Wankantanka wrote:
Hey Bud wrote:[quote]yeppppp wrote:
webb was better.
Ryun made the U.S. Olympic Team after his junior year in high school(1964). Yes, Webb's mile team beat Ryun's 3:55 ( by 2 seconds) but Ryun won a silver medal in 1968 and made the 1972 Olympic Team. It's debatable whether Webb could beat his training partner (Andrews) over 1500 meters right now.
yeppppp wrote:
Well gee...Ryun made the US Olympic Team during a time when only AMATEUR athletes were allowed to compete, and most East Africans still didn't have a clue that they could dominate the running scene? That's just staggeringly fantastic isn't it?
You make a valid point but the guys who would have been primarily displaced by the East Africans would have been the guys at steeple and above. Bikila took the marathon by 4 minutes in 1964. Ryun would have been contender at 1500 meters if everybody from East Africa showed up.
Exactly which professionals were missing from Ryun's time (1964-1972)? This amateur argument is bogus.