Emmanuel Korir had won in 2021 and also the 2022 World Championships, which marked a changing of the guard for this event.

Arop won in 2023 in a slow race after getting the jump on Emmanuel Wanyonyi and the field on the backstretch.

At the Kenyan Olympic Trials at altitude in Nairobi, Wanyonyi won largely unchallenged by .8 of a second in 1:41.70, which made him then the #3 performer in history.

Five days later, Sedjati improved to 1:41.46 at the 2024 Herculis meet in Monaco, with Mohamed Attaoui just missing 1:42 behind him.

The final started off with Max Burgin on the inside making up the stagger on the field early, reaching the break line first.

From the last two position at the bell, Arop followed by Sedjati began to move forward on the outside while Burgin faded back.

It took the entire turn for Arop to get past Hoppel and arrive at Tual while running on the outside.

[3] The winning margin, between winner Wanyonyi and 2023 World Champion Arop was 0.01 seconds, closer than any other men's 800 metres Olympic final, even closer than Dave Wottle's famous finish in 1972 vs Yevhen Arzhanov which was .03.

The men's 800 metres has been present on the Olympic athletics programme since the inaugural edition in 1896.