Who is the best runner of all time?

Hassan is ridiculously amazing, but it’s my personal feeling that right now there is not a clear woman GOAT. Chebet, Hassan, and Kipyegon balance each other out fairly evenly because the three woman have an edge over each other at different things. Gidey wasn’t on the scene very long and Ruth C got busted for doping. In terms of the past, you have the problem where the current African women are much better than most women stars of the past. There’s some exceptions; I do think both Defar and Dibaba belong in the conversation. Wang Xunxia and some of the Russian mid distance women would belong in the conversation but nearly everyone is in agreement that they doped and got away with it. I think the issue with the women stars is that there is not a clear parallel to Geb and Bekele; being good at almost everything, dominating like they did, and having the Geb It factor which transcends the sport.

People keep making these types of threads every half a year or so as if the answer is going to change. Now with news of Ingebrigtsen's achilles problems it seems another generation of runners is going to fail to take Bekele off his pedestal.

Sifan’s range is the greatest for sure, but I put Faith above her because she has more gold medals on the track than Hassan does (although they both have 3 Olympic golds). Faith also has World Records while Sifan does not (although she’s had them in the past). Lastly, Faith has a winning record vs. Sifan. For these reasons I’d rank Faith over Sifan….

Chebet very likely could take the GOAT title in the future, but she’s not the GOAT yet….

There is a case to be made for Dibaba though too.

So whoever has the last WR is the best runner ever? I guess that's quite logical. But maybe not how I read the question. Sifan has won from 1500 to marathon. Thats a better "runner" as I see it. For just dominance? Maybe Faith, Syd, Moses, and Usain.

This must be the answer. Everyone else has been aided by cheater shoes! /s

If you are talking about the GOAT in track & field, it must be Carl Lewis. He won Olympic golds and World titles in both trach AND field.

How many other people can claim that?

I thought Haile had won the most records across track and marathon and olmpics?

If so. Him

Coeovett.

By the measure of best performance ever, then it’s Bolt. Otherwise it’s Jakob for distance with his 7:17.55

What are you going on about?

How about just admitting you're wrong for once.

Feel free to start your own thread about most famous. This one is about best.

I would argue that Rudisha’s only sub 1:41 in history at the Olympics for gold is a better performance than Jakob’s.

It can't be if Wanyonyi nearly matched it in Paris with better competition. Nobody is close to 7:17. It's just one of those things that nobody is remotely close to and until it happens, it's seen as mythical.

It isn’t mythical. They said the same thing about Komen’s 7:20. Most of the time the pros don’t go for a WR in the 3k. I think at least a few more guys could dip under 7:20 if they really wanted to. Aregawi ran 7:21 in the same race and he can’t even break 3:30 for 1500. Grant Fisher ran 7:22. I think several of the more 1500m types could run about that fast. The 7:17 looks more impressive than it is. Plus Jakob had wavelights and two pacers. Rudisha led the Olympics from start to finish and broke a barrier in the same race. Rudisha for the win!

El G best at his event? Edwin Moses would like a word.

Kipchoge is far more marketable. But, if you've been following running for a while and get your T&F news from sources other than Instagram, it's pretty clear Kenenisa is the GOAT and no one comes close. I would count Gebreselassie as second, given his 27 WRs (most of them his own) and marathon dominance. Kipchoge is a distant third. He was somewhat unremarkable before his marathon greatness.

Bekele is 13 - 7 over Kipchoge and was unbeatable from about 2004 to 2011. He won every major championship multiple times, was unbeaten over the 10,000m for 7 years and held two highly competitive world records for nearly two decades. Everyone else retired (Tadese, Sihine, Farah, Lagat, Ritz) while Bekele went for the marathon a decade later and got within 2 seconds of Kipchoge's then-WR. With the rare exception of an early fluke in 2003, Kipchoge never got anywhere near Bekele on the track or XC. In fact, Kipchoge only ran the 5,000m on the track. Bekele could outkick anyone whether he led the last half of the race or waited and kicked against the likes of Barnard Lagat. Look up Berlin 2009 5&10km or Athens 10000m or Beijing 5&10km or literally any World XC final between 2002 - 2008.

And the fact that he qualified for the hardest Olympic marathon team at the age of 42 by running two 2:04 marathons back-to-back (a national record in almost any other country) cements his place in history as the GOAT.

I love Kipchoge and Kipchoge was great, but let's not distort history because of Nike marketing, Instagram, the INEOS Challenge, etc.

If your entire argument is that it’s rarely run, then it’s a weak argument.