I don't see one. I consider great to be winning gold in the Olympic marathon while also consistently winning majors for about 10 years. Jordan and Brady are great because they won for a long time.
So the next marathon great has to be a negligent father who took too long to hang em up? Just checking. Would be cool to get a solid running documentary, all jokes aside
We also had an Olympic silver medalist who won both Boston and NYC.
So OP must be thinking about someone better than those two. Either an Olympic gold medalist of a WR holder. I don't see any current American runner either winning the Olympics or breaking the WR.
I would be fine calling both Galen and Meb "great," but I can at least see an argument that you should be closeish to the wr to get that title. Rupp's pr was the only the 33'rd fastest time run that year and the 194th fastest time run before 2019, and nearly 4.5 minutes off from the record set that year.
The olympic marathon is also almost always super far from usual marathon conditions (being in the summer instead of the usual spring/fall season and having a limited field) and competition in the wmm is spread out enough that Rupp's results don't have the same weight as they would in track when calculating greatness. It would kinda be like having an indoor champs medal and a couple diamond league wins/podiums during a year with no outdoor championship. They might be great, but I think people would want some more evidence.
How did Rupp's 10k PR stack up when he was in his prime? He won Silver at the Olympics. You either believe that a top-10k runner was only the 33rd best marathoner or recognize that Americans typically run American majors which aren't as fast as Berlin/London. If Rupp ran Berlin/London every year instead of Chicago/Boston what would his marathon PB be? I'm talking 6 races -- he gets 3 shots at Berlin & 3 at London from 2017-2021. Rupp got bronze in 2020 a week after running the 10k.
Fisher is the obvious answer here as a 26:33 guy. Guessing 2026 debut during the no Outdoor Championship year
Fisher is the obvious answer here if you haven't followed BTC men careers. None have progressed from top track performers to equivalent-level marathoners. Zero. Whether that's because they wait too long to leave the track, or because they're fried from years of Schumacher's training by that point, or they've internalized the BTC "there's always more time, this is a building block" ethos, or some combination of those two factors, who knows. But the male Schumacher-trackie-to-marathon record is abysmal.
Fisher is the obvious answer here if you haven't followed BTC men careers. None have progressed from top track performers to equivalent-level marathoners. Zero. Whether that's because they wait too long to leave the track, or because they're fried from years of Schumacher's training by that point, or they've internalized the BTC "there's always more time, this is a building block" ethos, or some combination of those two factors, who knows. But the male Schumacher-trackie-to-marathon record is abysmal.
Yes. What the heck is Lopez Lomong up to now? He's 38 years old. He could have started marathoning after the 2016 Olympics. But instead he's been burning out the last of his days doing... actually I have no idea what he's doing. He's still on BTC, right?
How did Rupp's 10k PR stack up when he was in his prime? He won Silver at the Olympics. You either believe that a top-10k runner was only the 33rd best marathoner or recognize that Americans typically run American majors which aren't as fast as Berlin/London. If Rupp ran Berlin/London every year instead of Chicago/Boston what would his marathon PB be? I'm talking 6 races -- he gets 3 shots at Berlin & 3 at London from 2017-2021. Rupp got bronze in 2020 a week after running the 10k.
In no particular order, Mantz, Fisher, and Klecker.
Klecker is genetically made for the Marathon his father Barney Klecker was around a 2:15 Marathoner, his Mother was sub 2:30 and they both had American Records at 50k or 50 Miles (Not sure which?)) add the Genetics to a 12:54 for 5000 and lets see what he does in the Ten on Saturday based on his recent 5000 I expect sub 27, How much undeer is the Question, so he has plenty of Speed for the Marathon, I could EVENTUALLY see a 2:03-2:04 in his future, The young Brazilian who went out insanely fast in New York but collapsed at about 20 Miles, but has run 2:04.51 could be a great rival for best Runner in the Western Hemisphere.
Barney Klecker (born August 25, 1951) is the United States former record holder for the 50 mile ultramarathon, finishing with a time of four hours fifty one minutes and twenty five seconds. This record was set on October 5, 1...
Klecker is genetically made for the Marathon his father Barney Klecker was around a 2:15 Marathoner, his Mother was sub 2:30 and they both had American Records at 50k or 50 Miles (Not sure which?)) add the Genetics to a 12:54 for 5000 and lets see what he does in the Ten on Saturday based on his recent 5000 I expect sub 27, How much undeer is the Question, so he has plenty of Speed for the Marathon, I could EVENTUALLY see a 2:03-2:04 in his future, The young Brazilian who went out insanely fast in New York but collapsed at about 20 Miles, but has run 2:04.51 could be a great rival for best Runner in the Western Hemisphere.
Klecker is absolutely not genetically designed for the marathon. He’s way too tall and heavy. He’s a great runner, and I’m sure he can be decent at the event, but his size is an impediment he would need to overcome. Sure, there are a few great 6 ft marathoners, but there are so many more that are under 5’9”. Fisher or Mantz are far closer to the ideal build.
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