It is interesting to me that nearly all the discussion is on distance running though the title just says Grant Fisher's 2022 season will be the greatest in American Men's history so hard to know what the OP meant.
Michael Johnson's 1995 and 1996 seasons were pretty amazing with Double golds in 200/400 at both the 1995 World Championships and the 1996 Olympics including shattering the world record in the 200 in 1996.
People already mentioned Lagat and Carl Lewis who also had multiple amazing seasons. For Lewis 1991 was almost as good as 1984 as he set a new world record in the 100 and anchored the world record setting 4x100 team at the world championships in Tokyo along with Silver in the long jump.
Also Bill Rodger's 1978 was a pretty amazing year, albeit it on the road and not the track.
That year Rodgers won 27 of the 30 races he entered, including the Pepsi 10,000 meter nationals (with a new world road 10K best time of 28:36.3) and the Boston & New York marathons.
In 1979 he also won the Boston and New York Marathons, set a new American record for the marathon and also set the world record for 25K as well as the American record for 30K.
Just for good measure in 1977 Rogers won New York and Fukuoka and set the AR in 15K, 20K, and 1 hour run.
BTW, the WRs were 13:06 and 27:22 when Al ran 13:11 and 27:25.
. . .and the Marathon WR was 2:08:18 (even though, at the time, Salazar thought his 2:08:13 at NYC 1981 was the WR). Also, the Boston win had race time temps in the high 60s and it was sunny.
For those who discount Grant's chances on the global stage some of the very top 5K/10K guys simply have not demonstrated that they have the closing speed that Grand does. There are some number of Ehiopian or Kenyan runners with comparable times but at least some of them have not show the ability to close in say 53 off of a fast pace. I think Grant has both the ability to handle a fast pace and the closing speed. I'm sort of wondering whether the right strategy for a record setting 5K is to close the last 2K in sub 4 minute pace or if even splits is inherently more efficient
Kiplimo wasn't pushed to a 26:33 though. He basically ran a second half 13:06 solo. Grant did not. He had one of the best distance runners right now drag him to it, and then had Grant outkick him in the final lap. Grant isn't quite on Kiplimo's level yet.
Barega, Wale, Kiplimo, Cheptegei, even Girma can all break 13 with ease, maybe sub 12:50 or 12:45 on a good day, and can probably run a final lap of 53 on a quick pace. But what you mean by a quick pace confuses me. It's basically impossible to close in 53 on Grant's 12:53 outdoor pace, unless you're a freaking magician. Only person who may have been able to come close to that was Bekele. And he was a magician in his prime.
What you should realize is that Grant barely won both races. Grant is unlikely to medal as 26:33 ain’t what it used to be. Grant is NOT likely top 5 in the world at any event. #BLM but TTD(Track Times Don’t).
Jacob Kiplimo ran 26:33 last year and got a bronze in Tokyo. Grant's last 5k was 13:10 and Jacob's was 13:06. It's not like there's a world of difference between those, especially since Grant was hardly behind Jacob at the Olympics last year, and Grant is obviously on another level this year. Saying 26:33 is unlikely to medal when 26:33 literally medaled last year doesn't make a ton of sense.
Kiplimo ran 26:33 without the spikes and no pacers and was completely solo after 5k. Big difference.
I don't think it's an understatement to say that Grant will medal in the both the 5k and 10k at World's.
Well you certainly got that right, it's not an understatement. I'd say he's a favorite (but no where close to a lock) to medal in the 10,000. He's certainly not a medal favorite in the 5000.
Grant was 3 seconds away from an Olympic gold medal in the 10,000 last summer in brutally hot conditions against all the best runners in the world. He is better this year.
The guy that was three seconds ahead of him, J Cheptegai, did a similar to G Fisher time trial 10k. He ran 22 seconds faster than Fisher, despite much hotter/more humid conditions, no pacers after 5200 meters, and no competition after 5k. The 26:11 time he ran was a world record, not just a N American record.
So while Fisher has improved, those other guys were faster, (and some much faster) , and will be even better this year also.
G Fisher now has a better chance of having the greatest season in American running history than before, he is unlikely to get there this year. It is extremely unlikely he will set any world records this year, and think of all former US runners who set world records (some in multiple events, some while winning global championships). Don't ignore former US mid distance runners and sprinters.
It is extremely unlikely G Fisher will win multiple races in the World Championship this year, something a number of US runners have done before (especially sprinters).
Of course Cheptegei will do a lot better than Fisher in hot/humid. He's close to 40 pounds lighter than him. Does that not make sense to you? 2020 was Cheptegeis peak. He lost something last year and he'll likely do even less so in 2022. I don't think he beats Grant in a 10000 on a 50-60 degree day.
This small detail keeps escaping people. Lagat won gold at 1500 and 5000 in the same championship. So better than that. Ok....
Centrowitz won the 1500 indoor WC and won the Olympics in the same year.
Pretty hard to top that. I like Grant a lot. But we can’t blurry time trials vs racing.
Mo Farah was the greatest distance runner from 2011-2018 and I’m not sure if he ever ran the fastest time of the year, but he was essentially undefeated against whoever did them trial faster than him.
Wins matter more than time.
This is LRC where time is everything. Centro was basically ridiculed here after his Olympic gold because of the slow winning time.
Owens?? C'mon, nobody takes 1930s T&F seriously except certain propagandists. If they did take older athletics more seriously then we would hear a lot more about Nurmi's 5 gold medals in one Olympics, but you never hear about that.
Carl Lewis?? You think a doper should be considered the greatest athlete in US history? To me, none of his achievements mean anything.
If Owens had jumped his PB result in last years Olympics he would have placed 6th, and unlike running, you can compare competition results between eras because there are no "tactical long jump competitions".
Owens?? C'mon, nobody takes 1930s T&F seriously except certain propagandists. If they did take older athletics more seriously then we would hear a lot more about Nurmi's 5 gold medals in one Olympics, but you never hear about that.
Carl Lewis?? You think a doper should be considered the greatest athlete in US history? To me, none of his achievements mean anything.
If Owens had jumped his PB result in last years Olympics he would have placed 6th, and unlike running, you can compare competition results between eras because there are no "tactical long jump competitions".
You do not know what you are typing. You are 100% incorrect. The shoes Jesse Owens wore were extremely heavy, 1936.
Owens?? C'mon, nobody takes 1930s T&F seriously except certain propagandists. If they did take older athletics more seriously then we would hear a lot more about Nurmi's 5 gold medals in one Olympics, but you never hear about that.
Carl Lewis?? You think a doper should be considered the greatest athlete in US history? To me, none of his achievements mean anything.
If Owens had jumped his PB result in last years Olympics he would have placed 6th, and unlike running, you can compare competition results between eras because there are no "tactical long jump competitions".
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