bekele should be the winner. but i suspect they always prefer someone from shorter distances, so bolt will win. for me though bekele should be the athlete of the year, decade.
bekele should be the winner. but i suspect they always prefer someone from shorter distances, so bolt will win. for me though bekele should be the athlete of the year, decade.
Ritzenheim. He did more for the sport than anybody else.
Ummm.... ever heard of Jordan Hasay?
Bolt got more out of his illegal PEDs than did Bekele.
2 WR to none?
No contest. Bekele's just another distance runner, but Bolt has transformed the whole sport. It's not just the WRs, but the attention he's brought to the whole sport or track and field.
yes bolt broke hi records. so did bekele broke his 5 and 10 k records twice. but breaking those records on a big world stage is not easy. bekele won many races in 2009 than bolt, he doubled those two distances mentioned above in beijing and berlin, that's not an easy feat. only a hand full of people did that before. but almost all sprinters double short distances, and if you win 1oo m, you pretty much win 200m too. johnson, gatlin, gay, bailey, ... are a few names to mention. bekele all the way.
Bolt could have broken the records he broke more than 20 times if he wanted to.He could have won gold in 100,200 and 400M in world championships if he wanted to.Tell me this if bekele had run in the 1500M could he have won gold? also tell me this if you go and tell bekele today to get out and run 5000m will he break the world record here and now? coz if you go to Bolt's house today and take him straight to the track and ask him to break the world record he will.So like it or not,the winner of best athlete of the year is Bolt( by a lightyear).
The gap between Bekele and whoever should get third for Athlete of the Year is vast. The gap between Bolt and Bekele is even more vast. Yeah, we're all distance runners here, but Bolt is a towering historic figure in the sport. Bekele is next in line.
In the voting for AOY, I expect Bekele to get no votes at all and to get all the second place votes. It might come out that cleanly but if not, it is because Bekele is further back, not closer.
It's a no brainer....Galen Rupp!!!
which hole do u live in? wrote:
Bolt could have broken the records he broke more than 20 times if he wanted to.He could have won gold in 100,200 and 400M in world championships if he wanted to.Tell me this if bekele had run in the 1500M could he have won gold? also tell me this if you go and tell bekele today to get out and run 5000m will he break the world record here and now? coz if you go to Bolt's house today and take him straight to the track and ask him to break the world record he will.So like it or not,the winner of best athlete of the year is Bolt( by a lightyear).
ok bolt should win but this guys an idiot...
Americans are inbred xenophobics and have little idea as to what happens outside their borders.
Bolt is not only the outstanding stellar superstar in his sport of athletics - he’s now the most identifiable and popular sportsman, (in any sport) in the whole world.
I think you mean German Fernandez. He did more to inspire what will be the greatest generation of distance runners the world will have seen since the 70's than anyone else. Bolt is a flash in the pan and Bekele's a maybe.
ameematt wrote:
bekele should be the athlete of the year, decade.
I 100% agree. While Bolt has transformed sprinting, and athletics in general over the last 2-3 years, Bekele has done the same (although he hasn't got much credit for it from the world's media) in distance running. He has easily been the most consistent male athlete in the world over the last decade, and if the IAAF were giving out an athlete of the decade, it would go to Kenny B.
Isinbayeva would get the women's award
Bolt wouldn't beat David Neville much less Jeremy Wariner or Lashawn Merritt
YEAHHHHHH wrote:
Ummm.... ever heard of Jordan Hasay?
Apparently whatever she does is "good for the sport"
interested-observer wrote:
ameematt wrote:bekele should be the athlete of the year, decade.
I 100% agree. While Bolt has transformed sprinting, and athletics in general over the last 2-3 years, Bekele has done the same (although he hasn't got much credit for it from the world's media) in distance running. He has easily been the most consistent male athlete in the world over the last decade, and if the IAAF were giving out an athlete of the decade, it would go to Kenny B.
Isinbayeva would get the women's award
"The last decade"? Bekele broke through in 2003.
He hasn´t "transformed" distance running. The guy who transformed distance running was Geb in the 90s. He took distance running to a whole new level and completely rewrote the record book. Bekele has only polished Geb´s records (5 sec in the 10k and 2 sec in the 5k). Bekele has been unbeatable in the XC, but so was Ngugi in the 80s and Tergat in the 90s.
Bekele had guys hot on his heels all year. Bolt won convincingly. Plus Bolt is in a glamour event, the sprints. Like it or not the 100-200 get more attention around the world than the 10,000.
Bolt is doing to T&F what Tiger Woods did to gold 12 years ago. Just watch appearance money and prize money and endorsement money for everyone skyrocket.
Clearly the answer is Bolt. 2 Gold Medals 2 World Records! Bekele 2 Gold Medals No World Records.