It's obviously Centro btw but I think Wightman's race was better.
No, it’s not a close call. In T&F an Olympic gold is worth at least 2-3 world championships, maybe more, regardless of the finishing time or race details. When I say worth, I mean actual dollars in salary and sponsorships to the athlete, in terms of general notoriety, and likely in terms of athlete preference (this would make for an interesting survey, to have the elite athletes rate the relative importance to them of various championships and records). I’m sure Olympic gold is >> wc gold and also >> a world record.
When he talks to anyone other than die hard track fans, he can say "I won Olympic Gold."
While Wightman has to explain "well every other year there's a World Championships and its -" (person loses interest).
Wightman's WC gold is the superior performance. But Centro is the Olympic Champ.
This is hilarious. Only hardcore track fans care about the distinction between OG and WC. The average person is going to respond the same way whether you tell them you are Olympic Champion or World Champion.
I’d take Centro’s gold because it’s a better performance, not because it came from the Olympics.
We're still talking about the 2016 1500 m 7 years later. The slow time and fast finish only made it more infamous. If Centrowitz won a 1500 race in the 3:30's we wouldn't still be talking about it today.
I just watched both races again. Leaving aside the obvious fact that an Olympic gold medal is more prestigious, Centro’s race was more impressive in my view. He took the lead from the start, controlled the pace, fended off multiple challengers who tried to take the lead from him, and then outran everyone to the finish line. Centro was the clear alpha male of that race.
In contrast, Wightman tucked in behind the leaders, let Jakob duke it out with the Kenyans in front, then snuck through on the backstretch of the final lap in hyena-like fashion. He was still impressive in the way he held off Jakob, and his finish time was fantastic (in part due to essentially having others serve as his pacers), but I think Centro’s win was better. Centro boldly presented himself as the man to beat from the very beginning of the race, and nobody could.
This is a great post and I agree. Having said that, Centro never would’ve won a 3:29 gold, paced or no. He might’ve been 3rd.
We're still talking about the 2016 1500 m 7 years later. The slow time and fast finish only made it more infamous. If Centrowitz won a 1500 race in the 3:30's we wouldn't still be talking about it today.
For Americans, it was the first 1500m Olympic Gold since 1908. We may be talking about this for another 108 years.
Has the stench from that Rio race ever left the continent?
You'll just have to blame all the participants in that 1500m final for that one. Anyone of them could have gone out and ran 55 flat for the first 400m but none of them did. They just stayed behind the pied piper in their little beta male minds and proceeded to hand the race to Centro.