Photo via BBC Sport

How the race they said women couldn't run took centre stage

The women's 800m first appeared on the Olympic schedule in Amsterdam in 1928, alongside four other debut events for female track and field participants: the 100m, high jump, discus, and 400m hurdles. Following Karoline Lina Radke's gold-medal triumph for Germany, the two-lap contest was stripped from the Games for 32 years amid unfounded assertions that the entrants suffered severe physical collapse.

1, establishing a world record as the first British woman to secure an Olympic track title.

Nearly a century after its contentious introduction, the 800m has transformed into a showcase event highlighted by rivals such as Olympic champion Keely Hodgkinson of Great Britain and Switzerland's European champion Audrey Werro, who recently missed the longstanding record by only 0.42 seconds.