Who is the American GOAT - Deena or Jenny? Coach Wetmore and Colorado get involved and back Jenny

LetsRun.com · 2020-04-21T14:49:23-04:00

Our quest to name the greatest American distance runner ever is heating up as we are down to our men's and women's finals. Jim Ryun vs. Frank Shorter and Deena Kastor vs Jenny Simpson. Today the Colorado Buffs and Coach Mark Wetmore officially got behind Simpson. The Colorado communications department sent us an email stating that Mark Wetmore would like everyone to know the following. “I wish it explicitly stated that she has made every World and Olympic team since 2007. I don't think any US distance runner has ever done that, female or male.” Wetmore is correct in pointing out that Simpson's consistency is very impressive but for the record she's not the only person to make every US track team for 10 straight Worlds/Olympics. Shalane Flanagan made every US team from 2004 to 2016 just as Simpson has done it from 2007-2019. CU then wrote back and asked us to the following, “It does not mention that she was #1 in the WORLD in '14 (I think that is the year), 2nd in '13, 3rd in '11 and top 8 of world for 8 years in a row. Nor 8 x 5th ave. mile winner.” We didn't add that as we did mention in the overview that she was a world #1 (we just didn't mention the year) and if we start talking about 5th Avenue mile titles, we'd be spending all day talking about how many US road titles Kastor won (Tilastapaja says she has 24 us title total). And Colorado also tweeted out the following. https://twitter.com/CUBuffs/status/1252673839193980928 Will the actions of CU help Jenny? Currently, she narrowly trails Kastor 48% to 52%. You can vote here: https://www.letsrun.com/news/2020/04/american-distance-goat-vote-in-the-final-four/

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6 years ago 04/22/2020 4:59pm EDT

re: Here we go again

Here we go again wrote:
Taking the point that was made about Jenny Simpson's career length - from 3rd at Footlocker, through 4 NCAA titles to 10 straight World & Olympic teams. It may be my ignorance but from the write up was Deena Kastor's career peak much, much shorter? From 2nd at World Cross in 2002 to major marathon win in 2006 is a fantastic peak but either side she is more ~10th in world finals and no NCAA titles. I know she was very good for a long time but not at the level of her peak? Isn't longevity and consistent excellence part of GOAT criteria?

You're right that it was a shorter top peak, but still might impressive in it's own right:

2002 WXC Silver

2003 WXC Silver

2004 Olympic Bronze

2005 Chicago win

2006 London win and American Record

For the record I also voted for Jenny out of spite (I might have ended up voting for her anyway, but I didn't give it any thought).

6 years ago 04/22/2020 10:03pm EDT

re: reer

Final hour, still close

Ryun 52%, Shorter 48%

Kastor 49%, Simpson 51%

6 years ago 04/22/2020 10:49pm EDT

re: LetsRun.com

Ask Wetmore how times she has made the WC in a distance event

6 years ago 04/22/2020 11:08pm EDT

re: E O'Neill

It's just past midnight and the results:

Ryun 52%, Shorter 48%

Kastor 50%, Simpson 50%

Going to come down to only a few votes difference

Rojo has talked to Gault to fix the results. Kastor 51/ Simpson 49. Simpson didn't give Rojo the time of day for an interview..... so.

6 years ago 04/23/2020 3:22am EDT

re: Nothing Here

ya wtf Jenny won. Suddenly Deena is in the lead AFTER the polls closes. What a joke.

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