Ruth Chepngetich just ruined the sport of marathon

If there are 15 pages debating the validity of this latest record then there is no debate. There can be no credibility for any such performance that provokes that degree of scepticism as well as a corresponding desperation in defence. What is as regular as clockwork now are threads questioning one elite or world-record performance or progression after another. Only fans cannot see what is glaringly obvious. The sport is all about doping. Nothing at the top is achieved or achievable without it. We can thank this interchangeable Kenyan for proving that point yet again. She has just ripped 2 minutes off a former mark that provoked the same kind of astonishment. Look for another 2 minutes to be carved off in the near future. And there will still be those arguing it's clean - because they want to believe it so and the dopers aren't being caught.

Yes. & that's the point. We should be skeptical of fast times & not just slam women when they run fast but that doesn't mean we have to make excuses for this performance if there are serious doubts. At least Jakob is way more in the public eye. Medals, fast times, detailed training methods, being paced in almost every race he enters to go after some record. I thought the 3k record was untouchable. But it makes sense that an athlete like that gets it versus someone who had run 1:04/2:14 before yesterday.

Sure, but that's not enough to change the main idea in the post: the gap between men / women is smaller at 1500m than the marathon when you look at where they would be in the actual distribution of 1500m performances (as opposed to just looking at % difference, which I think is a naive way of doing things).

The top female milers aren't close to beating a top high male schooler, yet the top female marathoners can probably beat them. So my conclusion from that is that the gap between men/women is a lot smaller in the marathon than the middle distances, so we should stop making these silly comparisons using conversions constructed from male times.

We will only know after her drug test has been confirmed. Innocent until proven guilty

Women are known to be superior responders to doping and that clearly includes endurance to a disproportionate degree.

I suppose you would make the same point about participants in cycling, body-building and weightlifting, which WADA groups with T and F for risk of doping? So many "clean" athletes.

So what? Before he came into his own in the marathon, Kiptum was an also-ran in several half-marathons and other races. Chepngetich has now had a breakthrough similar to Kiptum's in the marathon.

If you're gonna use PEDs to break a record, you take a few seconds off the record. Not minutes. Not when the record is an already absurd 2:11. I'd like to think she's clean, but the reality is that it's just a matter of time before the headlines read 'Marathon records holder fails drug test.'

Did I miss it, or did rojo and wejo decide not to honor Ruth Chepgnetich's new world record with a black Letsrun landing page heralding her achievement?

The Letsrun article about her record, although apparently written by Gault had Letsrun in the byline. That article was quite reluctant to criticize this ridiculous new record: "All of that is to say that while it may seem hard to fathom that 2:09:56 is an actual time run by an actual human woman, it may be wise to wait a few more years to see where the dust settles before trying to make sense of all this."

I am still impressed the rojo and wejo seem to refuse to consider that there is any possibility that Paula Radcliff's absurd 2:15.25 time from 2003 was added by pharmaceuticals, but they cast shade on Chepgentich and refuse to honor her with a blackpage. Like Radcliffe, Chepgentich appears to be a super responder to pharmaceutical intervention, which undoubtedly has improved in the last twenty years.

I am sure no American woman marathon runner has ever doped, but somehow in 2024 the American national marathon record is only 2:18.29, over 3 minutes slower than Radcliffe's twenty year old time, and approaching 10 minutes slower than Chepgentich's new mark. Where is the Letsrun black home page for the death of the women's marathon?

Running economy. Look it up. It's why you're slow and she is fast. You waste too much energy when you run, she doesn't.

She not only can beat a top high schooler but nearly the entire US men's marathon contingent at the pro level.

stop offering big prize purses for these marathons. Sponsors are the only ones that should be paying the athletes. This big prize purses are part of the reason for this insane doping

Personally this performance actually gives me greater confidence that some of the women running 2.14/2.15 might possibly be doing it clean.

If everyone at the top is doping why is she still such an outlier? It's not like anything she has done before suggests she is on a different level to her competitors.

I’m still wondering why John Korir is getting such a free pass.

Bravo. One of the best performances since Emmaculate Anyango ran a 28:57 road 10K.

In this case shouldn't road races just have an open category for prize money? This would actually solve the transgender issue in the sport.

This is not the case and I write that as someone who has massive doubts about this result yesterday.

Congrats to the Chicago Marathon race director Carey Pinkowski for ENABLING this.

He must be very proud.

It's not like there a history of Chicago Marathon winners testing positive years later like Jeptoo, Grigoryeva, Shobukhova, Cherono.

I was waiting for someone to mention him. He's probably doped too but has been completely overlooked because Ruth C. ran such an absurdly doped time that that is all everyone is thinking about.