Back in the 1920s Paavo Nurmi revolutionised these events by training twice a day over long distances, skiing in the winter, and carrying out gruelling sprint repetitions.In the 1940s, as a result of Gunder Hägg (see 1500m), the "natural training method" including "fartlek" (speed-play) became popular while in the 1950s, thanks to the phenomenal successes of Czechoslovakia's Emil Zátopek, interval training came into vogue again. Zátopek’s training was incredibly intense. He often ran 60 x400m with short recovery times. Each day he covered 40km, 25 of them on the track. His long runs were usually made in army boots.

In the 1960s Ron Clarke (Australia), a disciple of even pace, put natural preparation first and overturned all the received wisdom. Today Africa boasts the greatest distance runners. Haile Gebrselassie of Ethiopia, who has continuously astounded the world with his world records at 5000m and 10,000m, was born at altitude, like his predecessors Kip Keino, Miruts Yifter, Henry Rono and John Ngugi. Gebrselassie has succeeded in blending two previously incompatible attributes - speed and endurance.

Women first ran the 3000m distance in Britain in 1953 and official world records have been accepted since 1974. The IAAF held a 3000m race at its inaugural World Championships in 1983 and it made its Olympic debut the following year.

The event was replaced by the 5000m in 1995, although the IAAF had recognised world records at this distance since 1981. The first women's 10,000m races were held in the sixties with IAAF world records recognised since 1981. The event received World Championships status in 1987 and Olympic recognition a year later.