If we were to assume that all records and races are clean, my vote would be on Wang Junxia's 29:31 women's 10k world record in 1993.
Wang Junxia was actually drinking 30ml of turtle blood a day at the direction of her coach Ma Junren! Yes, I am aware of the allegations again Coach Ma, but Wang's 1993 mark has not been invalidated.
Random aside. 1993 happened to be the year that Cool Runnings, about the 1988 Jamaican bob sled team, never having seen snow, went to compete in the winter Olympics...
Bekele in the 2003 World Championship 10k. He ran 12:56 last 5k to beat Geb. He ran 26:49 after coming through the 5k in 13:53. This was in a championship race and before the super-spikes. One of, if not the greatest, distance running performances ever. Geb's second in that race was close it as he went 12:57 last 5k.
i would say this or Yuki Kawauchi winning Boston... neither were a remote threat for the podium in the publics eye before the event
If we're going to take unexpectedness as an important factor, Meb's Boston win was even better. Gutsy and courageous win in a PB at age 38 (nearly 39)!
Jakob's 3k WR is overrated. If they had the super shoes; Komen could have run that fast easily, EL G could have at least come close, and others from the past like Morcelli could have run that fast as well. Aragawi ran 7:21 in the same race and it's likely that others of today's era can break 7:20. Grant even ran 7:22 indoors and can barely break 3:34 for 1500. I mean come on. Let's not be prisoners of the moment.
My vote for men would likely have to be Rudisha's 1:40.91. Though it may be on borrowed time; it's still the WR despite a much deeper current crop of 800m guys with shoe and training advantages, was set at the Olympics, was run against a deep field where the top 8 all broke 1:44 and eclipsed the 1:41 barrier for the first time in history.
We'll see how long Kiptum's time lasts. I have a feeling that others like Sawe, Kiplimo, and some new freak on the block may break 2 hours on a record legal course.
For women it has to be either Ruth C's 2:09 marathon or Wang Junxia's 8:06 3k, though almost no fan of the sport sincerely believes that either performance was clean, me included. It's just that since those two weren't caught I feel I have to go with them in the very low chance that they were clean.
Greatest performance: Hocker. On biggest stage, wins the 2024 Olympic Gold, sets Olympic record, sets personal best by nearly 3 seconds, and has to kick, downshift due to lane closing up, then kicksagain in last 100 meters FTW in the most exciting Olymic 1500m in history.
I disagree. It's certainly a great moment in Olympics history, but the greatest distance running performance ever? Come on, it isn't even close. It's an attractive underdog story. Not that Cole was really even a huge underdog, as many were saying he had a legit shot after his last 300m close at the trials, but I do agree he wasn't a favorite. The Olympic record from before was Jakob's from Tokyo and was relatively weak. A great performance, but not the best even by a long shot. There's probably about 30 performances from men and women I can think of that would easily top that and that's just off the top of my head and is likely a gross under-estimation.
If we were to assume that all records and races are clean, my vote would be on Wang Junxia's 29:31 women's 10k world record in 1993.
Wang Junxia was actually drinking 30ml of turtle blood a day at the direction of her coach Ma Junren! Yes, I am aware of the allegations again Coach Ma, but Wang's 1993 mark has not been invalidated.
Many of the women on Coach Ma's team in the 1990's later admitted they were taking illegal drugs.
Emil Zatopek in the 1952 Olympics. Golds in 5k, 10k and the marathon.
This will likely always be in the conversation for the best performance. There are some things that undermine it though.
Zateopek had a major advantage in the 50s as he was the only one who really ran high mileage and trained properly compared to most of his competition. For an analogy imagine if Arnold Schwarzeneggar was the only one who lifted weights every day in preparation for the Mr. Universe competition. It's not a perfect analogy, but it demonstrates a point.
Viren and Hassan's attempts in their eras are arguably more impressive as they both competed against much stronger competition.
Of course, distance running competition overall was much weaker in Zatopek's time because of no prize money, limited racing opportunities, crude training methods, limited nutrition knowledge, and it was before the introduction of east Africans to the sport.
At the end of the day, he is still the only person to get gold in all three events at the same Olympics, so he does deserve credit for that, but I just don't think it could be the greatest. It's like saying Bill Russel is the greatest basketball ever because of his 11 championships. The era he played in was a joke compared to now.
i would say this or Yuki Kawauchi winning Boston... neither were a remote threat for the podium in the publics eye before the event
If we're going to take unexpectedness as an important factor, Meb's Boston win was even better. Gutsy and courageous win in a PB at age 38 (nearly 39)!
Wasn't Ryan Hall largely responsible for Meb's win in that he roadblocked the other competitors from giving chase to Meb's beakaway?
That would be the greatest performance ever if she was clean. But she wasn't, so it isn't.
Nobody believes it's clean, but at the end of the day, Wang never tested positive for performance drugs and there isn't a single WR for men or women we can definitively say is currently clean anyway. So, it's a wash without positive evidence. Rumors can be substantive but never conclusive. For you to reject the greatness of the 3k performance based on alleged drug use, you would have to provide your own example of the greatest performance ever and know for sure it is not tainted by drugs, which you are not able to do.
Ruth Chepngetich 2:09:56 in Chicago last fall. It is the distance-running equivalent of Bob Beamon's 29 foot long jump.
By comparison, Frank Shorter's PR was 2:10:30 and Bill Rodgers' was 2:09:27.
Galen Rupp won Chicago in 2017 in 2:09:20.
Wasn't Rodgers literally sitting down to drink some orange juice a few times in his Boston Marathon PR and stopping to tie his shoelaces as well. Makes you wonder how many more minutes faster that guy could have gone ...