It’s close between Geb and Bekele, but I role with Geb for the GOAT. Yes Bekele had unparalleled success at world XC and Geb only got one bronze on the grass, but I feel like Geb closes the total gap by his success at world indoors. He has four world indoor golds, including a ridiculous 1999 1500m/3000 gold double where he stepped down and beat the milers at their own game including Laban Rotich. On another occasion he was right on El G’s heels and ran 3:31! His pr was right off of El G’s indoor 1500m record. Geb ran 3:31 indoors a couple of times and that was back when there were no super shoes or super indoor tracks like BU. 3:31 indoors was like a 3:28 outdoors at least. So I think that indoor success alone basically ties him with Bekele’s world XC success, the one major difference between the two. Bekele could not and did not win world indoors over 1500, let alone win the 15/3k double.
To be honest the rest of their careers are pretty similar and almost a tie. Geb did break more world records and improved his own 5k record by an astonishing margin, changing what people thought a distance runner capable of. He was like Roger Bannister, but far more competitive and successful. I pick Geb because I think that like Michael Jordan or Wayne Gretzky, there is just this intangible other worldly factor about him which makes him transcend his own sport. Like them, he just exuded greatness at everything he did. But it’s difficult to fully explain in words. It’s like a Taoist It factor. He had it and he had a lot of it. So I think Geb is the GOAT, but Bekele is a close number 2.