golden man wrote:
When your post doesn’t even mention Shorter, why even bother making this thread?
Exactly
Shorter by far.
golden man wrote:
When your post doesn’t even mention Shorter, why even bother making this thread?
Exactly
Shorter by far.
It's really not necessary to mention that every other runner of DeMar's era was doing what he did. I think we all did. The point is that it's very difficult to do what the OP suggests and adjust for eras in anything other than a subjective way. There are statisticians who make such comparisons but none seem to be on this thread. When most of us get into these kinds of discussions we set our own criteria for what constitutes "best." Tom's claim of DeMar is as good as anyone else's claims of anyone else and a recognition of someone whose name is generally by passed because he's been gone for so long.
Matt carpenter. No one will take his pikes peak record down.
Men: debatable between Shorter and Rodgers. Since Shorter should have been the only legit 2 x Olympic gold in marathon besides Bikila, I vouch for him. Women: Joan Benoit Samuelson, no debate needed.
This one goes up to eleven:
1. Joan Benoit Samuelson
2. Frank Shorter
3. Bill Rodgers
4. Deena Kastor
5. Meb Keflezighi
6. Alberto Salazar
7. Khalid Khannouchi
8. Galen Rupp
9. Shalane Flanagan
10. Des Linden
11. Ryan Hall
For Khannouchi, I am only counting what he did after becoming a U.S. citizen.
John Wesley Harding wrote:
This one goes up to eleven:
1. Joan Benoit Samuelson
2. Frank Shorter
3. Bill Rodgers
4. Deena Kastor
5. Meb Keflezighi
6. Alberto Salazar
7. Khalid Khannouchi
8. Galen Rupp
9. Shalane Flanagan
10. Des Linden
11. Ryan Hall
For Khannouchi, I am only counting what he did after becoming a U.S. citizen.
I think Mark Plaatjes would be ahead of Ryan Hall due to being a World Champion at the distance. I might even place him ahead of Galen Rupp as Galen is no faster in relative terms and hasn’t proven he can be a champion.
There is no indefensible ranking on this list. Well done.