With 5 world titles and a WR, is Mo Farah the GOAT (Greatest of all-time)? We say yes...

he is the Lance of track and filed. And like Lance, beat all the dopers through hard work!

2008 Olympics

1) Bekele 12:57.82 Olympic Record

2) kipchoge 13:02

3) cheriuyt soi 13:06

They came through 3k in 8:00.85

Bekele ran his last 2k in 4:56.xx Absolutely amazing display of dominance.

2012 Olympics

1) Farah 13:41.66

2) Gebremeskel 13:41.98

3) logiswa???? 13:42

Nuff said!

Farah is a (ahem) "sloat" that ripped off a blazing 12.98.

Bolt is a GOAT. Farah is a fitness jogger.

agc5k wrote:

Mo has the weakness to his resume of running in a weaker era.

The 5 greatest distance runners in history in my opinion:

3- Seb Coe 2 olympic gold, 2 olympic silver (before world championship era)

5- Lasse Viren only man in history to win 5k/10k double gold in back to back olympics, then in 1976 he jumped in the marathon last second and took 5th place in his first ever marathon (4th if you remove the doper Cierpinski)

We can also say that these guys faced watered down competition.

Viren doubled in 1976 without African Nations in the games. Coe won some medals in 80 without some African nations.

I think boycotts and who was in the race need to be considered.

Soprano wrote:

I think Haile is way more charismatic even though English isn't his first language. Come on, how can you beat that smile?

Personally, big fan of Haile, got sick of him and his "age is just a number" blah. It's not. Not sure if he was too dumb to realize this or if he was trying to fool everyone else.

I also don't think Mo's English is that great, rather thick African accent considering he basically grew up in the UK. Yes, his English is better than Meb's but that doesn't say much...

He is the greatest indoor two miler of all time. That's it!

Random Dude wrote:

Who is ahead of Mo:

3. Cierpinski - winning back to back OG in the Marathon is insane

The only 'greatest of all time' list Cierpinski is on is 'greatest dopers of all time who got away with it'

reader of the forums wrote:

The only 'greatest of all time' list Cierpinski is on is 'greatest dopers of all time who got away with it'

What about Frank Shorter?

Random Dude wrote:

reader of the forums wrote:

The only 'greatest of all time' list Cierpinski is on is 'greatest dopers of all time who got away with it'

What about Frank Shorter?

At least Frank never got caught.

Dingler wrote:

Haile Fan wrote:

Bekele's ability to double-back and beat a group of FRESH Kenyans the next day in multiple WXC's was really, really impressive. Still surprised he was able to do it multiple times (2 or 3?).

Try 5 times!

Or, to show a bit less social retardation, one could JUST say, "5 times!"

A slow day on letsrun wrote:

Since when did a silly squabble in your office become headline news?

This is an argument precisely NO ONE else is having

Even by letsrun standards this is lame

But minus Farah, it's still a fun (if repetitive) discussion to have (Haile, Geb, etc.). Sorry if we're boring you......

Haile Fan wrote:

Dingler wrote:

Try 5 times!

Or, to show a bit less social retardation, one could JUST say, "5 times!"

....but thanks for clarifying.

lol bc he's still better than you and always will be regardless of what point you make.

Guys, aren't we forgetting that Mo is the only runner, in fact the only *person*, who has beaten the cube?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiUjhI4VAQc

Yeh, think about that for a while Kenny boy.

A slow day on letsrun wrote:

Since when did a silly squabble in your office become headline news?

This is an argument precisely NO ONE else is having

Even by letsrun standards this is lame

The argument isn't whether Mo GOAT now but whether he could be by 2016 or 2017.

And by the amount of people chiming in on this thread, I think it is an interesting topic. I've quite enjoyed it.

wejo wrote:

A slow day on letsrun wrote:

Since when did a silly squabble in your office become headline news?

This is an argument precisely NO ONE else is having

Even by letsrun standards this is lame

The argument isn't whether Mo GOAT now but whether he could be by 2016 or 2017.

And by the amount of people chiming in on this thread, I think it is an interesting topic. I've quite enjoyed it.

No way. Look at the other stats. Both Kenny B & Haile G. are tied with the most sub 27 10ks with 9. By my count Mo has 1 (i could be wrong)

Let's not forget 2003 WC where both KB and HG covered the final 5k of the 10,000M in sub 12:59.

Mo is a great racer. That's it.

You do not necessarily need Olympic Gold to be a GOAT but you do need several Golds in either WC or Olympics over a period of time and a record at your distance/s that stood or has tor long period of time. Thats why Kipketer is the GOAT at 800m. Farah needs a Gold in Beijing and Rio to demonstrate his longevity, an outdoor WR at 3000m/ 2 miles/ 5000m/10000m. Any of those will do, all of them would be better. If he could also medal at either 1500m or marathon in the future then he would surpass being a GOAT at his specialities and become a GDROAT. Greatest Distance runner of all time. Like Coe is the greatest MD of all time but not the greatest 800m runner of all time. He would also be GOAT over his best distances of course. Then after all of that he can start training with Arsenal because we sure do need him.

Mo is a great runner but I give the credit to Salazar. He knew all those championship races would be super slow. So 90% of his training was middle distance stuff. By the time the Olympics (and WC) came by, he was the greatest middle distance runner among the 5000/10000 field.

No way in hell he would have won a rabbited race under 12:50/26:50 at that time.

His luck was that none of the Africans sacrificed himself and sped up.

I'll argue that by the time Mo is done, Lagat will be higher on the GOAT list than Mo. If it wasn't for El G he would be the greatest 1500m runner ever (surely up for debate, but look at his success and pr). Also, like Geb, Lagat has been around forever now. He's been among the best of the world for the past 15 years. Top GOAT would be Bekele/Geb - El G - Lagat/Tergat. Mo won't be included in the top 5 by the time it's over