1997 IAAF World Indoor Championships – Women's 800 metres

The women's 800 metres event at the 1997 IAAF World Indoor Championships was held on March 7–9.

Medalists

Gold	Silver	Bronze
Maria Mutola Mozambique	Natalya Dukhnova Belarus	Joetta Clark United States

First 2 of each heat (Q) and next 4 fastest (q) qualified for the semifinals.^[1]

Rank	Heat	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	4	Toni Hodgkinson	New Zealand	2:01.64	Q, AR
2	4	Natalya Dukhnova	Belarus	2:01.87	Q
3	4	Ludmila Formanová	Czech Republic	2:02.04	q
4	4	Hayley Parry	Great Britain	2:03.82	q
5	2	Letitia Vriesde	Suriname	2:04.14	Q
6	4	Ana Menéndez	Spain	2:04.19	q, PB
7	2	Stephanie Graf	Austria	2:04.53	Q
8	1	Joetta Clark	United States	2:04.59	Q
9	3	Maria Mutola	Mozambique	2:04.60	Q
10	3	Irina Biryukova	Russia	2:04.81	Q
11	2	Regula Zürcher	Switzerland	2:04.82	q
12	1	Inez Turner	Jamaica	2:04.86	Q
13	1	Séverine Foulon	France	2:04.91	PB
14	3	Amy Wickus	United States	2:05.09
15	2	Yelena Martson	Ukraine	2:05.65	PB
16	3	Virginie Fouquet	France	2:05.73
17	1	Zhang Jiang	China	2:06.70
17	3	Michelle Faherty	Great Britain	2:06.78
18	2	Argentina Paulino	Mozambique	2:08.03
19	4	Achta Yorassem	Chad	2:23.23
	1	Tatiana Grigorieva	Russia	DNS
	1	Patricia Traña	Nicaragua	DNS

First 3 of each semifinal (Q) qualified directly for the final.^[2]

Rank	Heat	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	2	Toni Hodgkinson	New Zealand	2:00.90	Q, AR
2	2	Letitia Vriesde	Suriname	2:01.41	Q
3	2	Natalya Dukhnova	Belarus	2:01.89	Q
4	1	Maria Mutola	Mozambique	2:02.59	Q
5	2	Regula Zürcher	Switzerland	2:02.70
6	1	Joetta Clark	United States	2:02.93	Q
7	1	Irina Biryukova	Russia	2:03.16	Q
8	1	Ludmila Formanová	Czech Republic	2:03.23
9	2	Inez Turner	Jamaica	2:03.51
10	1	Hayley Parry	Great Britain	2:04.40
11	2	Stephanie Graf	Austria	2:04.79
12	1	Ana Menéndez	Spain	2:04.86

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
	Maria Mutola	Mozambique	1:58.96
	Natalya Dukhnova	Belarus	1:59.31	NR
	Joetta Clark	United States	1:59.82	PB
4	Letitia Vriesde	Suriname	1:59.84
5	Toni Hodgkinson	New Zealand	2:00.36	AR
6	Irina Biryukova	Russia	2:00.61	PB