Some track history for you... wrote:
Some history to shed some light on the discussion...
In Europe (except the Commonwealth countries) the tracks were 500m, in the UK they were normally 440yd. America was also using 440yd tracks.
When the modern day Olympics started they were using 500m tracks. In fact there was a 500m at Washington University in St. Louis where the 1904 Olympics were.
Over time the 500m tracks shrunk to 400m which just happens to be a shade under 440 yds. Thus the clash of events.
The 1500m, 3000m, 5000m and 10,000m all originated on 500m tracks.
Some of that might be true, but 500m tracks do not appear to have been used as many times in the Olympics as people might think. The first modern Olympics was the 1896 games and the track used was the one at the ancient Panathinaiko Stadium in Athens, with about 330m per lap.
http://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/summer/1896/ATH/The next Olympics was the 1900 games in Paris using a 500m grass track.
This was followed by the 1904 St. Louis games and the track was 1/3 of a mile in length (586 yards, 2 feet = 536.44 metres).
The 1906 Olympic Games, or 1906 Intercalated Games, were again held at the Panathinaiko Stadium in Athens with about 330m per lap.
1908 was London with another 1/3 mile / 536.45 metre track.
1912 in Stockholm used a 383 metre track.
1920 in Antwerp used a 389.80 metre track.
1924 in Paris used a 500m track, which would appear to be the second and last time this length was used in the Olympic Games.
For all subsequent games, beginning with the 1928 games in Amsterdam, a 400m track was used.
The track events in the first Olympics were the 100m, 200m, 400m, 1500m and 110m hurdles. There has been a 1500m at every modern Summer Olympics.
On those odd sized tracks from 330 to 389m, the 1500m would have been about four laps.
Prior to the first modern Olympics of 1896, there were the Zappas Olympics of 1859, 1870, and 1875.
From the Historical Dictionary of the Olympic Movement: "There were sprint races, a 1500-meter race, two javelin throws (one for distance, the other for accuracy), and two discus throws (one for distance, the other for accuracy). The winner of the 1500 meters was Petros Velissariou, who came from Smyrna, and won a first prize of 280 drachmas..."