Top FIVE American Middle & Long Distance Runners of All-TIme

Ryun

Benoit

Decker

Cunningham

Shorter

benoit*

decker*

jennings

larrieu

merrill-drossin

shorter*

ryun*

rodgers

cunningham

saladbar-lagat

How could you leave Mebrahtom Keflezighi: Olympic Silver medalist, over 15 American titles, winner of NYC marathon, 10000m AR off the list? Francie Larrieu-Smith was very good but what did she do on the international scene as far as medals?

bobby is the much slower cousin of robby andrews

You lost all credibility and made your self laughable by not mentioning Bill Dellinger's Bronze Medal in the Olympics.

The guy only stuck it out through 3 Olympics to finally medal.

That's your opinion and not mine. You made yourself (not your self) by not mentioning a two time World Indoor 3000m Gold Medalist, only man to win double Gold at 1500m and 5000m World Outdoor Championships. 1500m AR, 5000mi AR, and multi USA Champion. I don't think anyone in their right mind would swap all that for one single Olympic Gold.

Olympic Gold is one of the ultimate goals for elite athletes but when you achieved as much as Bernard Lagat as an American, noone would swap 4 World Gold Medals, American Records for one Olympic Gold!

American born: American

Ryun Lagat

Kennedy Ryun

Shorter Kennedy

Virgin Shorter

Pre Meb

With German Fernandez ending up as the GOAT when he is done.

American born: American

Ryun Lagat

Kennedy Ryun

Shorter Kennedy

Virgin Shorter

Pre Meb

With German Fernandez ending up as the GOAT when he is done.

IMO wrote:

That's your opinion and not mine. You made yourself (not your self) by not mentioning a two time World Indoor 3000m Gold Medalist, only man to win double Gold at 1500m and 5000m World Outdoor Championships. 1500m AR, 5000mi AR, and multi USA Champion. I don't think anyone in their right mind would swap all that for one single Olympic Gold.

Olympic Gold is one of the ultimate goals for elite athletes but when you achieved as much as Bernard Lagat as an American, noone would swap 4 World Gold Medals, American Records for one Olympic Gold!

I don't know. I bet you that Lagat would hesitate for quite a while if you offered to trade him all of his world level medals to be able to beat ElG down the stretch in Athens. Between his one-sided rivalry with Gerrouj, the fact that Gerrouj was objectively the greatest miler of all time, and it's an Olympic gold, it would be a pretty damned hard decision to make.

No way Meb makes any list. No offense; he's an incredible runner; but he just doesn't have the credentials; anything he's done, you can name a couple of other guys with similar cred.

In my post-1960's opinion, the list would comprise some order of the following five:

Shorter

Ryun

Lagat

Virgin

Mills

I think that Webb has a good shot to get any American record from 1500m-5000m. He might be able to the 1000m record, but I think Johnny Gray's 800m record is a little too fast for him to run. I think that Webb might be able to go 1:43 low maybe 1:43.00. But I don't see Gray's record being broken anytime soon.

So, how many of you were pissed off that Lagat dominated today?

1. Frank Shorter

*2. If Lagat is considered American, then he is easily number 2.

2. Jim Ryun

3. Steve Prefontaine

4. Craig Virgin

5. Gerry Lindgren

6. Dathan Ritzenhein

7. Mebrahtom Keflezighi

8. Bob Kennedy

9. Alan Webb

10. German Fernandez - American junior 5k record, high school 2 mile record, world junior indoor mile record, us junior cross champion. And he is only 19. He has the potential to be top ten in the world.

Not sure how I forgot Billy Mills and Bob Schull. Probably put Mills at 4 and Schull at 6 or so.

Because there are runner with better creds. If it is a lot easer for a distance guy to rack up a lot of national titles (how many zillion road races are there 5k/10k/15k/20k/25k/hm/mth,XC, 5/10 on track and I am sure I am missing some). The are a couple guys that are on pretty much everyones list (Shorter, Ryun), a bunch of old timers that are hard to evaluate (Lightbody has 6 olympic medals but this times would win state meets in HS these days, And guys like wottle, Schule, and Mills don't have longevity but then again it was pretty common for guys to retire young back then).Would you say that Meb is better than Steve Scott? A guy that missed an opportunity in his prime due to a boycott. Or Salazer (3 NYC, wins at Falmouth, 4th at world XC, american record on the track). Or Virgin(2 World Championships in XC,boycotted out of 1980, american records and a slew of national championships).Through in woman you have1) Slaney. Who cares if she was doping in 83( and the evidence for that is slight). Her competition definitely was2) Jennings ( 3x wXC, 9x US, bronze medal on the track, a couple of indoor medals at 3k)

IMO wrote:

How could you leave Mebrahtom Keflezighi: Olympic Silver medalist, over 15 American titles, winner of NYC marathon, 10000m AR off the list? Francie Larrieu-Smith was very good but what did she do on the international scene as far as medals?

yogi wrote:

It's amazing how little respect Rick Wohlhuter gets. Look at the T&FN top lists for all events. Who's still there from the 70's? He is for both the 800m and, oh yeah, the still standing 1000m AR.

And he got an Olympic medal with two major studs ahead of him. Wottle got gold but he didn't have to run against those guys.

Next to Ryun, I'd rank RW the best American middle distance runner, and in the top five for middle and long.

.

Talk about no respect -- Johnny Gray

Not in any particular order:

Bill Rodgers, Frank Shorter, Alberto Salazar, Joan Benoit, Greg Meyer

IMO wrote:

# 1. Frank Shorter

1972 Olympic Marathon GOLD and 5th in the Olympic 10000m

1976 Olympic Marathon Silver

2. Bob Schul

the only American to every medal at Olympic 5000m and he won GOLD

3. Joan Benoit

ran away from heavy Olympic favorite Grete Waitz and Ingrid Kristansen in LA and posted an incredible time in her solo run to Olympic Gold. Winner of numerous marathons after and still 2nd fastest American 20 plus years later.

4. Billy Mills

huge underdog and ran an unbelieveable personal best to win Olympic 10000m GOLD

5. Dave Wottle

winner of the only 800m Olympic GOLD medal with even spilts, dead last at 500m but walked everyone down for the GOLD. 2-time NCAA 1500m champion USA Olympian at 1500m.

You have to have won Olympic Gold to make my list. Most athletes would trade all their other accomplishments to have an individual Olympic Gold!

So nationalities aside, you think all the runners on your list are better than Paul Tergat?

Joan Benoit Samuelson

Mary Decker Slaney

Doris Brown Heritage

Lynn Jennings

Shalane Flanagan

Frank Shorter

Jim Ryun

Jim Beatty

Bob Schul

Glen Cunningham

Long Run wrote:

Put Bob Kennedy on the list he was competing in the first era of African domination and depth never seen before in the sport factor in it was also the EPO era. This made it the toughest time ever for the middle and long distance track events (Bekele is the only one to crack the world records since). And Bob was the sole non-African in it.

Deiter Baumann may or may not have been a drug cheat, but he was faster than Bob (with more medals). Kennedy was not the "sole non-African in it".