The most athletic distance runners are the fastest ones. To deny this is to say that runners are not athletes. Respect your sport.
The most athletic distance runners are the fastest ones. To deny this is to say that runners are not athletes. Respect your sport.
crisscrosscountry wrote:
Most distance runners find running after being cut from the church baseball team and have nowhere else to go. But a proud few use their aerobic engine to complete herculean tasks beyond the track or xc course. These are the men and women I'm interested in focusing on. Bonus points for the further their athletic accomplishments extend beyond distance running, otherwise I feel like it would be a bunch of decent soccer players. I'll start with two CA state champs who gave me the idea for this thread:
Coley Candaele: CA state champ in 1990 with a 4:06 1600m after he spent the fall as the starting quarterback for the CIF champions. Also coached Michael Norman in high school.
Michael Stember: how many distance runners can dunk? Not many can dunk as a 5'9" freshman and decide to give up a starting spot on a competitive Jesuit basketball team to run cross country.
Who else ya got?
Tubby Tuke 350 pounds 2:01 marathon!
Josh Thompson can dunk at 5’9
Nick Setta comes to mind. From Wikipedia: "Lockport High, he set the Illinois high school football record for longest field goal (59 yards). He also set the school record of 6'10" in the high jump, won 2 state titles as a member of the Lockport Porters cross country team, and won a state title in the 800m long distance run." And this was in a huge school, almost 4,000 kids. 14:46 3-mile and 5th in state as a sophomore, so not just a mid-D guy. Also played pro football in the CFA and set the league record for single game punting average.
Cockport IL wrote:
Nick Setta comes to mind. From Wikipedia: "Lockport High, he set the Illinois high school football record for longest field goal (59 yards). He also set the school record of 6'10" in the high jump, won 2 state titles as a member of the Lockport Porters cross country team, and won a state title in the 800m long distance run." And this was in a huge school, almost 4,000 kids. 14:46 3-mile and 5th in state as a sophomore, so not just a mid-D guy. Also played pro football in the CFA and set the league record for single game punting average.
I was going to mention Nick Setta. I had heard he would kick Friday nights and run on Saturday. If I remember correctly he went to Norte Dame on a football scholarship.
runners are athletes wrote:
The most athletic distance runners are the fastest ones. To deny this is to say that runners are not athletes. Respect your sport.
What about men over the age of 60 that still have normal bowel movements that is pretty athletic if you ask me!
Jim Thorpe
crisscrosscountry wrote:
Most distance runners find running after being cut from the church baseball team and have nowhere else to go.
Based on personal experience I don't think this is true for most pretty good runners. My college xc team usually played IM basketball at the end of cross season and before indoors really got going, and we regularly beat IM teams from other varsity sports (football, soccer, etc). Some of the runners were fairly uncoordinated and unsuited to other sports, but most had been pretty good at every sport they played and were just better at distance running. I suspect that for the most part, the athletes on better cross country teams than ours would have just been better athletes in general and many of them probably would have beaten us at IM sports as well as xc. My fastest friend can destroy me in basketball and soccer as well as a distance race.
yabbadabba wrote:
Nick Symonds is the first thet came to mind. That dude was running 1:43 looking like he just got off the field from the Idaho Football champs.
The thread is most athletic, not most athletic looking. Do we have any evidence that Symmonds' athletic talents go beyond running a fast 800?
I don't see soccer players as better athletes than good xc runners. It's rather the reverse. Good xc runners will easily be able to beat most soccer players in running and stamina, of course, and probably sprints as well, since they regularly do sprints in training. As a xc runner, my son's ludicrously better at running than the kids on his competitive soccer team.
Where the soccer players excel is in skills that you need to start early and work at to be good. But that's not about athletic ability.
He was athletic you know wrote:
Alan Webb is a name that comes to mind. When he was in his 3:46 mile shape back in 07 he looked like he could have did atleast one rep of 230 or 235. He was strong for a runner and he also had some speed to him. Maybe 11.2ish 100 guy
I knew his name would come up. He could probably show up and run 11.2. If he put a little work in, I see no reason why he couldn't have run 10.7 - 10.8. He ran 47.X as a high schooler in the 400.
whoa, 14:46 3 mile and 6'10" high jump blows my mind. At the HS level, 6'10" is a far superior achievement, right?
Hobbs Kessler 3:57 HS mile, 5.14c technical rock climber, both are world class in very different sports
Yes both endurance but Ben True. All American in XC, Nordic Ski, and Track all I think in the same season ending his senior year with a sub 4 mile. jumped from one sport to the other.
Nick Setta. All state in Illinois xc (14s for 3 miles), state champion in the 800 in 1:52. Also made state in the 300 hurdles, 4x4, and was a 6-10 high jumper. Kicked a 59 yard field goal in high school and went on to be the kicker for Notre Dame.
Ah didn’t see the earlier Setta post. But yeah, I’d say he takes the cake
Greenstem wrote:
Lopez lomong 13.5m triple jump
Erin Donohue 44.98m javelin throw.
I mean I started running cross cuz I was bored and never played any sports and running seemed easy enough
vczxzxcv wrote:
Where the soccer players excel is in skills that you need to start early and work at to be good. But that's not about athletic ability.
Didn't Bolt become a pro soccer player? - after a few month's practice he was signed for a top level league side and was in talks with about playing for a world-league side like Manchester United or something. Granted he is a sprinter but based on that I imagine a world class middle distance runner could probably convert to pro soccer fairly quickly - Rupp was a top level high school soccer player before he took up distance running ....