Mahiedine Mekhissi-Benabbad is a track and field athlete who has competed for France.
He competed at the 2008, 2012, and 2016 Summer Olympic Games.
Mekhissi-Benabbad enjoyed a significant success at his first Olympics in 2008, when he improved his personal best to claim the silver medal behind the winner Brimin Kipruto by 15-hundredths of a second in the 3000 metres steeplechase. With such feat, he became the first non-Kenyan athlete in 24 years to either top the honors or secure a runner-up spot in an Olympic steeplechase race. Four years later in London, he repeated his feat from Beijing with another silver in the same race, losing the title to another Kenyan steeplechaser and double champion Ezekiel Kemboi. After the finish, he and Kemboi exchanged jerseys with the latter leaping into the much of Mekhissi-Benabbad's larger arms.
At his third Olympics in 2016, Mekhissi-Benabbad dropped off the leaders' pace throughout the entire race until he launched a similar tactic on the final lap that helped him produce two previous silver medals to beat a field of steeplechasers to the line in fourth. When the race concluded, Mekhissi-Benabbad and the French athletics team lodged a protest, noting that Kemboi stepped outside the track exiting a water jump. Video was reviewed of the race and the foul was detected, causing Kemboi to be disqualified and promoting Mekhissi-Benabbad to a bronze-medal position. Mekhissi-Benabbad became the first steeplechaser to successfully win three Olympic medals in every edition contested without attaining a single gold.