A steeplechase is a long-distance running race with obstacles that runners must jump over or navigate. The obstacles include barriers about waist-high and water jumps, where runners splash through a shallow pool after leaping over a barrier. The most common steeplechase distance is 3,000 meters, or about seven and a half times around a standard track.

The race got its name from an old form of cross-country racing in England and Ireland, where riders on horseback would race from one town's church steeple to another church steeple across the countryside. They'd have to jump over whatever stood in their way: stone walls, streams, hedges, and fences. Modern track steeplechases keep that spirit of jumping obstacles, even though runners now circle a track instead of racing across fields.

Horse steeplechasing still exists as its own sport, featuring horses and jockeys jumping over fences and water obstacles on a grass course. But when you hear about steeplechase in the Olympics or at a track meet, it refers to the running event. Steeplechasers need both the endurance of distance runners and the agility to clear obstacles without breaking stride or losing too much speed.