Les wrote:
Coe and Ovett don't belong on that list. Despite WRs, Coe never won a major championship 800. His only championship win was the European Championships. Ovett won a tactical Olympic race, but he never ran fast even for his time. He ranked in the top 10 only 3 years and never #1.
Fallacy to put times at the top of the criteria because you can't compare times across eras. The only way to compare runners from different eras is to compare how they competed against the competition of their day.
Mal Whitfield should be on the list. Back to back Olympic wins years before Snell. Two world records over 880 yards. Ranked #1 5 times by Track & Field News (Snell 4 times). Longer career than Snell (top 10 ranked 8 consecutive years, Snell 5 years).
I wouldn't rank Juantorena that high. He delivers on the first two criteria, but not the third. Despite his brilliance, he only dominated for two seasons. That was quite short even for his day and certainly not long enough to make him an all-time great.
On some of your points:-
Coe definitely has to be up there. He carved a huge amount off the previous records and has still today only been surpassed by the two greatest runners over the distance. 1:41.73 in 1981 was - and still is - incredible.
Ovett was a great competitor over the distance but not as great a runner as he was a racer.
Mal Whitfield dominated in a far less international era. Times also do matter. His best of 1:48 as against Snell's 1:44 less than a decade later just doesn't compare. A massive reduction. Snell had a shorter career because he had accomplished everything he had set for himself and he owned md running while he competed.
You have a point about Juantorena. We are biased in his favour because he set a wr in the Olympic final, he also won the 400 at the same Games, and he was a completely different type of 800 runner. He had an aura. But just as an 800 exponent I wouldn't necessarily put him ahead of Wottle and Doubell, who both won Olympic golds and held/equalled the wr at the time.