my two pennies wrote:
Most disliked can mean two things. One, the athlete with the most people disliking them (irrespective of positive feelings, really this is mostly about fame/infamy). Or two, the athlete with the highest percentage of people disliking them (still requires people to know them, as opposed to apathy, but also requires very few positive sentiments).
For the first, I will go with Noah Lyles, because despite all of his fans, he is one of the only track athletes to go mainstream famous, and he went mainstream famous for negative comments against the NBA, so he has A LOT of NBA fans that hate on him (just look at the social media reactions after he lost the Paris 200m). Lots of fans, lots of haters, and the poster child for "no such thing as bad publicity".
The second is a bit harder. It needs to be someone who was good enough for people to develop an opinion on them, but not so good that their ability alone biases people against them, and they need to have high-profile negative press against them (doping mostly, but can be other things, like The Fall). Mo Katir sort of fits the bill, but I imagine there is still a lot of apathy about him. Once upon a time this would've been Gatlin, but he got a redemption arc. Honestly, I think I'm going to go with Kratochvilova, her name is synonymous with doping, she owns by far the dirtiest record on the books. I don't think track is popular in the Czech Republic, and even if it was I'm not sure they would look favorably on a reminder of Soviet occupation. Genuinely don't know who would view her positively. Ben Johnson maybe a close second, but these days there is a lot of apathy (since he has no records).
And to add to the contraversy around Jarmila Kratochvílová is her 1:53.28 had no pacers. It was effectively a solo time trial. It is the longest standing record in all of track and field. But she ran before so many modern day track fans were even born, so not many people know of her besided a name in the record books. Its a good choice for the second type of hated runner.
