Who was the greatest runner never to set a world record?

Arnold Schwarzenegger in...THE RUNNING MAN.

"Killian, here's your Subzero, now plain zero!"

Bordin, Baldini

Ham Dagger wrote:

wepmad wrote:

Oh!

Maria Mutola.

End of thread.

saying 'end of thread' does not add weight to your argument

True but it states my opinion more clearly :)

Ok here's a more thorough argument:

Including indoors, she has won 10 world championship GOLD metals (3 outdoor golds, in addition to 1 outdoor silver and 1 bronze), from 1993 to 2006 (2003 was her latest outdoor). She has also won an Olympic gold, possibly the highest accomplishment in running, maybe even more impressive than a WR. Regardless, she was clearly dominant for over a decade. From this standpoint alone, she is one of the top runners in history, in the same breath as El Guerrouj (minus the WR).

In addition, the fact that she did not best the world record is excusable; aside from being THE oldest running record on the books, it was run by a woman from a soviet bloc country who was doped to her eyeballs with who knows what.

Paula has the half marathon, and 10km plus her Marathon. Technically I think she has every or close to every en route mark as well.

Mutola has the indoor and outdoor 1000. Does that count in the books?

I was going to say Elvan Abeylegesse but she held the 5000 for a while. She has had a great career.

atrrunner wrote:

Ngeny could be in the discussion.

He holds the WR in the 1000m

just a fan wrote:

Mutola has the indoor and outdoor 1000. Does that count in the books?

Man, I forgot about that. It's on the IAAF website but it's contested so rarely. Maybe it doesn't count because it's a different event -- people were talking about Carl Lewis in the Long Jump but he has a 100m WR.

Marie Jose Perec !

Very surprised she did not get 1 mention....

definitely Joaquim Cruz

amomynous wrote:

definitely Joaquim Cruz

I agree. I like Cruz over Lagat, Gay, etc. because he was the best in his era and he has an Olympic Gold. Yes, Lagat and Gay had the misfortune of competing against the best ever, BUT winning is what counts in this game.

Anna Quirot

Hard to say... most consistently dominant runners can run a world record since they have so many attempts, whereas lots of consistently good runners don't medal. So we're left with a bunch of Olympic medalists who showed up on race day once or twice, or guys who were always second-best to someone else:

-Sileshi Sihine (ETH), 12:46 / 26:39, owns 2 Olympic silvers and 3 WC silvers, 4 of which 5 were runner-up to Bekele... probably best runner ever without a WR or gold (or even an NR)

-Frank Shorter (unless I'm mistaken)

-Asbel Kiprop although he might do it

-Lagat was another good choice

johnny hotdog face wrote:

Miruts Yifer

Yifter the Shifter - that's a good one

There are a lot of names on here who won FA

tyson gay has a world record.

the 200 meter straight track world record.

duhhhh.

if we are talking olympic gold then Kelly Holmes

Fermin Cacho- olympic gold and silver, 2X world championships silver racing against guys like Morceli, Guerrouj, and Ngeny.

Also Lagat

Tyson Gay is a good choice. 9.69

that's an unbelievable time.

Also, I think Carl Lewis is a good one too. He really stopped working on the 200m after Seol. But he ran 19.75 and the record was 19.72. I always felt carl was just as able in the 200m as Bolt. I still think Carl on a relay anchor could go with bolt -- I think Carl split 8.6 once. The 100m was too short for him, and the 200m maybe was just too much distance for him to stay with it. He won everything by competing and not really worrying about records. In retrospect it was wise, because he has the hardware -- medals.... records get broken, Olympic wins stay with a person.

Sonia O'Sullivan?

World Champion on track, cross-country, olympic silver, was beaten out of a good few more golds by Ma Junren's army.

She did set the 2000m world record, but who cares about that in all fairness.

wepmad wrote:

Mr 400 wrote:

Lagat is a good choice. How about Wariner? Arguably the 2nd best 400 guy of all time.

By that standard, what about Sileshi Sihine?

How do you figure? Haile and Bekele get the nod over him in any distance.

I think Carlos Lopes actually broke the WR in the Rotterdam Marathon, I'm not sure.