Malcolm Gladwell says Matthew Centrowitz “doesn’t even belong in the same conversation as, say, Nick Willis.”

Gladwell can put a sentence together, but man, his opinions blow.

Malcolm loves to stir $hit up. I really like him. But Centro > Nick Willis. C'mon Malcolm, gold is better than bronze in 2016. Did Nick ever beat Matt in a medal race? (Actually I'd have to look... maybe 2017?)
What Malcolm is really saying is likely this: "How can he be clean, he ran under Alberto for years." Where's your proof Malcolm?
Let me add this, "Blink" is a great book, and it actually saved my marriage. So thanks Mr. Gladwell.

Open image

Kind of hard to be in the conversation, when you're 10m back.

Nick Willis is a LEGEND. 20 Years running sub 4 makes you an Icon in the sport. Silver in the Olympics. Some nice World Medals.

CENTRO has an Olympic Gold Medal. this trumps almost anything and gives Centro the slight edge overall.

Like Rupp, Centro is less likable personally than his contemporaries. Everyone LOVES Nick Willis and they should. But let's not let that cloud our judgment.

1908 - That was the last time an American won a GOLD in the 1500 before Centro.

There are college kids who could have dropped a 50.2 last lap?

Willis is way better than Centro. And Sargent Savage Brian Williams is the greatest independent journalist ever. Deep thoughts by Malcolm Gladwell.

Regardless of whether Willis’s competition was on PEDs, it doesn’t look like Willis was much of a threat to win, right? Which was the claim Gladwell made, right?

But you’re right, you got me. I once responded to a thread asking hypothetically, “Would you take PEDs to become the best in the world in your favorite event?” by explaining rather depressively and nihilistically that I’d be inclined to magically cheat my way from 30 year old kitchen worker in Ankeny Iowa, single, zero foreseeable prospects and who barely hobbyjogs anymore, with a 4:24 mile PR from when I was 16, to beating Ingebrigtsen and Cheruiyot because it would definitely make life more interesting—and now I’m disqualified from offering any opinions or in this case pointing out a logical failure, interminably. Thanks for keeping it real Coevett.

Credit to LRC for breaking it down in a logical fashion. Spock would approve. Rating Centro slightly better is fair.

It's interesting, because there's a perception which probably many have (that I had too) that Willis has had a better career and been a contender more often. But it's simply not true. Maybe it's because Centro's best performances have often been considered "upsets," while Willis's generally have been less so.

Stop..... Stop...... Stop..... I haven't even read the rest of what you wrote. I had a visceral reaction to what you wrote and had to start typing (Just like I did when someone sent me Gladwell quote about Centro - I still haven't actually read the Q&A). Centro has never ever won a single race on the circuit with everyone in it and healthy. Seb Coe had back to back Olympics titles, multiple WRs. On his best day, Coe couldn't be beat.

I just spent hours writing up an article defending Centro but he's far from the greatest of all time and doesn't even belong in that conversation. Maybe we can debate if he's the greatest American of all time but not worldwide.

Now this kind of post is more of what we need on letsrun.

opinion —> evidence = complete argument.

They are both excellent runners and both in the conversation of top milers of the last 15-20 years.

Getting at Rojo’s point….it’s kind of a silly argument about Coe. Different eras, different money involved, different motivation for athletes. The Kenyan athletes are now incentivized to win Golden/Diamond league events because of the payday and how it will change their lives. They don’t always have their best stuff at championships for this reason. It’s silly but true.

Centro was fortunate enough to be a well paid, sponsored American runner who could truly peak for championships and not worry about whether he won Diamond League events ($$$). He won the most important race that mattered in his career, and showed up big time in many others. Furthermore, there is MUCH more stringent drug testing than Coe’s era. I’m not saying for sure Coe was doping, but often when it seems too good to be true……

He is not on the same level as Coe, El G. But he is not so far behind as he may seem.

Matt Centrowitz's coach was banned from the sport for 4 years for doping violations.

Matt Centrowitz's girlfriend was banned from the sport for 4 years for doping violations.

ask any T&F athlete:

Would you rather win a olympic gold medal or be ranked #1 for a season?

99% would say: Gold please!

There is one race every four years that everyone wants to win and that is the Olympics. The reason it is so important is every athlete wants to win it more than anything else.
Winning at championships is the single hardest thing to do in T&F!

BTW: The greatest male american miler ever is Jim Ryun IMO.

Another way to think of this:

Would you rather have Alan Webbs career or Centrowitz? I'd go Centro any day. Webb has the american records but Centro won in championships races when it counts.

Nick Willis has done a lot more for the sport off the track and arguably on the track. So as far as who has had the better career in the professional sense, Nick wins by head and shoulders but is also a lot further along in that Centro

Brilliant analysis. Thank you. I loved re-watching that race. I had forfotten Centro ran to win but got blown away. But as I'm watching the final 200, I'm thinking to msyelf, "How many of these guys do we know to be dirty? EPO, EPO, EPO."

And to whoever linked to the 2016 World Indoor video, that was just as good. I loved that so much I added it to the bottom of the article we wrote and said that video sums up how I view their careers - it's close but Centro FTW.

The thing about Gladwell's comment that most got my attention and made me call up Jonathan to write something wasn't actually the quote in the graphic about not being in the same conversation. It was the comment about how Nick was a threat to win every major race. That just struck me as not being true.

I kind of thought it was true for both of him (even though Centro won 2016) but I had forgotten about 2015 when Centro put himself out there but just got destroyed.

Those races were so interesting. It was great to see them. It inspired me to find a replay of 2013.

That was a bit of of a boring/nothing race from a fan's perspective. It seemed like nothing happened.

What's crazy is I just roughly calculated Centrow's splits. He's ran very similar times in both races and yet in one he finished 8th and one he finished 2nd.

2013 Moscow (2nd place)
60.3
2:00.7 (60.4)
2:56.7 (56.0)
3:36.8 (40.1)

2015 Beijing (8th palce)
59.5,
1:59.0 (59.5)
2:55.6 (56.6)
336.1 (40.5)

What's really crazy about 2015 is how good everyone else was? Was the EPO just better that year or what? Kiprop closed in like 38.0. Ridiculous.

“Doesn’t belong in the same conversation” lol.

NW’s longevity is legendary but Centro’s 2016 is also legendary in a different and more poignant way.

Gladwell is a clown.

He is a fine author lmfao but he does have the occasional dumb opinion

Nick and Centro are both great runners. Centro deserved his Olympic gold. Willis has a great PR. Folks should reserve their criticisms for runners like The Athlete Special and Drew Hunter (sorry guys lol)

As another runner in Ankeny, have you found any groups in town to run with? It’s pretty mind-numbing just running up and down the Trestle trail without any races to really target or even a non-cement track for intervals.