westsouthrunner wrote:
Coevett wrote:
Utter stupidity.
You think comparing simple times in completely different shoes, tracks, competition, training knowledge is objective?
Let's be generous and assume Alan Webb wasn't on EPO or HGH - didn't he have at least 4 or 5 full throttle EPO guys, including the greatest of them all, to drag him to his HS mile record?
Ryun competed with Keino, who was probably more doped than Kiprop.
He wasn't a world champion because they didn't start until 83.
I stopped reading your comment after that.
Ok so you think the BEST runners existed over 50 years ago and no one superior came since then.
I was trying to move away from times since no one knows on what someone like Ryun would have run in rubber/mondo in shoes like the zoom victories.
I wasn't comparing Webb and Ryun's run by the way. We will never know who is doping so at least just compare the performances for what they were lol. But Webb did clearly have more range.
But what I was trying to compare was dominance for what it truly was. Ryun didn't have the equivalent of lagat/ El G, Kiprop to compete against and obviously in those years the record was much softer than it is now. I think instead of giving more credit to older guys for breaking weaker records we should give more credit to modern runners for coming close to the current record. No highschool boy could even fathom running a world record in 2020. People like Keljecha and Jakob are insane talents and they still are not close. Lastly when I said World champion I also meant olympic champion. those are the same to me. I know that is an opinion but still. Exact same people competing for both titles on a yearly basis.
Being the best in your era tops "good-but-second best" - or even less - in any other era. Ryun not only absolutely destroyed the then world marks but at his peak in '66/67 completely dominated one of the legends in the sport of Kip Keino.
Quite apart from the improvements in tracks, shoes and spikes in recent years, I wouldn't give a cent that the top of the sport has been clean in decades. That is why modern performances seem so out of reach.