 27 and 29 August.
Margaret Nyairera Wambui is a Kenyan middle-distance runner specialising in the 800 metres.
The women's 800 metres at the 2016 IAAF World Indoor Championships took place on March 19 and 20, 2016.
The 2016 Diamond League was the seventh season of the annual series of outdoor track and field meetings, organised by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF).
The women's 1500 metres at the 2017 World Championships in Athletics was held at the London Olympic Stadium on 4−5 and 7 August.
The women's 800 metres at the 2018 IAAF World Indoor Championships took place on 3 and 4 March 2018.
The women's 800 metres at the 2019 World Athletics Championships was held at the Khalifa International Stadium in Doha, Qatar, from 27 to 30 September 2019.
The testosterone regulations in women's athletics are a series of policies first published in 2011 by the IAAF and last updated following a court victory against Caster Semenya in May 2019. The first version of the rules applied to all women with high testosterone, but the current version of the rules only apply to athletes with certain XY disorders of sexual development, and set a 5 nmol/L testosterone limit, which applies only to distances between 400 m and 1 mile (inclusive), other events being unrestricted.
