The women's 5000 at Worlds will have 4 gold medallists in it, has this ever happened before in track and field history?

Women's 200m 2012 Olympics

Allyson Felix - 3x World 200m Champion

Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce - 2x Olympic 100m & 1x World 100m Champion

Carmelita Jeter - World 100m Champion

Veronica Campbell-Brown - 2x Olympic 200m Champion, 1x World 200m Champion, 1x World 100m Champion

Sanya Richards-Ross - World & Olympic 400m Champion

Niyongabo was not in that Final

There was no 4*800 at WC'17. Semenya did not win gold in this relay.

In which final?

The OP is not asking for finals (the 2023 women's 5000m final is not even put together right now).

Or did I misinterpret what was meant? The post is not clear it seems.

wrote a script to calculate this quickly, for only outdoor worlds / olympics excluding relays.

according to my data, the deepest global championships in history had 6 gold medalists going into them, coincidentally both at the 2004 Olympics:

- 2004 Olympics women's long jump: Tatyana Lebedeva (2001, 2003, 2004, 2007), Carolina Klüft (2003, 2004, 2005, 2007), Marion Jones (1997, 1999), Fiona May (1995, 2001), Eunice Barber (1999, 2003), Niurka Montalvo (1999)

- 2004 Olympics women's discus: Beatrice Faumuina (1997), Iryna Yatchenko (2003), Ellina Zvereva (1995, 2000, 2001), Olga Chernyavskaya (1993), Franka Dietzsch (1999, 2005, 2007), Tsvetanka Khristova (1991)

then there were 17 global championship events with 5 gold medalists heading in. of them, three were distance races:

- 1996 Olympics men's 1500m: Noureddine Morceli (1991, 1993, 1995, 1996), Abdi Bile (1987), Joaquim Cruz (1984), William Tanui (1992), Fermín Cacho (1992

- 2000 Olympics women's 10,000m: Derartu Tulu (1992, 2000, 2001), Fernanda Ribeiro (1995, 1996), Sonia O'Sullivan (1995), Sally Barsosio (1997), Gete Wami (1999)

- 2008 Olympics women's marathon: Catherine Ndereba (2003, 2007), Lidia Șimon (2001), Paula Radcliffe (2005), Berhane Adere (2003), Gete Wami (1999)

if you want to include future gold medalists as well -- then there have been two events with 10 gold medalists in them, both racewalk:

- 2007 WC men's 20K walk: Jefferson Pérez (1996, 2003, 2005, 2007), Robert Heffernan (2013), Ilya Markov (1999), Alex Schwazer (2008), Matej Tóth (2015, 2016), Luis Fernando López (2011), Jared Tallent (2012), Ivano Brugnetti (1999, 2004), Daniel García (1997), Valeriy Borchin (2008, 2009)

- 2012 Olympics men's 20K walk: Chen Ding (2012), Wang Zhen (2016), Miguel Ángel López (2015), Jared Tallent (2012), Robert Heffernan (2013), Dawid Tomala (2020), Éider Arévalo (2017), Yusuke Suzuki (2019), Valeriy Borchin (2008, 2009), Luis Fernando López (2011)

there are two events with 9 gold medalists in them (2012 men's 50K walk, 1996 women's long jump), then nine events with 8 gold medalists in them, including these two distance races:

2005 WC men's 800m: Rashid Ramzi (2005), Mbulaeni Mulaudzi (2009), Wilfred Bungei (2008), Yuriy Borzakovskiy (2004), Djabir Saïd-Guerni (2003), Yusuf Saad Kamel (2009), Alfred Kirwa Yego (2007), André Bucher (2001)

2003 WC women's 5000m: Tirunesh Dibaba (2003, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2012, 2013), Berhane Adere (2003), Gabriela Szabo (1997, 1999, 2000, 2001), Sonia O'Sullivan (1995), Meseret Defar (2004, 2007, 2012, 2013), Olga Yegorova (2001), Xing Huina (2004), Dorcus Inzikuru (2005)

Well done!

Can you also include relays? The 1996 women's 200m has had 13 gold medalists (including future and relay).

Tbh I didn't include relays because I didn't want to deal with the athletes that ran in the heats also getting gold medals... But I just did it anyways!

There were three events with 21 (!) future gold medalists including relays:

1997 Women 4 x 100m: [21] Ekateríni Thánou (2000), Pauline Davis-Thompson (1999, 2000), Cathy Freeman (1997, 1999, 2000), Gail Devers (1992, 1993, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1999), Chioma Ajunwa (1996), Debbie Ferguson (1999, 2000, 2001), Marion Jones (1997, 1999), Inger Miller (1996, 1997, 1999), Christine Arron (2003), Beverly McDonald (1991, 2004), Sylviane Félix (2003), Savatheda Fynes (1999, 2000), Chryste Gaines (1995, 1996, 1997), Patricia Girard (2003), Marina Trandenkova (1993), Eldece Clarke-Lewis (1999, 2000), Melanie Paschke (2001), Galina Malchugina (1993), Juliet Cuthbert (1991), Merlene Frazer (1991), Birgit Rockmeier (2001)

1999 Women 4 x 400m: [20] Cathy Freeman (1997, 1999, 2000), Deon Hemmings (1996, 2001), Zulia Calatayud (2005), Amy Mbacké Thiam (2001), Ludmila Formanová (1999), Jearl Miles (1993, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2003), Natalya Nazarova (1999), Yekaterina Bakhvalova (1999), Lorraine Fenton (2001), Olga Kotlyarova (1999), Michelle Collins (1993), Maicel Malone-Wallace (1993, 1996), Svetlana Goncharenko (1999), Grit Breuer (1997), Anja Rücker (1997), Uta Rohländer-Fromm (1997), Tatyana Chebykina (1999), Andrea Anderson (2000), Natalya Sharova (1999), Anke Feller (1997)

2000 Women 4 x 100m: [21] Veronica Campbell-Brown (2004, 2007, 2008, 2011, 2015), Françoise Mbango (2004, 2008), Ekateríni Thánou (2000), Pauline Davis-Thompson (1999, 2000), Paraskeví Patoulídou (1992), Torri Edwards (2003, 2007), Debbie Ferguson (1999, 2000, 2001), Merlene Ottey (1991, 1993, 1995), Chandra Sturrup (1999, 2000), Christine Arron (2003), Beverly McDonald (1991, 2004), Muriel Hurtis (2003), Tayna Lawrence (2004), Savatheda Fynes (1999, 2000), Chryste Gaines (1995, 1996, 1997), Natalya Voronova (1993), Marina Trandenkova (1993), Eldece Clarke-Lewis (1999, 2000), Merlene Frazer (1991), Marion Wagner (2001), Gabi Rockmeier (2001)

The source code is here for those interested:

github.com

GitHub - hpr/golds

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