Best male runner of all time - discussion

Bekele, huh? Really going out on a limb there

Set WRs in the half and marathon and maybe an Olympic or WC gold in the marathon and Bekele will officially be the greatest ever. Until then, It's got to go to Geb.

Paavo Nurmi? Or my favorite, Henry Rono?

Mo Farah? No way. He decided to compete in the 5,000 and 10,000 since all the stars are running Marathons. What he is capable against the best of the world we could see in his London Marathon.

Anyway, Lasse Viren, Bikila and Cierpinski are missing on your list, all being able to have pulled off some kidn of double.

Geb

Usain Bolt

AJ Acosta! Dude almost won the PA Championships in SF this last weekend.

Pheidippides. His run gave us the marathon, even if in name only.

Edwin Moses. /thread

It's obviously relative to what's included in this "best".

From a very objective point of view, it should be Kenenisa Bekele, but is he the best of all time, or the most accomplished? it's fair to say that a runner is the "best of all time", or should we discuss the "best of their time" instead?

I personally think that Paavo Nurmi, Emil Zatopek, Steve Prefontaine, Kip Keino and Haile Gebrsellassie, for different reasons, can be considered in the same range as 'best of all time'. These are the great 5 for me.

I'd add Seb Coe, Abebe Bikila, Kenenisa Bekele, Ron Clarke and Frank Shorter, again for different reasons, as the other 5 in the top 10.

Next come El Guerrouj, Roger Bannister, Herb Elliot, Daniel Komen and Mo Farah (yes, Mo Farah).

If we include sprinters, we wanna add Jesse Owens, Edwin Moses, Carl Lewis, Usain Bolt and Michael Johnson.

Objectively it's Usain Bolt

By putting Farah into the mix, the OP showed he is clearly biased both toward recency and toward the 5K/10K distance. Farah is great and the best of today, but no better than whoever was the best in (fill in the blank) era and thus nowhere near being mentioned in best of all time discussion.

rfmaioral wrote:

I personally think that Paavo Nurmi, Emil Zatopek, Steve Prefontaine, Kip Keino and Haile Gebrsellassie,

My Dear Sir,

Are you high!?!!?!?

How can you possibly put Steve Prefontaine in the same category as the others--zero world records, zero international medals, zero significant accomplishments outside the U.S. of A at a time that was very prolific in distance running history.

Please watch closely as the "stocky American" gets destroyed by the true class of his generation, and someone someone who genuinely deserves to be on the all-time list.

Also Kip Keino? Not really close to a legit contender. Are you just listing runners you've heard of?

In my mind, it comes down to Zatopek, Haile G, and Kenny B. I'm going to eliminate Zatopek despite his Olympic triple just because he was so much slower than the other two--he dominated his generation but at some point he just ran too slowly to be compared to the others.

Then its Haile vs. Kennenisa.

In Geb's court: multiple 5k, 10k, M world records. The 5k and 10k world records once he was done with them were WAY faster than when he started. The general dominance he had over everyone early in his career is something rivaled by nobody. (see:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjSkL1MGWlY&t=9m30s

). Marathon domination that Bekele doesn't have. Finally, indoor cred: 2nd fastest 1500 of all time & mulitple golds that bekele doesn't have.

In Bekele's court: has run (marginally) faster than Geb / current 5k / 10k WRs. Faster marathon debut (jury's still out on marathon career). Olympic 5k gold that Geb never had. Most importantly, a SH*T ton of XC world golds, which Geb never had success in.

I would say if Bekele runs under 2:03:30, he is the GOAT. Otherwise it's a judgement call--but I would give it to Gebrselassie.

Honorable Mentions: Paavo Nurmi, Abebe Bikila, Lasse Viren, Sebastian Coe, Hicham El Guerrouj, Bernard Lagat.

NOT Mo Farah until he does something other than win a tactical championship. XC, marathon, running a WR--he needs something.

Abebe Bikila

Blitzplay wrote:

Edwin Moses. /thread

Yup.

George Degen.

Bekele is great, but he's nowhere near Geb in terms of career accomplishments.

Geb was on top for 19 years straight. Bend your mind around that. It's not even humanly possible. In 13 of those years he broke WRs.

28 WRs in 12 different events. Bekele set 6 in 3 events. No other athlete has ever broke WRs in more than 5 events. Bekele had great prime years, but he also had entire years wiped out due to injury. Geb never missed a significant amount of time due to injury and ran through the injuries he did have.

Geb's running goes beyond mere competition, it's almost a spiritual journey.

Not just the greatest runner, you can call him the greatest athlete of all-time.

Alberto Saladstar