To me, without any further context, this sounds like "one place away from the top 5/a gold medal/the championship" etc.

Я представил one seat away (e.g. in a cinema)
И, похоже, я не ошибся - https://ell.stackexchange.com/questions/107281/what-is-the-meaning-of-x-places-away-from

https://gradeup.co/mcq-i-8bf214d0-080b-11e7-88bb-5cf0067cb739

I would never use PLACE in that context - I would say SEAT.

Here I did three places with SEAT(S) and three with PLACE(S): https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=sitting+two+seats+away%2Csitting+three+seats+away%2Csitting+one+seat+away%2C+sitting+one+place+away%2C+sittting+two+places+away%2C+sitting+three+places+away&year_start=1800&year_end=2008&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Csitting%20two%20seats%20away%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Csitting%20three%20seats%20away%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Csitting%20one%20seat%20away%3B%2Cc0

"one place away from the top 5/a gold medal/the championship"

не знаю, как это лучше сказать по-русски
отстает с разрывом в одну позицию (?)

I would never use PLACE in that context - I would say SEAT.

In some places they give a queue (line up) as an example - and this is very close to your sport context.

That would make more sense, although we tend to say “two people away from the cashier”

[One place away] from the leader
[Отстает на два(?) места] от лидера

In what sense? In a line, in a crowd, at a table?

лидер - это в спорте и т.п.

One context in which PLACES would sound perfect is at a table.

In a sports context, we usually say one place away from the LEAD.

Ну да, в спорте лидер - это верхний в таблице (Premier League table, tournament table, ...)

Lead - по русски это лидер

Ah!

So, is my interpretation correct?
In a table is No3 1 place away from No1 or 2 places?

Yep!

Yep means No3 is 1 place away from No1?

Three is two spaces from one.

two spaces = two places?
тогда надо переделывать

If you and I were sitting in a movie theater and there was an empty seat between us, you would be two seats away.

Да, свихнуться можно.
По-русски я бы сказал
радом, через одно место, через два и т.д.

Т.е. получается, что, если в театре, то
one place away = рядом / на соседнем месте
если в таблице, то да, на одно место позади

Так?

да. One seat away is right next to you.

А в таблице, может это быть на одно место ВПЕРЕДИ?

Тель-Авив находился на одно место позади Вашингтона, округ Колумбия, и на одно место выше Мумбаи, Индия.

В оригинале above and behind, not 'away'.
At No. 21 on the list, Tel Aviv was one place behind Washington DC and one above Mumbai, India.

Yes, in either case it means that they’re right next to each other

thanks
What a puzzle! And I am not the only one struggling with understanding

My brother and I had to think about it too! Now it makes perfect sense))) Thanks!