Who is the Michael Jordan of endurance running?

Prefontaine. Despite LRC totally hating everything about him, they made three movies about his life.

What about Halie

Based on the subject title you are looking for the 2nd best endurance runner?

I considered Pre when I picked Shorter/Rodgers from that time.

A huge part of being Jordan is not just the stats, but the mystique and excitement around the athlete.

Pre had that in spades, and it's amazing his 4th place at Olympics still gets more exposure than many medals, because he 'went for the win'. He also was a high school and NCAA legend, and most sadly joined Joplin, Cobain, Hendrix, Basquiat, Phoenix as stars lost in their youth.

(I'm aware of the view of Pre haters. Note Jordan was no angel either, but he's still very likeable. Pre still well known and liked by general public.)

The whole period of '72 - '80 Olympics was great for running. Shorter, Rodgers, Pre, Liquori, Scott, Woddle, Wohlhuter were all contenders. '80 brought Coe and Ovett. Track was treated seriously on TV and running was booming!

Probably not really a single Jordan, but this was the 'Michael Jordan time period' for distance running.

LeBron (best ever) = Bekele

Jordan (2nd best ever) = Haile G.

No one has the name recognition as MJ in distance running. The closest was Bolt and so far no one after him is even close.

For now Jakob.

Jakob is currently at the same stage Michael Jordan was during the 1988 season. Up there but not fully dominant yet.

Honestly this is more a result of social media and mass marketing than anything else - Nike put a significant amount of capital and promotion behind the Breaking 2 project and made sure it was able to be viewed by everyone live on Twitter.

Cortez

Max

Super Man

I thought the question was endurance not track. So my answers are Kipchoge for marathon and Walmsley and Jornet for ultras.

They got nothing on Yiannis Kouros

If endurance running is understood as 1500m to marathon and both on the track, the road and X country it isn´t Jakob and possibly never will be.

It must (still) be K. Bekele who has hold the 5000m and the 10000m WR, who has been dominating on the track (especially in the 10000m), who had a long winning streak in both short and long X country and who has run close to the former WR in the marathon.

But on the TRACK Jakob is the best 1500m to 5000m ever IF judging from his cumulated IAAF ranking points in the 1500m, the mile, the 2000m, the 3000m, the 2 mile and the 5000m (even if we assume that he can´t run faster than 12.48).

It is also likely that he will obtain several more international golds and other medals, provided he stays healthy, so he at the end of his career can match Haile, El-Guerrouj, Bekele and Mo Farah who all got multible track golds and other medals.

Remove the blinders: Jakob is wellknown to have followed his training schedule strictly for about 15 years. Only exceptions: Illness and injury; and at injury he is doing alternative training.

Correct. Here he is running sub-14 in a Bulls jersey

Open image

That’s a tough one. No one runner quite like Jordan but I’d say two people: Gebrselassie in the sense that he broke records over many distances and kept some of the all-time greats from ever winning Olympic golds (i.e. Paul Tergat). Bekele would be the other, in the sense that he was so dominant in his prime and is truly the goat. I’d say a combo of those two in my opinion.

Paavo Nurmi!

Michael Jordan Hasay

Eliud Kipchoge

He's about as close as it gets to being a household name.

The sub-2 marathon made ripples in the mainstream, not to mention his 2 Olympic marathon golds, countless WMM wins and the multiple marathon WRs.

https://www.instagram.com/mj_of_track/