[1] No preliminary rounds were held at this distance, since the number of competitors allowed a direct final.

As Kenenisa Bekele and Sileshi Sihine turned up the pace with two kilometres left, Zersenay Tadese, Boniface Kiprop Toroitich and reigning Olympic champion Haile Gebrselassie, who was running with a calf injury, were not able to keep up.

Bekele, the world record holder, assured his victory with a brilliant Olympic record finish (27:05.10 minutes), completing the final 400 metres in less than 54 seconds.

[3][4] Prior to the competition[update], the existing World record, Olympic record, and world leading time were as follows: The following records were established during the competition: The qualification period for athletics was 1 January 2003 to 9 August 2004.

For the men's 10,000 metres, each National Olympic Committee was permitted to enter up to three athletes that had run the race in 27:49.00 or faster during the qualification period.