Who is the fastest person who is famous for something else?

Irony meter goes BOOM! wrote:

3:55 for 1500 metres, mate.

When and where "mate"?

Renaldo Nehemiah. Was the WR holder in the hurdles, but in many circles was better known as a 49er.

http://fasttwitchpro.com/runsf/sfstars.htm

Somewhat arguable--9.0 wind aided in 1971. 1st at US Nats. 10.2 PR with a legal wind. Ranked 6th in world for 100m in 1971. My point, is that he was more than just "a good runner."Source Track and Field News.comhttp://www.trackandfieldnews.com/tfn/archive/results.jsp?sex=M&disciplineId=1&id=11974 F: 100 meters; S/F: 9/9; D: 21 JUN; W: +2.9 mph 1. Steve Williams 9.9 MR,=AR,=WR 2. Don Quarrie (JAM) 10.0 3. Reggie Jones 10.1 4. Steve Riddick 10.1 5. Mark Lutz 10.2 6. Delano Meriweather 10.2 1973 F: 100 yards; S/F: 8/8; D: 15 JUN; W: 0.00 mph 1. Steve Williams 9.4 2. Herb Washington 9.4 3. Ivory Crockett 9.4 4. Ed Hammonds 9.6 5. Larry Brown 9.6 6. Willie Deckard 9.6 Heat 1 [-4.0 mph]: Williams 9.4. Semi-final 1 [0.00 mph]: Williams 9.2, Hammonds [2] 9.3, Robert J. Taylor [3] 9.4, Marshall Deckard [4] 9.4. Semi-final 2 [-2.4 mph]: Washington 9.3. 1972 F: 100 meters; S/F: 8/8; D: 16 JUN; W: -0.67 mph 1. Robert J. Taylor 10.2 2. Delano Meriweather 10.3 3. Herb Washington 10.3 4. Gerald Tinker 10.3 5. Roger Bambuck (FRA) 10.4 6. Ivory Crockett 10.4 1971 F: 100 yards; S/F: 8/8; D: 25 JUN; W: +6.55 mph 1. Delano Meriweather 9.0w (9.22) 2. Jim Greene 9.0w (9.23) 3. Don Quarrie (JAM) 9.1w (9.24) 4. Charles Greene 9.1w (9.29) 5. Ivory Crockett 9.2w (9.34) 6. Bobby Turner 9.2w (9.35)

Drew Eckmann wrote:

armdog wrote:

Dr. Delano Meriweather, noted hematologist, ran 9.0 for 100 yards in early 1970s.

While a good runner (mostly indoors) Meriweather's P.R. was 9.3 at best.

wasnt one of the policemen implicated in the tupac shakur shooting also a US international 800m runner? David Mack rings a bell, but not a very loud one . . . . .

Here's a candidate, or an honorable mention.

Bob Varsha is part of the broadcast team that does all of the Formula 1 auto races for the US audience on Speed TV. He's basically the "voice" of F1 in the US. He and his team do a great job.

Back in the day, he ran for Atlanta Track Club and ran 2:21 for 13th at Boston in 1977. He was once the RD of the Peachtree Road Race.

http://www.speedtv.com/speed/bio/149/

Actually, Varsha was better than that. He ran 2:15:50 for sixth place at the 1976 Olympic trials.

Varsha, however, is one of those who parlayed his running career into a slightly different field -- in his case, sports broadcasting. You could add Liquori, Shorter, Kenny Moore, and lots of others to that list.

Oh, and I do realize that Varsha has expanded his sports broadcasting career beyond running.

Bernoulz gets it exactly right: from the pool of people who are famous/well known in public discourse, who has run the fastest? Also, a the very least, we probably should have a separate category for famous athletes from other sports- the Nehemiahs and O.J.s. (although, come to think of it, O.J. is now more famous for something other than football).

Bernoulz wrote:

Not exactly. The question is, "who is the fastest person who is famous for something else?" not ALSO famous for something else. There is a difference. It seems to mean, therefore, that the person in question is not famous for running. Instead, they are famous for something else.

Officer Riggs aka Mel Gibson - he nearly ran down a car on the on ramp leading to a freeway - that is fast. No official times were submitted but no question he is the fastest celeb.

malmo wrote:

Image:

http://i8.tinypic.com/2ypm1jn.jpg

Image:

http://i17.tinypic.com/40ljo78.jpg

Thank you. This is all I needed.

just to correct myself even though nobody seems to have aken up the idea, david mack was a 1:43.8 800m runner, who missed out on the 84 olympics because of injury, who went on to serve in the lapd, but is currently serving 14 years for a bank robbery and was implicated in the murder of the notorious B.I.G.

that's pretty famous (im sure lots of people have heard of his criminal activities but not his running) and pretty quick too!

Matthew Parris is a columnist and former MP and ran the London Marathon in 2:38. Not too shabby.

Michael Holding, the famous West Indian cricketer, was once the Jamacian 400m champion I believe.

For those Aussies out there, I used to train with Mark Semour, lead singer of hunters and collecters, who ran mid to low 14s for 5k

OJ Simpson

enough said

I'm not really buying that David Mack is well-known at all, but if we did it looks like we have at this point:

#1 The guy who wrote a book about "how he WOULD have killed his wife, IF he had done it"

#2 Writer of sappy novels (pending confirmation of 800 times)

#3 Cop turned convicted murderer.

This thread is not going necessarily in the way I had hoped for....

david mack isnt a convicted murderer he's a convicted bank robber. mainly due to a very large cover up by the LAPD though! and people dont just become famous for doing good deeds do they, you should have specified you wanted athletes who were laso famous for doung something else honourable and wholesome if you just wanted bannister style amazing athletes and neurosurgeons

Bumping just in case...

Why are there four current threads on this topic?

Not a thread on track or speedsters, but this thread has a nice list of celebrities who have run marathons with their respective times to beat.

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=1808567&page=0