Team races at the Olympics

The first such event was over 5000 metres at the 1900 Summer Olympics. This became a 4-mile race for the 1904 Summer Olympics, then a 3-mile race for the 1908 Summer Olympics. The most consistent format was over 3000 metres: this distance was contested on three consecutive occasions from 1912 to 1924, at which point track team races were removed from the Olympic athletics programme.

The races typically permitted up to five athletes per nation, with a minimum of three required to form a team. Each team score was the sum of the finishing positions of that nation's top three athletes. For example, first, second and third places would create a team score of six.

For 1900 and 1904 only two teams were entered: the point scoring format incorporated all five of each team's runners. On both occasions these were races between two major

Medal summary

Games	Gold	Silver	Bronze
1900 Paris (5000 m) details	Mixed team (ZZX)  Charles Bennett (GBR)  John Rimmer (GBR)  Sidney Robinson (GBR)  Alfred Tysoe (GBR)  Stan Rowley (AUS)	Michel Champoudry	none awarded
1904 St. Louis (4 miles) details	United States (USA) Arthur Newton George Underwood Paul Pilgrim Howard Valentine David Munson	James Lightbody (USA)  Frank Verner (USA)  Lacey Hearn (USA)  Albert Corey (FRA)  Sidney Hatch (USA )	none awarded
1908 London (3 miles) details	Archie Robertson William Coales	United States (USA) John Eisele George Bonhag Herbert Trube	Louis de Fleurac Joseph Dreher Paul Lizandier
1912 Stockholm (3000 m) details	Louis Scott Norman Taber	Sweden (SWE) Bror Fock Nils Frykberg Thorild Olsson Ernst Wide John Zander	Edward Owen Cyril Porter
1920 Antwerp (3000 m) details	Horace Brown Ivan Dresser Arlie Schardt	Great Britain (GBR) Joe Blewitt Albert Hill William Seagrove	Sweden (SWE) Eric Backman Sven Lundgren Edvin Wide
1924 Paris (3000 m) details	Finland (FIN) Elias Katz Paavo Nurmi Ville Ritola	Great Britain (GBR) Herbert Johnston Bertram Macdonald George Webber	William Cox Edward Kirby Willard Tibbetts

Multiple medalists

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Olympics	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	George Bonhag	United States (USA)	1908–1912	1	1	0	2

• Note: William Seagrove was a 1920 silver medallist and was part of the British team in 1924, but as he was not in the top three British runners he did form part of their silver medal-winning team.^[3]

Medals by country

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	United States (USA)	3	1	1	5
2	Great Britain (GBR)	1	2	1	4
3	Mixed team  (ZZX)	1	1	0	2
4	Finland (FIN)	1	0	0	1
5=	France (FRA)	0	1	1	2
5=	Sweden (SWE)	0	1	1	2

Non-canonical Olympic events

In addition to the main 1904 4-mile team race, a handicap competition was also staged. This race, contested over one mile, saw Missouri Athletic Club take on fellow American sports club St. Louis Southwest Turnverein. Missouri won the race in a time of 3:52.2, with the St. Louis team finishing some 80 yards off the winners.^[4]

This handicap race, along with numerous other handicap athletics events, is no longer considered part of the official Olympic history of the team race or the athletics programme in general. Consequently, medals from these competitions have not been assigned to nations on the all-time medal tables.^[4]

References

• Athletics Men's 3,000 metres, Team Medalists. Sports Reference. Retrieved on 2014-03-22.
• Athletics Men's 3 mile, Team Medalists. Sports Reference. Retrieved on 2014-03-12.
• Athletics Men's 4 mile, Team Medalists. Sports Reference. Retrieved on 2014-03-12.
• Athletics Men's 5,000 metres, Team Medalists. Sports Reference. Retrieved on 2014-03-12.

Specific

External links

• Official Olympics website