"Who do you think is the greatest distance runner of all time, and why?"

Bo Jackson. One time I saw him sprint up and down a football field 5 times, zig-zagging and running in circles the entire time, and with a team of guys chasing and trying to tackle him. He never let up, and eventually got bored and scored a touchdown. Must have run close to a mile at full sprint speed...with football helmet and pads. Could have easily shattered El Guerrouj's record in his prime.

the whole world agrees it's jakob ingebrigtsen - he has held every record from the 1500m through the marathon, along with a glittering trophy case filled with gold and silver medals from the biggest competitions in the world. why is this even a thread? pls delete

(I've posted something like this before) I think that greatness is multi-faceted. That's not to say that each of these are equally important and you might even be lacking in one area, but if you can be strong in all areas then you have a great case for GOAT status. If you aren't strong in all areas, then you need to make a good case as to why it doesn't matter.

* World Record(s). Not essential (is Carl Lewis the great LJ ever? Maybe), but very important.

* Longevity. The best stick around. It's Greatest Of All Time, not Greatest Of That Summer.

* Range. Why be the best in the world at one distance when you can be the best in the world at several?

* Consistency. You don't have to win every single time. On the other hand, why not?

* Medals. Olympics beat Worlds, but gold is king.

Geb, Eliud, Geb, Bekele (track/xc) Eliud (roads), Bekele.

2-2-2. I’d lean Bekele. If 1500 specialists are included El G has an argument for the consistency point and the world record one

You think when Geb first set the record at 12:56 everyone reasonably expected someone to drop it to 12:39 in just a few short years? Of course not. Bekele didn’t need to run 12:19, but he essentially took a piece of sand paper and smoothed off the top layer of the WR. Geb took a sledgehammer to it.

And if you’re arguing that Bekele didn’t have peers in his era, it was only because his competition was slower than Geb’s. Looking at the fastest times by year leading up to Bekele’s 12:37 shows that no one ran sub 12:48. Geb had to compete against guys like Komen and Tergat, and he bested them all. Bekele essentially time trialed or sat and kicked his entire track career.

You probably want to avoid bringing up super shoes given what Bekele has been running marathons in and his magical improvement post-super shoes.

agreed on Geb and Bekele. Geb just demolished WRs and took them to whole new levels, while Bekele was the most dominant XC runner ever and then came and shaved a bit off Geb's records and was dominant against his competition. And they both went to the marathon and Geb got the WR while Bekele was just a few seconds off the WR a couple times I think. Feels like they were also the last two really dominant distance runners. Mo was dominant of course after but he was just not nearly as fast as they were at any event above 1500 so when Mo was dominating the sport if just felt like a lesser time after Geb and Bekele's peaks had come and gone and there was no successor for Bekele the way Bekele had been for Geb.

Henry Rono.

Tigst Assefa

Paavo Nurmi is statistically the best competitor by far, albeit, in an era that had less competition (no Africans). I think it would be hard to go past Bekele as the best all round athlete in history with records and domination on cross country, track and the road. However, Geb was a close second and Kipchoge gets a vote for his marathon domination. Perhaps a better question would be who would win in a race if all the runners were at their best? Over 5000M I think that would be Gebreselassie. Tirunesh Dibaba was the best female in history but I think Kipyegon has now gone past her.

His B sample was negative therefore it does not count as a positive test. I don’t get the difference in reactions between Lagat’s positive/negative and Bol’s.

Bol’s B sample wasn’t even negative, it was an atypical finding, yet I hear mostly support for him. Why is this?

“Why is your thread title in quotes?”

And how many followers did Nurmi have on Instagram and Tik Tok? That's what I thought.

Faith Kipyegon

I dont see anyone even close to Kenny Bekele frankly.

I still watch some of his XC races to see poetry in motion.

Femke Bol, Jakob, or Keely. Not in any specific order.

Seth James DeMoor has inspired the most conversation amongst hobbyjoggers on this platform, it must be him.

A dog I had 10 years ago. Blazing speed. Could run all day. Ran down a whippet using his endurance and then dominated him

Galen Rupp!

kenenisa bekele. his dominance in the 5000/10000 is too much. if you are feeling unmotivated to run, just go on youtube and watch the last 600m of a kenenisa bekele 10000m. i truly believe that if he hadn't gotten injured in 2010, nobody today would know what a mo farah is, and the marathon (and maybe half marathon too) record would be property of kenenisa bekele.