The men's 5000 metres was a track and field athletics event held as part of the Athletics at the 1912 Summer Olympics programme.

It was the debut of the event, which along with the 10000 metre event replaced the 5 mile race held at the 1908 Summer Olympics.

Thirty-one long-distance runners from eleven nations competed.

Unsurprisingly, that record stood only until the next race—Hannes Kolehmainen won the final at 14:36.6 as both he and Bouin (just behind Kolehmainen, at 14:36.7) surpassed the best time of the semifinals.

The final was held on Wednesday, July 10, 1912.