Viren, Nurmi, Zatopek?
Viren, Nurmi, Zatopek?
Probably Komen.
Disko Eric wrote:
Viren, Nurmi, Zatopek?
I’m curious too, since I wasn’t cognizant of these things until the 2000s, but I tend to doubt there’s a unanimous decision. Your three are strong candidates. Rono, Yifter and Bikila may have gotten a few votes—Marc Bloom probably would say Shorter.
Zátopek would be my pick, but I’d be interested in hearing from those who followed the sport in those pre-95ish days.
Aouita
Disko Eric wrote:
Viren, Nurmi, Zatopek?
An interesting question especially in light of the fact that few runners have performed at the world class level from 1500m all the way to the marathon (like Haile). Nurmi never made his mark in the marathon while Zatopek did not excel at the 1500m. One could say that the marathon was just coming of age during the time of both Nurmi and Zatopek.
In addition to range, we should consider world records, major titles (particularly Olympic) and longevity.
Nurmi might have accumulated more Olympic gold had he not been banned from the 1932 games for being a professional. Zatopek was already almost 26 by the time he ran in his first Olympics in 1948.
Check out their individual Wikipedia articles and be the judge.
Pre
Viren with maybe an honorable mention to Zatopek and Shorter.
Not Nurmi. No way. His era was soft, so soft history has almost forgotten there was a fast era before it.
Read about that era and it will become clear the olympics nearly destroyed the sport of running.
How about Ron Clarke? No major victories but plenty of World Records how horrible tracks.
Tergat
malmo wrote:
Aouita
I thought about Aouita. He was probably the first runner I knew of. The doping suspicion had me on the fence.
Viren or Rono?
Aouita, easy.
Range.
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seb Coe
malmo wrote:
Aouita
There was a time where Aouita simultaneously held the world record in the 1500m, 2000m, 2 mile, 3000m and 5000m.
Plus he had an Olympic medal in the 800 and a number 1 world ranking in the 10,000.
Any in consideration of greatest ever will have a doping suspicion.
Morceli at one point held world records at 1500m, Mile, 2000m, and 3000m. 1:44 for 800m, 2:13 1k, and 13:03 for 5k before sub-13 was very common. Also 3x outdoor world champion and 1x Olympic Gold. Lowered the world record in 1500m and Mile by the largest margins since Jim Ryun. Until Goerrouj came along had almost zero competition. His coach said they presented the IAAF with an idea for an artificial pacemaker on rails (like the one the camera moves along beside the track) in order to break 3:27 for 1500m, since they couldn’t find a pacemaker to go 1200m at world record pace. The idea was denied, just like they fought against wavelight technology initially. Once he was in his prime, the first person to be able to give him a serious run for his money was Komen at 3k. Had he overlapped more with Guerrouj and Ngeny we might have seen one of them run under 3:26.
Rono? He did not have the Olympic glory or longevity at the top but what a run in 1978.