He achieved a personal best time of 1:41.19, narrowly beating Canada’s world champion Marco Arop, who finished in second, while Algeria’s Djamel Sedjati took the bronze.
After the race, Wanyonyi revealed that he was motivated by former 800 meters champion David Rudisha, who had urged him to win gold.
“This race carried a lot of pressure for me. I spoke with David Rudisha yesterday, and he told me I needed to defend this title because the Kenyans won it last time in Tokyo.
“It was a lot of pressure, so I’m grateful to have succeeded,” Wanyonyi said.
The final night of athletics at Paris 2024’s Stade de France also featured standout performances from other athletes.
Masai Russell won the women’s 100m hurdles, finishing ahead of Cyrene Samba-Mayela and Jasmine Camacho-Quinn.
Shortly after, Jakob Ingebrigtsen secured his second Olympic gold by dominating the men’s 5000m, with Ronald Kwemoi and Grant Fisher rounding out the podium.
Wanyonyi led most of the race and narrowly edged out Arop by one-hundredth of a second (1:41.19 vs. 1:41.20). Djamel Sedjati claimed bronze with a time of 1:41.50.
With this victory, Kenya has now won the men’s 800 meters at the Olympics for the fifth consecutive time, following Wilfred Bungei (2008), David Rudisha (2012, 2016), and Emmanuel Korir (2021).