Which T&F athletes who retired 30 years or more could still medal against today's best?

Alberto Juantorena

Filbert Bayi

Jaoku wrote:

someone had to do it wrote:

*at over 7000 feet elevation with the use of team tactics

What team tactics? Didn't he just go for it from the gun and run a really fast time?

No, Ben Jipcho took it out for him. It was a fast time-3:34.9. Keino paid him back for the favor by taking the '72 OG Steeple from him as well.

Jipcho was a great runner. His 5000 against Brendan Foster at the '74 BCG is on line somewhere--he tripled there, 13:14.4 to win the 5K (when the WR was 13:13.0), the steeple, and then he took 3rd in Bayi's 1500 WR. I suspect Jipcho could medal in a current games at either 5K or steeple

He backed it up in 72 with a silver in the 1500, not to mention two other medals in the steeple and 5k.

I think Keino would have won at sea level. Using a soft altitude conversion, 334.9 is 330 which Ryun was nowhere close to. Some people would even say take more time off, around 7 seconds or so, but that is too generous. The bottom line is that he won by 3 seconds, an eternity in any track race. Hindsight is 20/20, but if you run that race again at any location, Keino wins and dominates.

Bob Beamon? You kidding right? See him lately? He don't look bad but he has got to be over 210 pounds. Can't LJ with that package...

Actually NO one who retired 30 years ago can touch the athletics stars of today.

None of them. All of them are 30 years older and are less physically fit.

Roger Bannister.

A pair of sub-4:00s on cinder tracks, training like a half hour a day. Give that dud some Victories, a synthetic track, and training full time, no way he doesn't run 3:4x.

Yifter the Shifter. Even if the Kenyans were in Moscow in '80, he would have won, outkicking them.

If he was at his peak today, he'd be as fit as he needed to win on that kick. HI could nail anyone but Geb or Bekele at their peaks. He might have been bronze in that case.

Keino, I think, would have won at Sea Level in '68. However, Ryun at his best is a better miler than Keino at his best. Ryun beat Keino how many times in '66 - '67?

I know of at least three:Tthe 2 mile AR in '66, the WR 1500 in '67 and the London mile showdown in '67.

I love how Keino tried to turn the tables on Ryun in London, looking to win on the kick. Ryun was by far the better miler in '67, but Kip Keino was wiley as a fox, giving it his best shot to beat him using two different strategies. A very smart, very tough runner.

Marita Koch. Her 400m record is INSANE.

Michael Johnson's record is soft compared to hers.

She is the best 400m runner who ever lived.

Jesse Owens

Euless Peacock

Tommie Smith

John Carlos

Bob Hayes

Lee Evans

Bob Beamon

Dick Fosbury

Al Oertor

all of these guys would dominate in today's world of track & field.

TrackFan19 wrote:

Jesse Owens

Jesse Owens ran 10.3 hand stopped. That equals about 10.5 electronically. You really think with today's TRACK and Spikes he could shave one second off of it?

NO FREAKIN WAY

The German guy above has it right about Marita Koch.

El Grumpo wrote:

Keino, I think, would have won at Sea Level in '68. However, Ryun at his best is a better miler than Keino at his best. Ryun beat Keino how many times in '66 - '67?

I know of at least three:Tthe 2 mile AR in '66, the WR 1500 in '67 and the London mile showdown in '67.

I love how Keino tried to turn the tables on Ryun in London, looking to win on the kick. Ryun was by far the better miler in '67, but Kip Keino was wiley as a fox, giving it his best shot to beat him using two different strategies. A very smart, very tough runner.

Some great Ryun-Keino races are on Youtube (there are probably more):

1968 Longon 1500m Final (Keino over Ryun):

1967 LA 1500m (highlights) - Ryun over Keino:

1967 London 1500m - Ryn over Keino:

Iren Szewinskaa

Rono destroyed Yifter over 10,000m in 1978, and probably would have done so again in 1980. Henry never would have allowed Yifter to hang with him until the last 300 meters, and Henry was considerably faster over 3k to 10k. It's possible, of course, that Yifter at a younger age would have been able to hang with Henry at his peak, but I doubt it.

Ryun beat Keino just three times in '66-'67. From 1968 on, Keino had the edge. I don't know how Keino would fare against the best of today's runners, but I wouldn't count him out. He got a very late start on serious racing and training (not breaking four minutes for the mile until he was twenty-five, and not hitting his peak training until considerably later), and had superb range and better speed than many people realize. Absurd altitude conversions for his 1968 1500 are routinely provided by people who should know better (like Tim Noakes, who has asserted that Keino ran the equivalent of a 3:42 sea-level mile), but his time remains one of the best ever at higher altitudes, with just a handful of faster times by guys like Silas Kiplagat and Asbel Kiprop at the significantly lower altitude of Nairobi.

Zatopek. I don't care what his times were, he TRIPLED at the olympics.

And Herb Elliot. He was UNDEFEATED.

Grete Waitz

Billy Mills. He would have gone into his Indian meditation mode, and sprinted a sub-10 last 100, while the announcer screamed, "Look at Mills!!"

Sergey Bubka

Javier Sotomayor

Jan Zelezny

Sebastian Coe

If Beamon time traveled from 1968 to 2012, he'd still be the favorite; a reflection of how good he was and how poor the competition is today.

If those 20-30 years retired are considered, then Bubka is an even stronger favorite.

Not retired 30 years but Ben Johnson could medal with his 9.79.