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

I recall back in 1988, the Seoul women's 100m had:

the reigning 1984 Olympic 100m Champion (Ashford)

the previous 1980 Olympic 100m Champion (Kondrateyeva)

The reigning 1987 World 100m Champion (Gladisch-Moller)

the previous 1983 World 100m Champion (Gohr - also the reigning 1986 European 100m Champion)

the reigning 100m WR holder (Griffith-Joyner)

the reigning 200m WR holder (Drechsler)

Back when Centro cooked the Rio 15 field which was the best ever 15 field assembled to this day as far as accolades you had Willis, Mak Daddy, Kiprop all had golds to their name at one point at least.

First race that came to my mind was the 2004 Olympic 5,000. It didn’t have 4 recent gold medalists, but it did have 3 recent gold medalists and all-time greats in El Guerrouj, Bekele, and Kipchoge, plus three more men who had won or would go on to win gold in off-track events:

John Kibowen, who won the world cross country championships in 1998 and 2000, and who won a bronze medal in the 5,000 in 2001

Zersenay Tadese, who had just won a bronze medal in the Olympic 10,000 and would go on to win a world cross country championship and five world half marathon championships

Gebregziabher Gebremariam, who would go on to win a world cross country championship and the NY marathon

That field also had Abraham Chebii, who had run 12:52 and won two Golden League 5,000 races the year before. I still remember thinking how stacked that field was during the athlete introductions while they stood at the starting line, and then laughing when the camera got to Tim Broe, who presumably was thinking the same thing and mouthed “Oh sh*t!”

For a more recent example, we can look at last year’s world championship 5,000, which had 5 gold medalists: Jakob, Cheptegei, Barega, Edris, and Kejelcha

Women’s 1500m from London 2017:

• Faith Kipyegon 2016 1500m gold

• Jenny Simpson 2011 1500m gold

• Caster Semenya 4x 800m gold

• Genzebe Dibaba 2015 1500m gold

Throw in Sifan Hassan who went on to win 4x gold.

Good point, but I would disqualify Kejelcha as his golds were only indoors, and also note only 2 of the 5 had previous golds in the event they were competing in (5k).

The women’s 10,000 at the 2000 Olympics had more than 4 gold medalists:

1. Derartu Tulu - 1992 Olympic 10k; ‘95, ‘97 and ‘99 World XC

2. Gete Wami - 1999 World Championships 10k

3. Fernanda Ribeiro - 1996 Olympic 10k, 1995 World Championships 10k

6. Sonia O’Sullivan - 1995 World Championship 5k, 1998 World XC (long and short course double gold)

17. Sally Barsosio - 1997 World Championships 10k

Those 5 obviously count since they had previously won Olympic or World Championship golds at 5k/10k. The race also featured:

4. Paula Radcliffe - ‘99 World Championships 10k silver; future golds in World Championships marathon, World XC, World Half Marathon Championships

5. Tegla Lourope - ‘97, ‘98 and ‘99 (3x reigning) World Half Marathon champion

8. Elena Meyer - ‘94 World Half Marathon champion, ‘92 Olympic 10k silver

12. Berhane Adere - Future 2003 10k world champion (plus World Indoor, World Half Marathon, and Chicago Marathon champion)

And Centro, Iguider and Soulemain all had indoor golds to their name too.

1984 men's 1500m: Coe, Ovett, Cram, Cruz (+ Bile to come)
1993 men's 1500m: Morceli, Cram, Bile, Cacho (+ Niyongabo to come)
1996 men's 1500m: Morceli, Cacho, Bile, W. Tanui, Cruz (+ El Guerrouj to come)

1988 women's 200m: Griffith-Joyner, Drechsler, Möller (Gladisch), Ottey (to come), Perec (to come), Krabbe (to come), Torrence (to come), P. Davis (to come)

You can't have 4 gold medalists in one race, cut it with all this woke mind virus participation trophy bs.

1996 women's 200m: Ottey, Perec, I. Miller (to come), Pintusevich (to come), Guidry (relay), D. Young (relay), Cuthbert (relay), Privalova (to come + relay), Freeman (to come), Maltschugina (relay), Sturrup (relay to come), McDonald (relay), Fynes (relay to come)

If you include future golds

2016 5,000 - Farah, Lagat, Chep, Edris

2009 5,000 - Bekele, Lagat, Kipchoge, Farah

2007 5,000 - Lagat, Kipchoge, Farah, Benjamin Limo

2003 5,000 - El G, Bekele, Kipchoge, Richard Limo

1999 5,000 - Hissou, Benjamin Limo, Komen, Million Wolde

2019 1,500 - Tim C, Makhloufi, Jakob, Wightman, Centro

2015 1,500 - Kiprop, Manangoi, Makhloufi, Tim C., Centro

1,999 1,500 - El G, Ngeny, Cacho, Morceli

1,995 1,500 - Morceli, El G, Niyongabo, Cacho

2011 800 - Rudisha, Borzakovskiy, Yego, Aman

2009 800 - Mulaudzi, Yego, Yusuf Kamel, Borzakovskiy

what's a "medallist"?

To be clear, I'm talking about outdoor track and field golds. Kejelcha has zero. But that's four and last year and I guess we couldn't totally rule out Edris.

is it "medalist" or "medallist"???

Just have to find an event where it's difficult to be a repeat winner, like the men's pole vault.

Check the results from the 2018 Pre Classic, which contained the global outdoor champions from 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, and 2017. And that was a field of 9 men and not giving Mondo credit for his future titles!

preclassic.runnerspace.com

Eugene Diamond League - Nike Prefontaine Classic - Results/History - 2018 Results

Eugene Diamond League - Nike Prefontaine Classic

Open link

Tough to beat 6 out of 9 entries. the 2019 world championships had 5 of those 6, and also 2014 world indoor champ Filippidis, though not all the former champs made the final.