Salazar: Mo Farah's double gold at London 2012 was the greatest distance running achievement in history

Bekele had a great run in the 2008 5000 - but aside from him the field was pretty unimpressive.

1. There were very impressive people in the fiel besides Bekele.

2. It's not just the field. It's how the race was won and the finishing time. Bekele closed faster AND ran a much faster overall time than Farah.

3. I'd have to think about it a bit more, but I might even dare say that Farah's performance was about as good as Bekele's 2004 silver medal performance. An exceptional race. But one notch below the 2008 5000m. That's not a bad thing. That means Farah still ran the arguably 2nd best 5000m ever.

The Champ 2.0? wrote:

Honestly you guys just think the 10k was 'soft' because rupp got silver and you jealously can't understand how incredibly hard it is to drop a 53s last lap like he did in that race. Geb in his prime would have have been hard pressed to stay with rupp over the last lap of that race.

If you take off your blinders and look at the incredible array of talents in the race you'll realize it was arguably the most competitive 10,000m in history in terms of difficulty-to-medal. Guys with simply amazing pedigrees weren't even close.

Geb and Bekele in their primes would have each eaten the Mo Farrah of 2012 alive on the final laps of the 5k and the 10k.

The 10K was alright, not blazing quick, but the latter half of it was an honest effort despite the opening 14:00.

However, the 5K wasn't. Opening with a first lap of 73ish? and winning with a 13:43 is ridiculous. Collegiate times on the utmost top tier of competitive running. I know that most can't dish out the 52 second lap that they had, but we have to draw the line somewhere between a quick tempo and race with a hard 400M at the end.

Props to Mo for beating a bunch of guys whose best days are behind them, and for beating a bunch of time trialists in a kicker's race (his competitions own fault, Mo did as he should).

2012 Farah still would've been dusted in both events by 2008 KB.

george oscar bluth wrote:

2012 Farah still would've been dusted in both events by 2008 KB.

And also by the 2004 Bekele

That 5000m was not the greatest anything! There are probably more than a dozen former greats who could have won that race in their prime.

um seriously wrote:

Bekele had a great run in the 2008 5000 - but aside from him the field was pretty unimpressive.

Really? Kipchoge, Bekele Jr, Soi, Kipsiro, Lagat, Longisiwa? Those guys aren't impressive? Kipchoge is one of the best 5000m championship racers of all time.

salazar's statement obviously shows disrespect to the history of the sport but much more than that it is tremendously ignorant. not only the 5\10 double was done before (not to mention the 5/10/42.2) but it was executed in a much more impressive manner. decimating your competitors by front running the last few minutes in (an almost) sub 4 pace like bekele's 2008 5K is to me a demonstration of fitness and mental strength which is by far superior to Mo's 2012 runs. if anything bekele's 5K was a fit that brings to mind rudisha's 800m WR run in london.

what is geb's fastest last 400 in any race? I don't recall him ever closing faster than 54.

Two words for you ....Lasse Viren

Yowsa Yowsa wrote:

The excuses are for losers...

Salazar had his guys ready on the day.

End of story, everyone knows that Olympic years are special, and tougher, and more stressful, and take more of everything... If the others were not ready or "off," well that is just losers whining.

No body is saying Mo and Galen didn't run amazing. But Salazar opened the discussion up to what olympics distance performance in history is the best, I don't think Mo's performance was as impressive as Bekele's in the past. Now, Salazar can be proud that his guy is in that discussion now, but that doesn't mean that Mo 2012 > Bekele 2004 or 2008.

Just saw a trailer for a film with Bekele, Haile and more... I hope they get Mo and Galen and have a rematch!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_g3uX6Z5-kc

Lets look the fact , Mo Farah was more better than many in history .Take alook at 5000m it was slow time winning race , what does it mean . The most smart person was to win not the strogest !!!!! In my side i gave all to Mo..

Here's Fukuoka 1983. Seko in one of the more amazing marathon finishes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RA5MFqTVnk

Since there's been such good discussion on this, would anyone care to try and rank the various 5k/10k doublers (and one marathon tripler) over the years?

My thoughts:

1 Bekele 2008 - simply decimated the field in an OR 5k. 10k also an OR, I believe. Although we all know time doesn't matter in championships, I have a hard time not being impressed by someone who sets a record AND wins a gold

2 Zatopek 1952, 5-10-mara - the only one to win all three. Can't imagine anyone doing this again. Or even attempting it, really.

3 Viren 1972 - fall and still set a 10k WR at the last fully attended Olympics for 12 years. Proved he could win off a fast pace there, or a slow pace with a long drive for home in the 5k. In other words, proved he was unbeatable, at least for a week in the autumn of 72.

4 Farah 2012 - The best man won, but not in the most impressive manner. I don't really take into account what opponent's PRs were, at all Olympics you have that era's best runners. Other people may disagree (and do, based on this thread)

5 Yifter 1980 - Games not fully attended, though probably most of the people who would have contended in the 5 and 10 were there. The Kenyans weren't really that strong at 5 and 10 yet, though they would be by decade's end.

6 Viren 1976 - also not fully attended. Many African nations boycotted, including Ethiopia. Just four years later that nation would go 1-3-4 in the 10k, for example. Though again it wasn't as watered down as it would be if African nations had boycotted these days. Still, I think this was less impressive than his 72 double but others might disagree.

Unrankable: I don't have much knowledge about Kohlemainen 1912 or Vladimir Kuts 1960. Don't think it would be fair to try and rank 'em.

Surprisingly (to me anyway) no one did the 5-10 double in one Games when Ritola and Nurmi were the stars of the 20s. Both had 10k and 5k titles at separate Games and both men did other doubles within single Games. Might also be fun to consider 15-5k and other doubles (Ritola did the 10k steeplechase double in 1924) but I've gone on long enough I think.

1. Bekele 20082. Farah 20123. Yifter 19804. Viren 19725. Viren 1976Zatopek was great - but any ranking ahead of modern athletes is simply emotional. He was facing a very low-class field and small pool of talent. NCAA champions now face a infinitely deeper talent pool. Even with 1950s training a guy like chris derrick would beat zatopek at any distance.

I like this author's appreciation for the difficulty of judging "the greatest ever" when we are talking about runners of different generations, and I'll also give high praise to Mo Farrah's magnificent Olympics. I want to be careful how I express this, because great distance runners go to Olympic finals with one objective only: to win gold, and Farrah did that. Still, before we acclaim this double the greatest ever, we have to take some recognition of the fact that, while we can't blame Farrah for the dawdling pace in the 5,000, we have to take it into consideration. I also have great admiration for those rare athletes like Viren and Zatopek, who took on the third event: the marathon. Thank you.

the obvious wrote:

salazar's statement obviously shows disrespect to the history of the sport but much more than that it is tremendously ignorant.

You nailed Alberto's personality perfectly. Anyone who's ever been around him would agree.