Do try using using your brain a l little bit. I was alluding to outside of the global finals. Which is why I listed what I listed for Kerr. So what is Centro's biggest win outside of the championships?
Perhaps the following:
Gold medal at the Pan American Junior Championships 2007 São Paulo 1500 m
They're actually surprisingly close. I was going to add an edge to Centro for his additional solid non-podium finishes (4th at OG, 8th and 8th at WC), but I'd forgotten that Kerr also has a 5th and 6th at WC, so that's also a wash.
Overall, if you rate OG and WC the same, I'd say it's a virtual dead heat with Kerr getting an edge for faster times (even relative to supershoes). Personally, though, I don't rate OC and WC the same, and neither do runners in general or society at large. Of course it's the same people and the same level of competitive depth. But ask any runner on the planet: would you rather win the Olympics or the World Championships? It's not even close. Both titles take the same level of running ability, but it takes an additional dose of luck to have your greatest day correspond with the one shot at immortality that comes up every four years.
2023 World Champion Kerr - Outdoors: Two Olympic medals but not Gold.
2016 Olympic champion Centro - Outdoors: Two World championship medals but not Gold.
Why did you highlight the World Champs results (in bold)? Who cares that Centro didn't get gold at the WC if he got gold at the Olympics?
Kerr is the better all-round runner with a faster PR in the 1500, mile, 3000m and two mile.
Centro has the Olympic gold and the much better 5000m PR (13:00).
Most of us would take the Olympic gold, but Kerr is a very aggressive racer with better PRs, so people might choose that. It is not obviously one or the other.
They're actually surprisingly close. I was going to add an edge to Centro for his additional solid non-podium finishes (4th at OG, 8th and 8th at WC), but I'd forgotten that Kerr also has a 5th and 6th at WC, so that's also a wash.
Overall, if you rate OG and WC the same, I'd say it's a virtual dead heat with Kerr getting an edge for faster times (even relative to supershoes). Personally, though, I don't rate OC and WC the same, and neither do runners in general or society at large. Of course it's the same people and the same level of competitive depth. But ask any runner on the planet: would you rather win the Olympics or the World Championships? It's not even close. Both titles take the same level of running ability, but it takes an additional dose of luck to have your greatest day correspond with the one shot at immortality that comes up every four years.
Another way I like to put it. The world championships occurs twice as often as the Olympics and four of the last five Olympic champions didn't win a world title. The one that did served a doping ban.
This post was edited 1 minute after it was posted.
They're actually surprisingly close. I was going to add an edge to Centro for his additional solid non-podium finishes (4th at OG, 8th and 8th at WC), but I'd forgotten that Kerr also has a 5th and 6th at WC, so that's also a wash.
Overall, if you rate OG and WC the same, I'd say it's a virtual dead heat with Kerr getting an edge for faster times (even relative to supershoes). Personally, though, I don't rate OC and WC the same, and neither do runners in general or society at large. Of course it's the same people and the same level of competitive depth. But ask any runner on the planet: would you rather win the Olympics or the World Championships? It's not even close. Both titles take the same level of running ability, but it takes an additional dose of luck to have your greatest day correspond with the one shot at immortality that comes up every four years.
Another way I like to put it. The world championships occurs twice as often as the Olympics and four of the last five Olympic champions didn't win a world title. The one that did served a doping ban.
I’m sorry, I agree with you here that Kerr is marginally better, but not because the World Championships are equivalent to the Olympics, they aren’t. I think Kerr is better because the last 4 Championships have all been run under 3:30 and Kerr has managed to medal in three of them. Kerr has also been in the top 3 in the world for the last 2 years as well. I don’t think Centro was ever ranked top 3, maybe not even top 5 in a year. For those reasons, I give it to Kerr.