Would Steve Ovett be competitive today?

He had a steak and chip before his 800m gold!

Have you ever read the story from Bill Rogers where he'd wake up in the middle of the night so hungry that he ate mayonnaise by the spoonful?

There were no supplements and the only sports drink was that old style Gatorade that tasted like sweat.

We've come a long way with nutrition in general and sports nutrition.

Even that would put Ovett on 3:28xx for 15000m. That alone puts you right in the mix nowadays

Then factor in faster tracks better pacing more top level races better phyios

He would finish last.

What I remember from those days is that nobody in any sport besides wrestling paid a lot of attention to diet. And even wrestlers only paid attention to diet in order to cut weight.

Now days... every NCAA program has a nutrition and diet team. In football, it used to be eat all you want/can. Now, even those guys are on diets to achieve certain goals.

As far as running goes. Guys pretty much ate and drank what they wanted within reason. Now days they are on pretty strict regimens.

As much as anything... Back then... it was a pain in the but to do a body composition test. (underwater weighing or skin fold estimates were your options). People really didn't know you could manipulate your VO2 max upward by losing weight because people didn't get tested more than a time or two in their lives. Lactate levels required a full blow blood draw.

Now days you can step on a scale and get your body fat percentage. You can get a VO2 test without much difficulty. Do it yourself lactate levels are available.

Things are simply more detailed. Including diet.

What do you think Wanyonyi, Sedjati, and Arop would run for the 5000m today?

If shoes + tracks, wavelights, and bicarb give 2 seconds over 800, 4 seconds over 1500m, and 20 seconds over 5000m, his equivalent pbs would be 1:42.0, 3:26, and 13:00. He never even approached his potential in terms of times at 800m or 5000m.

His 800m in Moscow clearly showed he was at or close to sub 1:43 shape. He set his 3:30 WR after having a bit of his thigh removed and past his athletic peak. It was also a windy day, and most observers agree he would have been the first man under 3:30 if it had been calmer. He was confident in 1986 of breaking Aouita's 5000m WR, at the age of 30, but then after the Commonwealths he became ill again and was never the same.

With super shoes and even better tracks he would be a force to be reckoned with. Ran a 1:44.09 800, a 3:30.77 1500 and a 3:48.4 mile back in the early to mid 80's.

Let's put it like this.

Hocker is a fantastic gold medallist but my money would be on Steve to win most of the time.

Ovett and Coe - both overrated.

He's way too old.

So no

It depends on what you define as competitive. If it means winning gold, certainly not. But if it means making an Olympic final and winning the occasional international race, then yes of course. The effect the shoes have on 1500m/mile times are only fractions. Ovett would not be the best today, but definitely up there.

Ovett would be really good, but to say he would be running 1:42.0 seems kinda crazy to me. A contemporary of his DID run 1:41.7. I think we all believe Coe could run right at the World Record with the improvements and perhaps a smudge faster, and Ovett surely left some time on the table in both the 1500 and 800 (unlike Coe in the 800). 1:42-high and 3:28pt seem like more realistic targets for Ovett with the caveat that he might train differently in the contemporary environment and the guy was a great racer.

More than just the fast last lap....

Cram ran his mile WR as a tactical race, looking around, slowing down, speeding up etc. Let that sink in. Not a hint of a time trial.

I have no doubt Cram could have run 3:26 and 3:43 under modern conditions - and probably was good for 3:44 high the night of his mile WR. I think he said himself he couldn't run much faster than he did in the 800m but could have run a lot faster in the 1,500m if he had trained better.