The men's world record is held by Norway's Jakob Ingebrigtsen, who ran a time of 4:43.13 in 2023, while the women's world record is held by Australia's Jessica Hull, who ran a time of 5:19.70 in 2024.

[1][2] The distance sparsely features on event programmes of professional one-day track and field meetings, serving as a comparatively novel event with greater scope for record-breaking performances.

[3] It is also used at lower-level competitions, such as school and youth tournaments.

Since 2017, a 2000-metre run is one of the events held to test the fitness of potential draftees at the AFL Draft Combine.

[4] Despite its world record status, it has not yet featured as a world championship level event indoors or outdoors; however, the event was briefly held at national level in the mid-1960s at the Spanish Indoor and Soviet Indoor Athletics Championships.