Worst runner with an Olympic gold medal?

Notfit wrote:

We have a thread for the best runner without one, but who is the worst distance runner with an Olympic gold medal?

this is easy..just look at the first few modern olympics and the times there....Spiridon Louis....would not have broken 3:00 hrs in a standard marathon.

[quote]agip wrote:

ok - I did 5 minutes of research on these oly marathon winners. Besides the OG, here is how many major marathons each won:

Baldini: 0

Thugwane: 0

Hwang: 0

Bordin: 1

Tomescu/Dita: 1

Yegorova: 1

Noguchi: 2

Takahashi: 2

I am excluding Fukuoka -

I did less than five minutes of research and found that Baldini won the Euro Champs in 1998 and again in 2006, to say nothing of his TWO bronze medals in World Championships to go along with his OG Gold;

Bordin won the Boston Marathon, Rome Marathon, Venice marathon, and two Euro Champ marathons;

Thugwane won Honolulu, Fukuoka, and Nagano marathons -- oh wait, you arbitrarily excluded Fukuoka cuz it does not support your view so scratch that;

I don't know why Agip thinks his ignorance wins the day for him

K5 wrote:

Jaygeta wrote:

Allan wells actually had a pretty good record against some of the fastest from that period. Keep in mind that sprinting was pretty slow comparatively back then.

No boycott, no win for Wells.

That's far from certain. Wells beat Floyd, Lattany and Lewis 2 weeks after Moscow in Cologne. And he ended the year the 3rd fastest in world.

He also won the World Cup the following year where the Americans were present.

you're saying Honolulu, Nagano, Rome, Venice, and Euro Champs are first tier races? really?

you have an argument with Fukuoka - it waxes and wanes, but at times it has been first tier. Those others - no.

There were other decathlon medalists with far slower 1500 PRs than Bryan Clay's

here is a list of the winners of the mighty euro champs marathon:

Rothlin

Baldini

Holmen

Fiz

nijboer

Moseyev

Yulamanova

Maisch

Guida

machada

mota

...not much of a list, is it?

K5 wrote:

[quote]:

I don't know why Agip thinks his ignorance wins the day for him

He won't stop, it's best just to ignore him at this point.

agip wrote:

you're saying Honolulu, Nagano, Rome, Venice, and Euro Champs are first tier races? really?

you have an argument with Fukuoka - it waxes and wanes, but at times it has been first tier. Those others - no.

1. You are ignorant of some of the big names in marathoning from 20 to 30 years ago and so conclude they must not have been very good.

2. You support your view with an arbitrary standard that, if they did not win other "top tier" marathons you are proven right. And, of course, allow that Bordin did win one -- Boston -- so as to pre-empt anyone pointing that out. As if noting you exempted that somehow supports your view he was an unknown and therefore not very good.

3. You then pre-emptively eliminate Fukuoka from that list under the assertion that its quality waxes and wanes. The fact is that this is true of every major race. Clearly, you wanted to eliminate a race that contradicted the scenario you concocted yourself.

4. Now you claim that the Euro Champs, Honolulu, Rome. etc. do not fit the 1st tier standard you arbitrarily chose.

No wonder you are always right in your mind. You start from a viewpoint and then carefully construct an argument so that any facts that are contrary to your viewpoint can be ignored or explained away. At least in your muddled brain they can be. I have never encountered someone so blatanly afflicted by confirmation bias.

Peer mediator wrote:

K5 wrote:

[quote]Jaygeta wrote:

Allan wells actually had a pretty good record against some of the fastest from that period. Keep in mind that sprinting was pretty slow comparatively back then.

No boycott, no win for Wells.

That's far from certain.

It is not certain but surely not far from it

Peer mediator wrote:That's far from certain. Wells beat Floyd, Lattany and Lewis 2 weeks after Moscow in Cologne. And he ended the year the 3rd fastest in world.

He also won the World Cup the following year where the Americans were present.

his '80 win was 50/50 if americans were there

he ran 10.11 in qf off slightly slow start/pick-up

he couda gone

10.07/10.08

stanley's best was same

however, boycott questions matter little for the 100

the best 100 guy by a mile was sanford, a fantastic sprinter but who was injured by mid-season & likely woudn't have made moscow

he ran 9.88 with a 2.3

he probably wouda run, if fit in moscow

~ 9.95/10.00

wells ran a stoopid 200 in 20.21 losing by 0.02s

he split a suicidal

10.3+

which is

19.6 pace !!!

if he'd run a more sensible 10.5, he shouda run

20.00 / 20.05

very close to borzov's 20.00 low-altitude wr from munich ( albeit he was easing up )

that stoopid 200 cost him his legacy as no one woud have much questioned his 100 gold if he'd run 20.00/20.05 as back-up for a primary 100 guy

i live under a bridge wrote:

Waldemar Cierpinski - drugged to the gills in 76 and 80

You have to go pretty far down the list in either of those races to find a clean runner.

doperjoe wrote:

You have to go pretty far down the list in either of those races to find a clean runner.

all the way to second place in '76

agip wrote:

here is a list of the winners of the mighty euro champs marathon:

Rothlin

Baldini

Holmen

Fiz

nijboer

Moseyev

...not much of a list, is it?

Actually Martin Fix, Victor Rothlin, S Baldina, L Moseyev, G Bordin is an extremely impressive list to anyone with any knowledge of the sport.

Agip, do you know anything about anything at all?

idiotic response bro wrote:

doperjoe wrote:

You have to go pretty far down the list in either of those races to find a clean runner.

all the way to second place in '76

nope....keep going....

can mods remove this idiot's posts

ventolin^3 wrote:

can mods remove this idiot's posts

you have as much evidence for one athlete as another. your own biases compel you to make statements like this.

sure lock homes wrote:

Peter Rono is always mentioned in threads like this, and it is symptomatic of ignorance. Peter Rono was VERY good in that Olympic race, and people are always selling him short. Peter Rono took control of that race masterfully, grabbing the lead and refusing to relinquish it. Very underrated. Superb effort.

Sure it was a great effort. He won the Gold medal.

He took the lead and he held on.

But there was nothing special about his PR or performances outside of this race.

And there was nothing special about this race when you look at the splits.

They went out in 59, 2:00, 2:56 and finished just under 3:36.

His last 800 was 1:52 and last lap was 52.9.

Compare that to Bile closing in 1:46 the year before or Coe winning in 3:32 in the previous Olympics.

Or Cacho closing in 50. in 1992.

Rono faced a weaker field than it should have been. (Even add Spivey). And those that were there were not in good form. Cram was obviously not well. Steve Scott was on the downside of his career. Peter Elliott was just moving to 15 and doubling with the 8.

Rono ran great for himself (superb effort as you say), but that effort wouldn't have been medal worthy in any other year.

There is a lot MORE evidence against Cierpisnki, it's in Stasi files, and anyone who does not acknowledge this is lying to himself and to the rest of us.