The 1500 metres landscape had shifted strongly towards Sweden during World War II; the nation had never won an Olympic medal in the sport before the war but was aiming for a sweep in 1948 despite Arne Andersson and Gunder Hägg being declared ineligible professionals.

The United States made its 11th appearance, the only nation to have competed in the men's 1500 metres at each Games to that point.

The Official Report lists the times and places of the top six runners, but all others are marked simply as "also competed.

"[3] The table below presents the results as shown by Olympedia, "based on information from Richard Hymans, British athletics statistical expert" and "supplemented .

by various descriptions from multiple national sources, including a Swedish radio report of the finish of the race, which definitively gives Garay as placing seventh.