Are there any distance runners that are well-known among the average person?

Uncle Pervy wrote:

Cold hard truth wrote:

Kipchoge is a household name. I would say most people would know the name Shalane Flanagan.

I would venture to guess a lot of non-runners might know Sir Mo Farah and Galen Rupp, especially around olympic time . And people actually like Mary Cain (and would know the name), you know back when she was good... which is funny because Katelyn Tuohy is better but doesn't have NYTimes articles written about her.

I don't think the average person knows who any of these people are.

^^^^

It's laughable that anyone here on LRC actually believes that people outside of distance running would know any single American distance runner.

NO ONE IN THE U.S. KNOW WHO KIPCHOGE IS LET ALONE RUPP, CENTRO, OR BRAZIER.

In the USA I don't think 98% of the population could name a current distance runner. However, here are some of the responses you would probably get

Oprah

Lance Armstrong

Forrest Gump

I think 10% of the population could name a past distance runner. Here are the responses you might get

That guy that died in the car accident (Pre), the guy from the credit card commercials (Meb), the woman that fell down in the Olympics (Mary Slaney), the guy that broke the 4-minute mile (Bannister), and the African who ran barefoot (Abebe Bikila)

david45 wrote:

For sprinting, most people can name a couple of well-known sprinters. Yet for distance running, I am willing to bet the average person has never heard of a single person. I personally didn't until recently. Are there any distance runners that are well-known among the average person? Is someone like Mo Farah well-known among most people in the UK?

Oprah.

The average American would not recognize the name of any current distance runner.

not Joe Lemay wrote:

In the USA I don't think 98% of the population could name a current distance runner. However, here are some of the responses you would probably get

Oprah

Lance Armstrong

Forrest Gump

I think 10% of the population could name a past distance runner. Here are the responses you might get

That guy that died in the car accident (Pre), the guy from the credit card commercials (Meb), the woman that fell down in the Olympics (Mary Slaney), the guy that broke the 4-minute mile (Bannister), and the African who ran barefoot (Abebe Bikila)

Add to the top group the guy who wrote "the book on running and died of a heart attack" (Fixx)

BTW, whats the story behind your handle? He was my teammate, training partner and friend in H.S. (he got A LOT faster than me).

Saying that Kipchoge is a household name isn't the same as saying most people would know him. There are probably VERY few people famous enough to be known by over 50% of people. Most people can't name a single Supreme Court justice.

I do think it's fair to call him a household name. He's probably the most famous runner since Bolt (though obviously not on the same level). I was telling a friend about the Berlin marathon a couple of years ago, and I started by saying, "there's this amazing Kenyan runner, Eliud Kipchoge," and my friend started laughing. He said, "okay, I may not know anything about running, but I do know about Kipchoge." This guy is a pretty conventional American sports fan who watches a lot of ESPN and college football and basketball.

Grassrunner wrote:

Add to the top group the guy who wrote "the book on running and died of a heart attack" (Fixx)

BTW, whats the story behind your handle? He was my teammate, training partner and friend in H.S. (he got A LOT faster than me).

Haha you're right about Jim Fixx. That's also one of the top excuses for why people don't run.

Someone on here years ago asked me if I was Joe Lemay because I mentioned I studied engineering at Penn State (grad school) like he did. No, it wasn't me but I thought it made a funny handle.

The only runner that is well known is Bolt. Period, end of story.

If you talk to competitive high school and college runners about track, you quickly discover that they do the workouts and the meets, but don't follow anything. They have no idea what an elite performance is even in their own event.

^^^^

It's laughable that anyone here on LRC actually believes that people outside of distance running would know any single American distance runner.

NO ONE IN THE U.S. KNOW WHO KIPCHOGE IS LET ALONE RUPP, CENTRO, OR BRAZIER.[/quote]

Agree 100%. Heck most of the guys I run with don't know those names.

The average (American) sports fan with an "I watch some running at the olympics"-level interest in the sport might know some recent runners, Meb, Farrah and Kipchoge probably. Maybe Des Linden b/c of winning Boston and Shalane Flanagan (recent NYC), less likely Molly Huddle or Jenny Simpson.

But likely they only know Meb and Des.

Most normies I talk to know about Bekele, but more so among the 40+ crowd. I would say most people I talk to about running know about Kipchoge because of Sub2 (despite what many on this forum might say)

runners don't know runners wrote:

The only runner that is well known is Bolt. Period, end of story.

If you talk to competitive high school and college runners about track, you quickly discover that they do the workouts and the meets, but don't follow anything. They have no idea what an elite performance is even in their own event.

Yeah, I'd say in HS track you'd be right but in college, ehh yeah but much less so. I would say everybody on my distance squad in college know about Rupp and Centro and Engles, but many would be able to name off many more than that. I would say everybody on the whole track team know about Brazier at this point.

No distance runners from the U.S. are well-known to Americans.

Maybe Shalane when she won NYC. But no one remembers her now.

800 dude wrote:

Saying that Kipchoge is a household name isn't the same as saying most people would know him. There are probably VERY few people famous enough to be known by over 50% of people. Most people can't name a single Supreme Court justice.

I do think it's fair to call him a household name. He's probably the most famous runner since Bolt (though obviously not on the same level). I was telling a friend about the Berlin marathon a couple of years ago, and I started by saying, "there's this amazing Kenyan runner, Eliud Kipchoge," and my friend started laughing. He said, "okay, I may not know anything about running, but I do know about Kipchoge." This guy is a pretty conventional American sports fan who watches a lot of ESPN and college football and basketball.

Kipchoge was plastered on ESPN, other news agencies for days following his amazing run. Yes. People know his name. And they will probably bring it up anytime they have a nephew or niece that run track.

In the UK non -sporting people definitely know of Sir Mo Farah, Denise Lewis OBE, Paula Radcliffe MBE, Jonathan Edwards CBE, Colin Jackson, Steve Cram MBE, Brendan Foster MBE, & Michael Johnson but because the BBC employs a large number of ex-athletes as commentators/presenters (for all things, not just T&F), so not all as recent athletes, but still widely known. Some of the most famous presenters like Gabby Logan are ex-sports personalities too.

More contemporary athletes will be well known from reoccuring appearances in adverts* (Muller: Katarina J-T & Dina Asher-Smith, Virgin Media constantly has Bolt in) and National TV Shows/Charity Shoes like Red Nose Day or Comic Relief etc where they all get invited on, or Question of Sport / various comedy quiz shows which is prime-time TV on a friday-sat.

To answer your question, I'm not sure how much US athletes are incorporated into TV presenting in the US, so maybe that's the difference, but they're more famous here towards the end/after their sports career. UK TV is shockingly bad at promoting/covering UK T&F.

*when we have an ad with a celeb in, it gets constantly repeated for years, so you'll be very familiar.

Sports journalist couldn't name any runners. Let alone the average layperson.

Anyone who's featured on the BBC SPOTY (sports personality of the year) gets a lot of extra exposure even for fans who only watch other sports.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_Sports_Personality_of_the_Year_Award

kipchoge was kinda famous for a week or two when he "broke" the 2 hour marathon. other than that, no

Ackley and Grassrunner nailed it. Media coverage much better late 60s to early 80s getting general public involved and interested in the sport. Helps to have a few stand-out personas, too.