I don't understand how you all praise Kipchoge when it's the shoes that did the job. His 2:01 is worth 2:03 in shoes without a spring inside. Put the best runner today in the best shoes and you'll have a winner. Don't forget about Haile and Wilson feats.
We all respect Bekele's track achievements. But when it comes to the marathon he is clearly in Kipchoge's shadow.
The OP is right. Kipchoge should have stopped just short of the finish line, grabbed a microphone and done a live ad spot for Disney. "Announcer: Eliud Kipchoge, you are about to break the world record. What are you going to do next? Kipchoge: I am going to Euro Disney!!!!" (runs across finish line with seconds to spare to get WR). He could have made an extra $5 mil with something like that.
And scene.
But seriously, it is really sad that compared to just about every other sport, Kipchoge is comparably getting pennies in financial reward for his accomplishments. He should be very marketable. He is a fascinating guy who does a much better interview that 95% of the top sports figures and comes up with some amazing quotes on his twitter feed.
I read the title of the post and thought this was gonna be about Kipchoge wandering around the streets of Berlin actually "lost". Now I'm disappointed
Got the job done fast wrote:
He made more because he worked less time
THIS
The dude is sleeping with Nike. He’s probably already making millions a year.
Almighty Dollar wrote:
Of course we know he won and broke the world record. But consider the financial aspects of the sport. I believe a world record is worth only $50,000. That is the amount Haile GebrSillassie, Paul Tergat, Patrick Makau, Wilson Kipsang, Dennis Kimetto and ELIUD Kipchoge earned for their feat. The problem is that they earn the same yet the amount of work done varies from one record holder to the next. Considering that Haile broke the record by less than 30 seconds, Makau by 21 seconds, Kipsang by 15 seconds, Kimetto by 26 seconds and Kipchoge by 78 seconds, Kipchoge is the biggest loser by more almost 3 times the next biggest loser! Unless there is a yearly royalty (and a decent one for that matter) and I was Kipchoge, I would improve that record 5 seconds at a time. Can someone maybe help us understand the incentives that come with the world record that would make a smart athlete like Kipchoge take off a huge chunk off the world record?
You're not factoring in the massive contract bonus from Nike. Plus his Berlin contract probably had some extra money for a WR that you don't know about.
think McFly, think wrote:
Almighty Dollar wrote:
Of course we know he won and broke the world record. But consider the financial aspects of the sport. I believe a world record is worth only $50,000. That is the amount Haile GebrSillassie, Paul Tergat, Patrick Makau, Wilson Kipsang, Dennis Kimetto and ELIUD Kipchoge earned for their feat. The problem is that they earn the same yet the amount of work done varies from one record holder to the next. Considering that Haile broke the record by less than 30 seconds, Makau by 21 seconds, Kipsang by 15 seconds, Kimetto by 26 seconds and Kipchoge by 78 seconds, Kipchoge is the biggest loser by more almost 3 times the next biggest loser! Unless there is a yearly royalty (and a decent one for that matter) and I was Kipchoge, I would improve that record 5 seconds at a time. Can someone maybe help us understand the incentives that come with the world record that would make a smart athlete like Kipchoge take off a huge chunk off the world record?
Everyone here is now dumber because of this comment. Your right, Kipchoge should just have run a marathon every week 5sec. faster and kept banking the bonuses. No problem.
"...now dumber because of this comment. Your right..."
Irony is beautiful.
"Irony is beautiful." (?)
Kipchoge's stride is the closest mechanics wise
to the great Gerry Lindgren.
Yes, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
gloria wrote:
"Irony is beautiful." (?)
Kipchoge's stride is the closest mechanics wise
to the great Gerry Lindgren.
Yes, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Gerry had the best stride ever. So light and flowing at 5'6 and 115 ibs.
It's been done before wrote:
Didn't Sergey Bubka purposely break his own world records by the smallest of margins, in order to collect more bonus money? This probably wouldn't work for marathon runners as well as it worked for a pole vaulter, though.....
Yes, you're right. I was going to give the example of Bubka. I think he broke records about 30 times (indoor and out).
I also heard that Moses Kiptanui was on course to set a world record at a championship but slowed because it would be more lucrative to get a record elsewhere.
I think in practice few people would try to improve by small increments. You never know that you'll have the opportunity again.
That's a ridiculous premise - and I'm sure you know this. He has already run 9 or 10 marathons. Why did he wait so long to break the WR when he could have broken it many times already and picked up a bunch of cash?
Almighty Dollar wrote:
Of course we know he won and broke the world record. But consider the financial aspects of the sport. I believe a world record is worth only $50,000. That is the amount Haile GebrSillassie, Paul Tergat, Patrick Makau, Wilson Kipsang, Dennis Kimetto and ELIUD Kipchoge earned for their feat. The problem is that they earn the same yet the amount of work done varies from one record holder to the next. Considering that Haile broke the record by less than 30 seconds, Makau by 21 seconds, Kipsang by 15 seconds, Kimetto by 26 seconds and Kipchoge by 78 seconds, Kipchoge is the biggest loser by more almost 3 times the next biggest loser! Unless there is a yearly royalty (and a decent one for that matter) and I was Kipchoge, I would improve that record 5 seconds at a time. Can someone maybe help us understand the incentives that come with the world record that would make a smart athlete like Kipchoge take off a huge chunk off the world record?
If you actually trained for and raced marathons you would realize how foolish that thought is.
nice bait
Almighty Dollar wrote:
Of course we know he won and broke the world record. But consider the financial aspects of the sport. I believe a world record is worth only $50,000. That is the amount Haile GebrSillassie, Paul Tergat, Patrick Makau, Wilson Kipsang, Dennis Kimetto and ELIUD Kipchoge earned for their feat. The problem is that they earn the same yet the amount of work done varies from one record holder to the next. Considering that Haile broke the record by less than 30 seconds, Makau by 21 seconds, Kipsang by 15 seconds, Kimetto by 26 seconds and Kipchoge by 78 seconds, Kipchoge is the biggest loser by more almost 3 times the next biggest loser! Unless there is a yearly royalty (and a decent one for that matter) and I was Kipchoge, I would improve that record 5 seconds at a time. Can someone maybe help us understand the incentives that come with the world record that would make a smart athlete like Kipchoge take off a huge chunk off the world record?
Your parents dropped you on your head when you were young, or you just like to get attention by posting garbage? Let me guess??? Hmmmmm....I think I know.
To be fair, in the pole vault most world record tries occurred after Bubka had clinched the win and the bar was raised to the next centimeter above the current world record. So of course the record was always broken by the smallest legal margin.
If Mondo had gone after the world record at the European Championships the bar would have gone from 6meter05 to 6meter17 (one cm above the current record of 6m16).
(and Mondo should have gone for it, one of his jumps looked good enough to have cleared it)
(conversely, Lavillenie was a moron to go after 6m21 after clearing 6m16 and breaking the old world record of 6m15 in Donetsk. He ended up flubbing the jump and injuring himself and getting knocked out of worlds)
Back in the 1970s a soviet weight lifter did the same thing, breaking the world record by the smallest amount to maximize the number of bonuses he cashed. Vasilly Alexiev? Maybe the biggest steroid doper of all time.
Most stupid post EVER. Get a life dummy!
Some here don't seem to get my point. This is an economist view of things. A few days ago LetsRun posted an estimate of top athletes yearly salaries. Though these were estimates by agents, it portrayed a big disparity between runners from different countries. Someone might even think of it as racially biased. For instance Galen Rupp's yearly salary is estimated at 758K while Kipchoge's is only 512K. To make matters worse, Jenny Simpson( who is not even a road racer) makes 591K which is more than Kipchoge's by 80K. I agree it may not be practical to break the WR 5 seconds at a time due to shape, weather conditions and other factors outside the control of the athlete. But supposing this was possible, and given that Africans have superior abilities, wouldn't you use this route to equalize your earnings to the rest of the top athletes? Think again instead of just criticizing. Even just the theory of it.
beezo wrote:
You make it sound like it would be easy for him to go out and break the WR by just a few seconds whenever he wants. To break any WR a lot of things have to come together - the course, the weather, pacing, being injury free, etc.
Any great marathoner only has so many races in them. At his age Kipchoge knows he may never get another chance. When everything comes together and you feel good you have to go for it and put the record as far out there as you can.
Look at Bolt - 9.58 in 2009 and never came close to that time again. There are plenty of other examples of athletes that could never repeat a great pdrformance.
Bolt is a poor example of your point, lots of other times since that would have been world records
arrogant thoughts