GREATEST RUNNER EVER?

It has to be Edwin Moses. No one, in any event, has had his kind of success. I mean the guy didn't loss a 400h in 10 years...over 122 races. No one has ever been able to do that.

thats because herb eilliot was a wimpy aussie that hid from the competition. he repeatedily denied invitations to race the rest of the best and instead chose only to race when he new he was unbeatable. a real loser attitude.

I like Moses and Paavo Nurmi in this one.

Hmm...no mention of Morceli yet. Probably not the best but surely worthy of consideration.

Varsity Beer Miler wrote:

I'm disapointed that only two people have mentioned Emil Zatopek on their lists, and that no one has chosen to discuss him at all.

Until someone else wins the Gold medal in the 5K, 10K and Marathon in the SAME OLYMPIC GAMES, this is an open and shut case.

I will simply say this and dare anyone to challenge it: that was the single most dominating performance by any athelete in any sport in the history of organized athletic competition.

The problem with Zatopek is the era in which he competed.

Back then

1) People were still trying to figure out the most effective training methods - obviously he was one of the guys that figured it out better and sooner than others

2) He didn't have to compete against the Africans

Saying he's the greatest is like saying...I don't know, some 5-time MVP from the 1890's should be considered the best baseball player ever. The competition isn't the same. The sport isn't the same. Dominating a weak era may be well and good during that time period, but it doesn't stand the test of time.

Steve Slattery

Paul terget, is one amazing runner. he has done it all. my order interms of distance runners has to be

1. Bekele

2. Geb

3. Paul

4. Komen

5. El G

these 5men truly are the greatest to ever live. Runners like lasse virin (who used steroids) do not even come close to these guys. you cant compare old school runners with new school. The competition nowadays is 10x harder then it was back in the day.

These 5men will go down in history forever

What about Yiannis Kouros? I'm saying that sort of tongue in cheek, but depending on your criteria, you could make the argument.

For "greatest ever" I considered how dominant the athlete was, the era they competed in, the training methods they used, any championship honors, and world records. In my humble opinion, the greatest runners were (in no order)

1) Paavo Nurmi

2) Emil Zatopek

3) Peter Snell

4) Haile Geb

5) Daniel Komen

Honorable Mention: Paul Tergat, not only for his extremely impressive performances (often overshadowed by the Emperor) but for his eloquence and insight as a UN Ambassador against Hunger.

Daniel Komen above Bekele or El G? Why?

Era has to be important! Look at major league baseball. Once upon a time, African Americans weren't allowed to play. Hispanic players hadn't exploded on the scene.

If major league baseball today was still all-white, how good it possibly be? You'd eliminate Albert Pujols, Alex Rodriguez, Vladimir Guerrero, Manny Ramirez, David Ortiz, Barry Bonds, Ichiro, Andruw Jones, Derek Jeter, Johan Santana, Pedro Martinez, Mariano Rivera, Dontrelle Willis...I could go on and on.

So how could an all-white product back before Jackie Robinson have been that good?

Same thing with running - there was inferior competition back before it was truly global. The best of that era doesn't measure up to the best from later generations.

Well at least now you can vote for the Best Distance Runner in History...

A few weeks ago when there was a poll of the World's Greatest leaders on the site I started thinking this is running website we should have a runners one.

So I threw some ideas around and came up with a list fairly quickly of over 80 distance runners tried to narrow it down and then rank them into 16 person brackets. What came about is my attempt at this. My rules here were that I would start with the 1500/Mile and go up folks who were good at 800 were considered only if they were also great at the 1500/mile Hence the high rankings of guys like Coe and Snell - but not including amazing atheltes like Kipketer and Cruz... If this works out I think we could do the same for the shorter distances maybe a bracket for each 100/200/400/800 and let the winners square off...

Anyway I only gave #1 rankings to Olympic Champs (Tergat gets a #2 yet again) I also when laying out the bracket tried to get like runners together so some may be higher or lower than you expect - but that shouldn't skew the voting too much.

Some interesting matchups showed themselves based on where I ranked the runners - for example - Viren with a #2 seed faces Pre again with a #15 seed - Shorter faces Khannouchi in the first round as do Boston Billy and Al Sal

Seko vs. Clayyton promises to be a fight to the finish as does the speed matchup of John Walker and Steve Cram...

Anyway have fun with it...

http://www.bracketmaker.com/tmenu.cfm?edit=1&tid=155176&tclass=Distance%20Champ

I will leave the voting open for a about a month till May 14th...

Juqntorena was also amazing, winning both the 400m and the 800m (WR) in Montreal (76).

But Geb is truyl the best runner ever, alongside the likes of Zatopek. Nurmi, Tergat, El G...

That is completely unfair to Zatopek. The guy was an all-out horse and you can't hold the fact that there weren't others like that at the time against him. Further, as far as I'm concerned, there haven't been any like him since. Not even close. Geb and Komen were so dominant at their peaks, no question about that, but they would never have even attempted what Zatopek succeeded at: the 5K, 10K, Marathon triple.

Were his PRs at the level they would need to be for him to be respectable in this day and age? No. But you can only compare his dominance to the guys he ran against, and there is much more parity between Geb, Komen and the field than there was between Zatopek and the field.

I'll say that I think Bekele has a chance of rewriting the books completely. At 23 or whatever his age is and with 10(?) consecutive world cross country championships already, this kid could end up with some very, very fast races when its all said and done. But if we're discussing what makes a runner great as opposed to what makes a runner just another fast runner, I think we have to look at achievements, championships, podiums, etc. And I'll say it again: no athelete in any sport, ever, has come close to matching Zapotek's 5k, 10k, marathon triple in the Olympic games. Secretariat by 33 lengths, Wilt's 100 point game (or whatever it was), Moses going undefeated forever, Lance's 7 in a row... Impressive as those things are, they don't touch Emil Zatopek. That performance stands alone, and it is impossible to even consider anyone but the author of that performance as the greatest athelete, let alone runner, ever.

Peter Snell

1:44 on dirt.60's

Varsity Beer Miler wrote:

And I'll say it again: no athelete in any sport, ever, has come close to matching Zapotek's 5k, 10k, marathon triple in the Olympic games. Secretariat by 33 lengths, Wilt's 100 point game (or whatever it was), Moses going undefeated forever, Lance's 7 in a row... Impressive as those things are, they don't touch Emil Zatopek. That performance stands alone, and it is impossible to even consider anyone but the author of that performance as the greatest athelete, let alone runner, ever.

You're overstating the difficulty of that triple. It was impressive, yes, but for someone who is SO much better than everyone else in a weak era, it's not unheard of.

The dude won the 10,000 at those Olympics by 15 seconds. If you're that much better than everyone else at 10,000 meters, I would hope you could win the 5,000 too. From there, well, if you're running a 29:00 10,000, it's pretty likely you're going to run a decent marathon.

I wouldn't even call this the greatest feat in distance running history, let alone in all of sports.

Greatest Runner Ever:

Haile Gebresalassie

what is the name of the bracket? i registered and everything and can't find it

no offense but COULD? end up with some fast times - hmmm, i would consider the world record in the 5k and 10k to be pretty fast times, not to mention a 10k gold, a 5k silver at the olympics... the world championships he has done (indoor and outdoor) and his cross championships all by 23... i think any mention of geb then has to include a mention of bekele. bekele has better pr's at the 5k and 10k and it is not like they are running decades apart from one another

Varsity Beer Miler wrote:

I'll say that I think Bekele has a chance of rewriting the books completely. At 23 or whatever his age is and with 10(?) consecutive world cross country championships already, this kid could end up with some very, very fast races when its all said and done.

It says you should be able to use this link

So it should be listed under either Worlds Best Distance Runner or Distance Champ...

I found it by going through International/National Other but I will see whats up with the indexing there so it can be found more easily