Are there any distance runners that are well-known among the average person?

Probably Suzy favor Hamilton for her racy instagram photos and Ryan Hall for Instagram too.

Usain Bolt and Carl Lewis are both athletes most people know. Most people never heard of Bekele or Kipchoge

Everyone in the UK knows Mo Farah.

Most people into sports/athletics know Kipchoge since 1:59.

Everyone in the UK knows Paula Radcliffe.

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Everyone in the UK knows Mo Farah.

Most people into sports/athletics know Kipchoge since 1:59.

Everyone in the UK knows Paula Radcliffe.

Why is Mo Farah so well-known? Nobody has ever heard of Rupp in the US outside those deeply interested in running.

david45 wrote:

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Everyone in the UK knows Mo Farah.

Most people into sports/athletics know Kipchoge since 1:59.

Everyone in the UK knows Paula Radcliffe.

Why is Mo Farah so well-known? Nobody has ever heard of Rupp in the US outside those deeply interested in running.

Because Farah won almost every major championship from 2011 to 2017, and totally dominated the olympics in that time.

No chance he was clean but whatever.

Pre-Sub 2 was no one. Sub 2 more people know about Kipchoge, would say average person probably has heard of him now

I think before that the most known long distance athlete for the average person was Geb

Wouldn't say the average person knew him but relatively probably the most famous long distance athlete that most people knew that i could think of

Bekele never really seemed to make the same average person impact

Back in the day, I believe the average sports fan had heard of Frank Shorter and Bill Rodgers (and possibly Salazar). The top milers were also known. This was because Sports Illustrated and the major networks covered running.

Sadly, I don't think someone who isn't involved in running could identify Kipchoge.

Certainly in the UK it would be Mo and Paula. Mo is all over the news every time he wins. Geb or Kenny no. Kipchoge? They probably remember his run, not sure if they could remember the name.

So Cal is alot different than the rest of the world.

Here in So Cal everyone does some sport regularly. \

In the rest of the world, sports is for TV viewing at home with a beer.

Almost everyone knows who So Cal natives Meb, Desi, Deena are.

Plus of course thousands of So Cal T&F Olympic medalists Lashinda Demus, Bryan Clay, John Carlos, Tommie Smith, Rafer Johnson, Allyson Felix, Johnnie Gray, ....

Good question. As far as elite runners, to the mainstream non-running average U.S., citizen. maybe just Steve Prefontaine has a little name recognition, but otherwise not anyone else currently. 40-48 years ago, I think a lot of people knew who Frank Shorter was. Bill Rodgers, Mary Decker, Joan Benoit, and maybe Grete Waits were probably somewhat known outside of the running commumity for a while, and I believe Jim Ryun was a well known name back in his day. There may be a few others but those are the ones that come to mind.

Letsrun is not the cool wrote:

david45 wrote:

Why is Mo Farah so well-known? Nobody has ever heard of Rupp in the US outside those deeply interested in running.

Because Farah won almost every major championship from 2011 to 2017, and totally dominated the olympics in that time.

No chance he was clean but whatever.

This is true but I would add that Mo won his first Olympic 10k/5k double IN LONDON. The 10k specifically was one of the first track events and the media in the UK had all eyes on him. Like his personality or not, he displayed one and also did the catchy “mobot” move a lot. Right place, right time, right guy and he dominated.

ddddaaaaaaaaaaa wrote:

So Cal is alot different than the rest of the world. OK

Here in So Cal everyone does some sport regularly. \ NO THEY DON'T

In the rest of the world, sports is for TV viewing at home with a beer. SO CAL TOO

Almost everyone knows who So Cal natives Meb, Desi, Deena are. NO THEY DON'T

Plus of course thousands of So Cal T&F Olympic medalists Lashinda Demus, Bryan Clay, John Carlos, Tommie Smith, Rafer Johnson, Allyson Felix, Johnnie Gray, ....NO THEY ESPECIALLY DON'T

In America? No.

Anywhere else? Yes

Kipchoge is a household name. I would say most people would know the name Shalane Flanagan.

I would venture to guess a lot of non-runners might know Sir Mo Farah and Galen Rupp, especially around olympic time . And people actually like Mary Cain (and would know the name), you know back when she was good... which is funny because Katelyn Tuohy is better but doesn't have NYTimes articles written about her.

If you think the "average person" in USA has ever heard of Kipchoge you're completely insane. An avid reader of sports websites may have caught wind of the sub-2 event but there would be nothing to distinguish him from any of the other sea of Africans dominating running for decades now.

The only correct answer is Ryan Hall because everyone knows how jacked he is now.

I bet more people know Emma Coburn than not. Jordan Hasay has been a household name since her high school days.

runfan2012 wrote:

I bet more people know Emma Coburn than not. Jordan Hasay has been a household name since her high school days.

No. No one outside of running fans knows who either of these runners are.

Agreed... maybe add Salazar to the list for the folks that were around in the 80's.

Cold hard truth wrote:

Kipchoge is a household name. I would say most people would know the name Shalane Flanagan.

I would venture to guess a lot of non-runners might know Sir Mo Farah and Galen Rupp, especially around olympic time . And people actually like Mary Cain (and would know the name), you know back when she was good... which is funny because Katelyn Tuohy is better but doesn't have NYTimes articles written about her.

I don't think the average person knows who any of these people are.