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

For 32 years, the women's 800m was absent from the Olympics, with its competitors deemed too frail. Now, it is one of the most hotly-anticipated events on the track.

This extraordinary story starts at the 1928 Olympic Games, which represented a huge - if temporary - step forward for women's sports.

The Amsterdam Games were the first to allow women to compete in track and field events. Five women's events were added to the programme - the 100m, high jump, discus, 400m hurdles and, controversially at the time, 800m.

The progress, however, was temporary.

German athlete Karoline Lina Radke, external became the first woman to win Olympic gold in the 800m - but she would also be the last for another 32 years.

The event was removed from the Games after reports - later proven to be false - claimed competitors suffered extreme exhaustion after the race, and the International Olympic Committee decided women were too frail to compete, external over the two-lap distance.

Fast forward almost 100 years, the event now gets headline status at major events.

In recent times, it's been the battle between Britain's Olympic 800m champion Keely Hodgkinson and the Swiss European champion Audrey Werro that has captivated fans.

So how did the 800m become the 'one to watch'? BBC Sport spoke to the women who helped shape the race to find out.

'You don't realise what you've done'

It was the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, and Ann Brightwell (nee Packer) had just crossed the finish line of the women's 800m to take gold - and set a new world record.

In doing so, Brightwell became the first British woman to win an Olympic gold on the track, in a time of two minutes 01.1 seconds.

She told BBC Sport: "My husband, who was my fiance then, said to me, 'you don't realise what you've done'.

"I didn't give it a thought at the time… but now I realise I played a very small part in women running longer distances."

But the controversy hadn't completely gone away. Brightwell knew all about the claims that had seen women unable to compete for 32 years after the 800m was removed from the Olympics.

Brightwell adds: "Men weren't happy about women competing in these very high profile events…we were considered too frail and too delicate.

"And they took it upon themselves to make it look really bad. They were saying women were collapsing on the way round. But it was all a lie."

After 1928, women's middle-distance shrunk into the shadows for the next few decades.

The 800m was finally reintroduced to the Olympic programme in 1960 and, four years later, the then-22-year-old Brightwell went to her first Olympics, fitting training around her job as a teacher.

"Many people in my era either had to take unpaid leave or resign, or they got sacked because they were trying to juggle their sports with their career," she said.

"My school was very tolerant towards what I was doing, so I was fortunate."

Going out for a run around the local streets or countryside - which seems so commonplace today - was unusual in the era Brightwell was competing.

"If I just felt like an easy run, I would run around my village, around the streets… people commented on it or tooted their horns. And it was funny looking back, but it never troubled me," the now 84-year-old told BBC Sport.

Brightwell's 800m time of 2:01.1 stood for almost three years, before Australian Judy Pollock broke that with a new time of 2:01 flat in 1967.

The next target was to go under two minutes.

Breaking 'sub-two' - and a stubborn world record

"Records are great and medals are the best, but when you break a barrier it's a fantastic feeling," said Christina Boxer-Cahill (nee Boxer).

It was at the 1979 European Cup final in Turin that Boxer-Cahill looked up at the clock and realised she'd gone under two minutes.

She added: "I knew this would probably be my last chance, because there were other girls in Britain trying to do it."

In 1971, Germany's Hildegard Falck, external had become the first woman to break the two-minute barrier.

Eight years later, it was the 22-year-old Boxer-Cahill who became the first British woman to do so, in a time of one minute 59.05 seconds.

"It's a bit like when Roger Bannister broke four minutes for the mile. Once he'd done it everybody did it because you see what's possible," Boxer-Cahill, who is now 69 years old, told BBC Sport.

"I just think I'm so fortunate that I was in a sport where everybody accepted that you have men and women's races in the Olympics."