Are there any distance runners that are well-known among the average person?

Not a distance runner but Kaitlyn Jenner is the most famous track and field athlete in the world right now.

Yes, there's a well-known slow runner who pretends to be a high schooler, litters this message board with crappy troll threads, and he's actually a 49 year-old, unhappily married man who lost his job recently

When people at work find out I'm a runner they frequently ask if I know about that "Kenyan guy" that broke 2:00 in the marathon.

He's apparently the best known among non runners, and not a single person I've met could pick his name out of other generic Kenyan names on a multiple choice test.

A while ago I quizzed some people at work and asked them if they knew, without looking it up, who ran the first sub-4 minute mile.

No one did.

Distance runners are far more obscure than you'd believe.

I would say possibly Jim Ryan and Steve Prefontaine, but only among older people because they both made the cover of Sports Illustrated.

SI was really much more important and had more influence over the average person in the 60s and 70s, when many popular specialty magazines or the internet did not exist. Ryan made the cover three times, Pre once.

Coe made the cover for the 1980 Olympics, but few in the US noticed as he was not from the US (SI primarily focuses on US sports and I am focusing on the average person in the US, and the US boycotted the 1980 Olympics)

You have to be old to remember those, as Ryan was on the cover in the 60's and Pre 1970.

For most other distance runners, their fame/notatiery came from who they are or what happened to them while running.

POTUS Jimmy Carter collapsing during a race in 1979. Or POTUS Bill Clinton 'jogging'. Yes they moved at a pace and motion that was faster than/beyond walking, and they did it for more than a mile so it was distance.

Many media celebrities receive some popular attention for running, such as Oprah, some actors and movie stars, and former media darling Lance Armstrong. Normally only if they finish a big marathon, preferably NYC Marathon.

The average person may remember news stories of bad things that happened to people while running, but they will not remember names. Women getting raped, killed, kidnapped while out running. Woman disappearing in WY and man in AK during Mt. Marathon when running. Guy getting chased and killed in GA while running

Say his name/remember him: Amaud Arbery,

a friend of mine who’s never ran knows Kipchoge, Farah and Hicham El Guerroujj

Name an Olympic athlete that is clean???

a lot of people know about the 1 mile distance so they probably would want to know who has the record

Not a distance runner, but Allyson Felix is well-known by many non-runners IMO.

I'd speculate that most average Americans could name 1-5 distance runners if talking past or present runners. 0-2 if asked to name current runners.

You guys are absolutely crazy or have a weird definition of "average person". Average person would probably mean at least 50% of the population. Given that over 50% of the population aren't even into sports at all, the only sports stars the average person would know are people who transcend sports - think Jordan level. There are literally no distance runners that come even close to that level. Not even 50% of the runners at any of the running clubs I frequent know Kipchoge, so how would the average non runner ever hear about these guys?

times are different wrote:

You guys are absolutely crazy or have a weird definition of "average person". Average person would probably mean at least 50% of the population. Given that over 50% of the population aren't even into sports at all, the only sports stars the average person would know are people who transcend sports - think Jordan level. There are literally no distance runners that come even close to that level. Not even 50% of the runners at any of the running clubs I frequent know Kipchoge, so how would the average non runner ever hear about these guys?

Honestly, sadly, this is the correct answer.

this and this wrote:

I would say possibly Jim Ryan and Steve Prefontaine, but only among older people because they both made the cover of Sports Illustrated.

SI was really much more important and had more influence over the average person in the 60s and 70s, when many popular specialty magazines or the internet did not exist. Ryan made the cover three times, Pre once.

I agree with you about SI. Do you know who was on the cover of SI the week after the Philadelphia Phillies (the oldest team in baseball) won their first World Series in 1980?

Alberto Salazar after his debut Marathon win in the 1980 NYC Marathon.

(Shorter, Rodgers, Steve Scott, and Coghlan also made the cover during the 70s and 80s.)

david45 wrote:

For sprinting, most people can name a couple of well-known sprinters. Yet for distance running, I am willing to bet the average person has never heard of a single person. I personally didn't until recently. Are there any distance runners that are well-known among the average person? Is someone like Mo Farah well-known among most people in the UK?

Where I work a lot of my co workers know a lot of the top runners names but that’s because my job has Hired a lot of Ex D1 runners. My 5k Pr wouldn’t even place me in the top 30 of the employees currently employed. Granted we have almost 3,000 employees And I’ve ran sub 15:30(not impressive I know) but still it’s all about the environment your in

Nutsack McGee wrote:

I think that Prefontaine is the only name that is well known among distance runners. If someone doesn't known that one, they aren't going to know any others. I would guess that 4-5 out of 10 people would know of Pre.

Next is probably actually Alexi Pappas. I knew that name somehow. I didn't know that she was a distance runner or anything about her, but somehow I recognized the name. 2 out of 10 people may have heard of her.

The names Mo Farrah, Katelyn Touhy, and Roger Bannister are honorable mentions, but at least 9 out of 10 people wouldn't know who they were.

To revise this: Despite other speculation in this thread, I would add Ryun, Webb, Shorter, Salazar, Rodgers, Kipchoge, and Bekele to list that less than 1 out of 20 people would know.

There are a few names of well-known "runners" that I did think of that may be more well known than Pre:

Philippides: A lot of kids learn who this is in middle school history class. This is probably the second most well-known runner.

Phil Knight: Maybe 1 out of 10 people would know that Phil Knight is a founder of Nike.

Lance Armstrong: Everyone knows who Lance Armstrong is. He does triathlons now, so call him a runner.

Filbert Bayi, 1975

https://vault.si.com/.image/t_share/MTY5MDk4NjA1MzUzMTgyNjgz/43297---cover-thumbnail-image.jpg

I haven't read much of this thread, but even in the major sports, the average person wouldn't be able to identify five pro baseball, basketball, or football players if seen in street clothes walking through their local mall, and I would be one of them.

nick symonds had some youtube video trying to get people in Eugene to name the Next% shoe (maybe it was 4% I forget tbh) and if they got it right he would buy them a pair. It took forever for anyone to get it right and I think that's similar if he had gone around seeing if they could name a famous distance runner. And this was in Eugene, pretty known running city in the country and most people in the video looked moderately fit

Fact of matter is the average person in the US doesn't know famous distance runners outside of the 1-2 weeks following a great performance. They may recognize Meb, Kipchoge and others but they couldn't come up with the name on their own.

Also to the person who said Pre would be one of the more known US distance runners. Fat chance. Maybe some people from that time period when he was big but unless you are a runner you don't know Pre either. Better chance of knowing Mo, Meb, or Kipchoge

Redonculous Maximus wrote:

Not a distance runner but Kaitlyn Jenner is the most famous track and field athlete in the world right now.

Is it spelled with a C or a K? Any relation to Bruce?

The Scot wrote:

Certainly in the UK it would be Mo and Paula. Mo is all over the news every time he wins. Geb or Kenny no. Kipchoge? They probably remember his run, not sure if they could remember the name.

Farah is definitely well known in the UK. He has a good story and won a shedload of global gold medals. He even won BBC Sports Personality of the Year, literally a nationwide popularity contest.

After Farah, almost no other current distance athletes have name recognition. Who knows Callum Hawkins? A guy who has finished 4th at the last two World Championships in the marathon. It's bad, we don't do anything to promote athletes in the UK. Even the running podcasts focus more on celebrity runners or people doing "offbeat" running challenges rather than elite racing