Talk:Athletics at the 2004 Summer Olympics – Men's 5000 metres

The 2004 track schedule
Not unlike the 1952 Helsinki schedule that gave Zatopek three days to recover after the 5000, we have here an anomalous schedule that allowed El Guerrouj to double the 1500 and 5000 with finals 4 days apart. In prior recent Olympiads the 1500 and 5000 were held on the same day or perhaps a day apart, both as showcase climax events with only the (men's) marathon waiting as the finale, again on the same day or only a day after greatly limiting the potential to repeat Zatopek's feat of 1952. Can anyone supply some information as to how the unusual schedule of 2004 came to be? Was it arranged specifically to accommodate El Guerrouj?

(Nurmi accomplished his double in 1924 on the same day with only a 45 minute break between finals! There are few comparable achievements, for example, HS star Rich Kimball winning the 2 mile around 8:46 (when the HS record was 8:41) and the mile within 80 minutes at the 1974 California State meet, or Prefontaine's one day 3 mile/mile double.)  — Preceding unsigned comment added by Jszigeti (talk • contribs) 11:05, 23 June 2017 (UTC)