What distance runner has the best running form of all time?

Centrowitz

Bekele on an XC course

Kajelcha looks great, him or bekele for me.

You all mentioned most of the people I thought of: Geb, Kipchoge, Coe, Rudisha, Lopes, Shorter, Kipketer. On the men's side, I would add Khalid Khannouchi and Arturo Barrios. There are fewer people I think of on the women's side, perhaps in part because Gidey is so stunningly good form-wise; but, of recent runners (though arguably not belonging in a distance running discussion), Sydney McLaughlin looks great in an open 400. Perhaps this is obvious, but I have *never* seen an unknown recreational runner that even approaches the form of any of these.

Kejelcha is beautiful in full flight.

It’s not just the style. More how remorseless he is.

Why yes they certainly do! Efficient.

Eric Holt

silky wilky

Totally subjective! Almost everything *but* form affects how we feel about a runner. Sydney looks like a Gazelle to many. Nuguse looks like a wounded goose to others. So many styles and forms! Zatopek looked like he was doing stations-of-the-cross.
(shift)

Dizzy Gillespie looks like exactly what trumpet players were taught *not to do.* Miles pointed his horn to the floor (except for album covers that did not like his “form.”

Good form is a good thing to teach and recognize. But faulting someone—especially the winner—because you don’t like their stride or arm carriage (as recently was a thread here about a hs girl,s stride) is unfair and fatuous.

The toes-inward, low-back-kick gait pretty much describes Alberto Salazar's form when he was running his best. I think Jack Daniels said that Salazar had the best running economy of all the runners Daniels tested.

The long-striding runners are a thing of beauty:

Konstanze Klosterhalfen
Yomif Kejelcha

Asbel Kiprop

Josh Kerr (Doesn't have skinny legs like the 3 above but runs with a slow cadence that looks cool)

Ryan Hall. It’s probably janky now with all that added muscle mass.

Hands down it is Matt "you can't smoke" Debole

Livio Berruti.

Thats BER-RU-TI prego!

Grasshoppers ... behold the quality of the 1960 film print from Roma...

Emile Zatopek

I couldn't tell you but I can tell you Connor Mantz has the ugliest running form I have ever seen!!

Agreed. He looked pretty good when he was winning triple gold in Helsinki.

Alberto Salazar also looked pretty good when he set the world record for the marathon.

Top 5 Men:

1. Hicham el guerrouj (Morocco)

2. Kenenisa Bekele (Ethiopia)

3. Andreas Almgren (Sweden)

4. Pekka Vasala (Finland)

5. Nick Willis (New Zeeland)

Top 5 Women:

1. Faith Kipyegon (Kenya)

2. Tirunesh Dibaba (Ethiopia)

3. Keely Hodgkinson (Great Britain)

4. Letesenbet gidey (Ethiopia)

5. Beatrice Chebet (Kenya)

on the men's side: Zersenay Tadese

why? because last I checked, he has the best running economy ever measured.

Zatopek:

I will run with perfect style when they start judging races for their beauty, like figure-skating. For now, I just want to run as fast as possible.

From Barnes & Kilding:

sportsmedicine-open.springeropen.com

Running economy: measurement, norms, and determining factors - Sports Medicine - Open

Running economy (RE) is considered an important physiological measure for endurance athletes, especially distance runners. This review considers 1) how RE is defined and measured and 2) physiological and biomechanical factors...

Open link

“The lowest reported value for VO2 at 16 km hr−1 is 39.0 ml.kg-1.min−1
in an individual East African runner, capable of running 1500 m in 3:35 with a
VO2max of only 63 ml.kg-1.min−1 [19]. However, the current Men’s Half Marathon
World Record holder’s (Tadese Zerisenay, 58 min 23 s; VO2max= 83.0 ml.kg-1.min−1)
RE was measured at 150 ml.kg-1.km −1 at 19 km.hr−1 (317 m.min−1) which is
equivalent to 40.0 ml.kg-1.min−1 at 16 km.hr−1 or 48.2% relative intensity of
effort compared to 61.9% of the aforementioned athletes VO2max [26].”

refs [19] and [26] are provided in B&K

On the women's side, there is far less data. Radcliffe had 175 ml/kg/km