I'm dead serious. Who the hell runs 3:53 in high school. I don't get it. No one will ever do that again.
I say "was" instead of "is" because due to whatever, he's had setbacks and not been as 'amazing' as projected, even though he has a great mile AR which is very impressive.
Definitely could have run 3:24 and 3:40 with the treatment Rupp has had. No doubt about it. By far the most talented distance runner ever. No chance I'm wrong. None.
Alan was very talented. But I would say Jim Ryun and Herb Elliot were more so. Timmons was obviously working him way too hard.
Ryun was easily more talented than Webb but was worked hard.
Ryun.
He was very talented, but the world is a very big place.
Hamza Driouch ran 3:49 in the mile at 17 years old.
Mr. Lolz wrote:
Alan was very talented. But I would say Jim Ryun and Herb Elliot were more so. Timmons was obviously working him way too hard.
You cannot compare era's, it is total worthless folly.
Salazar said in an interview that he thought Webb was more talented than Ritz and Rupp. I think at this point, Webb's form has changed too much. He doesn't have the same stride he had in high school and in his early pro career. However, Schumacher is a great coach. He could turn Alan's career around.
Ryun. With more specific training and less head bobbling who knows what he could have done
number1 wrote:
I'm dead serious. Who the hell runs 3:53 in high school. I don't get it. No one will ever do that again.
I say "was" instead of "is" because due to whatever, he's had setbacks and not been as 'amazing' as projected, even though he has a great mile AR which is very impressive.
Webb was very talented.
Ryun was more.
Ryun ran a 3:58.3 mile on a DIRT track in a high school only race with NO competition, NO rabbits, and a big negative split.
58, 63, 61, 56.3
Still holds american junior records for 800m, 1500m, & the mile
When performances are "too good to be true" in the modern era, we have to ask ourselves whether PEDs are part of the picture, especially when a young athlete shows physical signs of early maturity. An on/off relationship with drugs would certainly explain some of the dramatic ups and downs of AW's career, and his seeming inability to bounce back in his late 20's as a "family man", who may be finally competing consistently clean.
number1 wrote:
Who the hell runs 3:53 in high school. I don't get it. No one will ever do that again.
He'll probably never run 3:53 again himself, and he's not even 30 yet.
That's how it is with high-school phenoms. They're great for a couple years and then they crash and burn forever. What's so great about that?
Just because you show more talent early doesn't mean you have the most talent in the end.
Ryun was even worse. He was over the hill before he got out of college. "Ryun could have done this, Ryun could have done that," well he didn't, he burned out, got slower and quit.
He turned 30 a couple of weeks ago.Don't go writing him off just yet. The guy has a ton of potential and a great work ethic. He just needs to stay healthy.
No way he was 18 years and 134 days old when he ran 353..here is your list of juniors that were ceratinly more talented than him: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_world_junior_records_in_athletics
If you had a coach that coached you to the American record, why leave him? how many coaches has this kid had? Perhaps that is the problem? The sport has left him behind at this point...
Bad Wigins wrote:
number1 wrote:Who the hell runs 3:53 in high school. I don't get it. No one will ever do that again.
He'll probably never run 3:53 again himself, and he's not even 30 yet.
That's how it is with high-school phenoms. They're great for a couple years and then they crash and burn forever. What's so great about that?
Just because you show more talent early doesn't mean you have the most talent in the end.
Ryun was even worse. He was over the hill before he got out of college. "Ryun could have done this, Ryun could have done that," well he didn't, he burned out, got slower and quit.
This is the most thorough and accurate response. People seem to think talent means running amazing times at a young age! This is ludicrous, as everyone develops at a different rate. Some people reach a physical peak at 18 and never get any better/faster. Others may be nurtured through their teens and up their workload in their early 20's and end up running faster at 25 than the "wunderkid" did at 18. In my book the 25 year old has shown the most talent in the end.
Longevity, range of performances, victories on the World stage and records set is far more important in assessing the "talents" of an athlete than prodigious times set at a young age. Webb had great range, but in all other respects his talent is oveshadowed by dozens of runners.
Just because he ran 3:53 at 17 it does not compute that he will continue to improve at a rate as great as others who maybe haven't worked as hard or who just develop physically much later. It's not the starting point of a career that is important, but rather the journey and final destination that defines a runner's true talents.
deanouk wrote:
Bad Wigins wrote:He'll probably never run 3:53 again himself, and he's not even 30 yet.
That's how it is with high-school phenoms. They're great for a couple years and then they crash and burn forever. What's so great about that?
Just because you show more talent early doesn't mean you have the most talent in the end.
Ryun was even worse. He was over the hill before he got out of college. "Ryun could have done this, Ryun could have done that," well he didn't, he burned out, got slower and quit.
This is the most thorough and accurate response. People seem to think talent means running amazing times at a young age! This is ludicrous, as everyone develops at a different rate. Some people reach a physical peak at 18 and never get any better/faster. Others may be nurtured through their teens and up their workload in their early 20's and end up running faster at 25 than the "wunderkid" did at 18. In my book the 25 year old has shown the most talent in the end.
Longevity, range of performances, victories on the World stage and records set is far more important in assessing the "talents" of an athlete than prodigious times set at a young age. Webb had great range, but in all other respects his talent is oveshadowed by dozens of runners.
Just because he ran 3:53 at 17 it does not compute that he will continue to improve at a rate as great as others who maybe haven't worked as hard or who just develop physically much later. It's not the starting point of a career that is important, but rather the journey and final destination that defines a runner's true talents.
I disagree. It took the 20-something year old seven extra years to meet the time of the wunderkid 18 year old - that means less talent. He had more consistent training and a much more developed base, so he was able to run equally as fast as someone more talented as himself who had much less training.
A Duck wrote:
Mr. Lolz wrote:Alan was very talented. But I would say Jim Ryun and Herb Elliot were more so. Timmons was obviously working him way too hard.
You cannot compare era's, it is total worthless folly.
Era's what?
Ryun also sliced 2secs off the world record. Not many guys anywhere can say that. He had the bad luck of having to run in Mexico City. If Coe had missed 1980 due to a boycott and then had to race in Mexico City in 1984, we might look back on his career a lot differently too. Or imagine the olympics were one year earlier in the cycle so Ryun hits it at his peak while Coe misses it with an infection.And yeah if you want to define talent strictly as the most talented guy runs the fastest, your definition works. Otherwise it is useless.I like to think about Ryun whenever I think that all the results of today must be doped. You look at the times cranked out by a 17 year old who had been training 2 years on a slow track and you have to think running 15s doesn't seem impossible.
nou wrote:
deanouk wrote:This is the most thorough and accurate response. People seem to think talent means running amazing times at a young age! This is ludicrous, as everyone develops at a different rate. Some people reach a physical peak at 18 and never get any better/faster. Others may be nurtured through their teens and up their workload in their early 20's and end up running faster at 25 than the "wunderkid" did at 18. In my book the 25 year old has shown the most talent in the end.
Longevity, range of performances, victories on the World stage and records set is far more important in assessing the "talents" of an athlete than prodigious times set at a young age. Webb had great range, but in all other respects his talent is oveshadowed by dozens of runners.
Just because he ran 3:53 at 17 it does not compute that he will continue to improve at a rate as great as others who maybe haven't worked as hard or who just develop physically much later. It's not the starting point of a career that is important, but rather the journey and final destination that defines a runner's true talents.
I disagree. It took the 20-something year old seven extra years to meet the time of the wunderkid 18 year old - that means less talent. He had more consistent training and a much more developed base, so he was able to run equally as fast as someone more talented as himself who had much less training.
Um ever hear of El G?