What's crazy is to me, all that time Kipchoge was the guy to watch in the marathon scene, then all of a sudden Kiptum was just there. It was almost like when he broke the WR, EK...and the world were caught off guard a bit at how easy it was for him to snag it. This is not meant to disrespect EK at all, I am just describing in my mind at least, how fast Kipchoge kind of faded into a bit of obscurity in a matter of a year. Kiptum was now the guy with soooo much potential and it was almost like the 2 hour mark was "low hanging fruit" at this point for him.
Hard to believe he is gone. The unknown of what could have been is really the thing that creates the uneasy feeling in my opinion. I can see the correlation to Pre, but I agree with the sentiment that this might fall as one of, if not the greatest, "what if" ever.
Prefontaine for sure. He had such a legendary status by the time he died. Kiptum had just stamped his authority with the WR and was on the up and up but didn’t have the same type of cult following as it was still so early in his career. Such a super tragic loss.
You guys keep comparing Kiptum to Pre. Please. Kiptum was one of the greatest marathoners the world has ever seen. He is the world record holder in the marathon. He had a good shot at winning golds in Paris and Los Angeles and of course might have been the first to break 2 hours in a legitimate race. He was undefeated in the marathon, never ran slower than 2:01:53. He has three of the top seven best times ever run in the marathon.
By strong contrast, Pre never set a world record, never won an Olympic medal. He was an also-ran in Munich. He is beloved for pushing the pace, a tactic that did not work in the biggest race of his life and which he pursued because his kick was inferior to those of other runners.
In the 5000, Pre was ranked 4th in the world in 1972, 5th in 1973, and 6th in 1974. In the 10000, he ranked 10th in the world in 1974. His best time, 13:21, is closer to the current women's WR than the current men's WR. He is the 925th best performer on the world list. Even with super shoes, I doubt he could've broken 13 minutes (something 128 people have done).
Pre was good for an American runner but likening him to Kiptum is absurd.
Also, Pre was drunk driving when he died. He has no one to blame but himself. We do not know the details of Kiptum's death, but I doubt he was drunk.
I think it's fair to point out Kiptum was a bigger star than Pre but "never set a world record" and "finished fourth" doesn't quite get at how great Pre was. When he won the 1972 Olympic Trials he was the third-fastest human being at 5000m ever, behind only Bedford and the then-retired Clarke. Things changed as soon as the British trials a week later (Bedford dropped his time further and McCafferty snuck in front of Pre by a second or two), and then the summer of '72 saw a few other studs drop some times but even so Pre was sitting around sixth fastest of all time when he ran in Munich, and only like six seconds off the record, at only age 21. There's no guarantee he would have been a dominant runner had he lived but there's evidence to suggest the potential was there. Still, Kiptum does beat him in the category created by the original post, so I just wanted to point out that Pre is closer than you might think.
You guys keep comparing Kiptum to Pre. Please. Kiptum was one of the greatest marathoners the world has ever seen. He is the world record holder in the marathon. He had a good shot at winning golds in Paris and Los Angeles and of course might have been the first to break 2 hours in a legitimate race. He was undefeated in the marathon, never ran slower than 2:01:53. He has three of the top seven best times ever run in the marathon.
By strong contrast, Pre never set a world record, never won an Olympic medal. He was an also-ran in Munich. He is beloved for pushing the pace, a tactic that did not work in the biggest race of his life and which he pursued because his kick was inferior to those of other runners.
In the 5000, Pre was ranked 4th in the world in 1972, 5th in 1973, and 6th in 1974. In the 10000, he ranked 10th in the world in 1974. His best time, 13:21, is closer to the current women's WR than the current men's WR. He is the 925th best performer on the world list. Even with super shoes, I doubt he could've broken 13 minutes (something 128 people have done).
Pre was good for an American runner but likening him to Kiptum is absurd.
Also, Pre was drunk driving when he died. He has no one to blame but himself. We do not know the details of Kiptum's death, but I doubt he was drunk.
I think it's fair to point out Kiptum was a bigger star than Pre but "never set a world record" and "finished fourth" doesn't quite get at how great Pre was. When he won the 1972 Olympic Trials he was the third-fastest human being at 5000m ever, behind only Bedford and the then-retired Clarke. Things changed as soon as the British trials a week later (Bedford dropped his time further and McCafferty snuck in front of Pre by a second or two), and then the summer of '72 saw a few other studs drop some times but even so Pre was sitting around sixth fastest of all time when he ran in Munich, and only like six seconds off the record, at only age 21. There's no guarantee he would have been a dominant runner had he lived but there's evidence to suggest the potential was there. Still, Kiptum does beat him in the category created by the original post, so I just wanted to point out that Pre is closer than you might think.
Pre had two full years after Munich to nab the World Record and/or improve his world ranking. How did that go?
You can honor one legend without denigrating another. Pre was awesome. Unlike Kiptum who excelled in only one event, Pre held every American record from 2K to 10K and he was a cross country stud too. Neither Kiptum nor Pre won an Olympic medal so they are even there.
American Records and NCAA wins are well and good but we are talking about a runner, Kiptum, who was on a whole other level. He ran five minutes faster than the American Record in the marathon.
Pre competed at the Olympics and came up empty. Kiptum never got the chance.
You can admire Pre's politics or attitude or whatever but I judge runners by their performances. On this basis, Kiptum and Pre are in no way comparable. One is among the greatest distance runners who ever lived. The other isn't even in the top 100.
Anthony Ervin... Took the NCAA and then world by storm in sprint freestyle, Olympic gold at 19 in 2000 in the 50 freestyle and then double gold 50/100 at WC 2001... then retired, became a strung out couch hopping musician for ten years losing all his muscle mass and becoming virtually unrecognizable to swim fans. Then he comes back just before the 2012 games, shocks everyone by qualifying, and ultimately finaling at the OGs. then 2016... Gold again in the 50!
Undoubtably the greatest sprinter ever, and everyone wonders how many golds he could have won... he skipped his whole "prime" and still won OG 50 gold twice - at 19 and 35...
This post was edited 2 minutes after it was posted.
Prefontaine for sure. He had such a legendary status by the time he died. Kiptum had just stamped his authority with the WR and was on the up and up but didn’t have the same type of cult following as it was still so early in his career. Such a super tragic loss.
I always thought he was legendary because he died young. He hadn't actually achieved much except be the big hope for American distance running.
He was "legendary" because they made sensationalized movies about him that every American high school runner watched
Kiptum was a far better and more famous athlete
More potential than Sammy Wanjiru, too. Sammy's marathon career was already struggling by the time of his death
I remember Lenny Bias. He definitely had the potential to be Michael Jordan 2.0. He was a lot like Jordan in his ability to make moves on the court that just couldn't be defended.
Not a death, but an early retirement would be Lorena Ochoa in golf. She had 27 wins in six years and then retired at age 29 to have kids. Sorenstam has 72 career wins. Ochoa was easily on pace to beat that, especially after Sorenstam retired around the same time.
Although very thankfully the incident didn't end in death, the stabbing attack of Monica Seles comes to mind.
Many of the examples given here haven't featured athletes that were already at the top of their sport while still being "on the rise", and Seles was both in 1993. She had won seven of the prior nine Grand Slam titles (eight total) and was only 19.
Maureen "Little Mo" Connolly was 19 and had won nine straight Grand Slam titles when a horse-riding accident prematurely ended her tennis career. She could have been the GOAT.
There are some highlight videos of her matches on YouTube, and it looks like she was playing a different game from all the others.
American Records and NCAA wins are well and good but we are talking about a runner, Kiptum, who was on a whole other level. He ran five minutes faster than the American Record in the marathon.
Pre competed at the Olympics and came up empty. Kiptum never got the chance.
You can admire Pre's politics or attitude or whatever but I judge runners by their performances. On this basis, Kiptum and Pre are in no way comparable. One is among the greatest distance runners who ever lived. The other isn't even in the top 100.
Shouldn’t Pre get credit for qualifying for the Olympics and being in the running for a medal at age 21? He gets slammed by some people here for not medaling but he was only 21 at the time. Like Kiptum, we’ll never know what he could have done if he competed in the Olympics in his prime.
Yes, Kiptum’s world record is obviously greater than any of Pre’s national records. If you only want to look at running performances, that’s your choice. But any complete analysis of Pre’s impact on the sport and his lost potential from dying too soon goes way beyond how fast he ran.
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