LRC women's world rankings - Seidel not even top 10?

The Olympic marathon is almost meaningless. The race was in terrible conditions and the better countries could only bring 3 athletes. She’s not a top 10 marathoner in the world

High hopes wrote:

Enjoyed reading the rankings but it's crazy that Molly Seidel doesn't make the world top 10. An Olympic bronze and 4th in New York gives Seidel a much better year than Bekere (3rd London, ranked 6th), Jelagat (1st in a weak Valencia field, ranked 8th), and Gebreslase (1st in a weak Berlin field, 9th on the list).

I think you definitely over-weighted times compared to results in the big events in the marathon list, e.g. Angela Tanui placing third for winning a bunch of B-grade races but Brigid Kosgei 4th after winning Olympic silver and taking 2nd in a loaded London.

Molly is close, I have her at 11 or 12. She needed to finish one higher in New York to back up the bronze. A debutant and Yeshaneh ran away from her between 30 and 40k. I think she is likely to finish fifth when Boston comes around, which is ok as there are 8 or 9 quicker than her in the entry list, including Sara.

briswiss wrote:

The Olympic marathon is almost meaningless. The race was in terrible conditions and the better countries could only bring 3 athletes. She’s not a top 10 marathoner in the world

And still only two of them finished in front of her. The Olympic marathon is definitely not meaningless, every top athlete in every country wanted to be there.

Based on results in top tier races, I think Seidel deserves a spot in the top 10 for last year.

I agree -- feels like she's getting dinged for not running fast but 3rd at the Olympics in gross conditions + 4th at NYC (American course record) in a solid field seems like a good year to me.

Seems like she's having the same problem as Rupp. Is she "only" a 2:24 marathoner. No doubt she could go a lot faster. But now she's going to follow the Boston/NYC/Worlds/Olympics/Olympic Trials pattern. She might never run fast enough for some people to look past.

Because she is following the pattern of least resistance. Its way easier to.be good in races vs other amercans than vs africans.

High hopes wrote:

briswiss wrote:

The Olympic marathon is almost meaningless. The race was in terrible conditions and the better countries could only bring 3 athletes. She’s not a top 10 marathoner in the world

And still only two of them finished in front of her. The Olympic marathon is definitely not meaningless, every top athlete in every country wanted to be there.

Based on results in top tier races, I think Seidel deserves a spot in the top 10 for last year.

Having a top 10 year is significantly different than being a top 10 marathoner. Put her in a race with every top marathoner in the world in good conditions and no trials to qualify and she isn’t breaking top 15

The Packers lost to Detroit last week.

That wasn't their list of WORLD rankings, it was only how they organized the entrants in Boston.

...my mistake, it was world rankings.

briswiss wrote:

High hopes wrote:

And still only two of them finished in front of her. The Olympic marathon is definitely not meaningless, every top athlete in every country wanted to be there.

Based on results in top tier races, I think Seidel deserves a spot in the top 10 for last year.

Having a top 10 year is significantly different than being a top 10 marathoner. Put her in a race with every top marathoner in the world in good conditions and no trials to qualify and she isn’t breaking top 15

Actually, it really isn't. The LRC rankings were for 2021. Last year, I would strongly argue that Seidel had a marathon racing record that is among the top 10. As the article states, the top two criteria for ranking athletes was their performances in the big races. Nothing is bigger than the Olympics, and NY is arguably the second most important WMM. Does anyone really think winning some two-bit marathon in a minor European city is better than an Olympic medal?

Honestly, I kind of agree that if you lined up all the best marathoners in the world in London, then Seidel probably doesn't finish top 10, but that's just my subjective opinion. If you lined them up in NY, maybe she still finishes top 10. In any case, that's not the argument, the argument is who had the best results last year and I think there are at least three people on the LRC list who had less impressive years than Molly Seidel

Performances at the olympics are overrated and overweighted due to artificial scarcity.

Time is more important than location.

All the top women marathoners in a race, your life on the line, would you get on Molly getting top 10?

juvie wrote:

All the top women marathoners in a race, your life on the line, would you get on Molly getting top 10?

Nope. But that's not the point of the rankings. The point of the rankings is to try and show who had the best race results last year. Life on the line, can you honestly say that if you could swap places, you would rather have had Ashete Bekere's 2021 marathon results than Molly Seidel's? Or Gotytom Gebreslase's or even Degitu Azimeraw's? Maybe you would, but for me, I'd rather be walking around as the Olympic bronze medalist and 4th in NY than someone who came second or third in London.

I'll also add that LRC doesn't seem to have penalized Grant Fisher in the same way they have Seidel for running slow times. Somehow, Fisher is ranked the 6th best 10k runner of 2021 based entirely on his Olympic performance. Is anyone going to sit there and tell me they think there are Granted only 5 people in the world right now who can beat Fisher over 10k? At least Seidel's times brought her an Olympic medal, Fisher seems to be getting a lot more respect for finishing 5th

Fisher ran the 13th best time of the year 40 seconds off 1st while Seidel ran 59th best at 7 minutes behind.

juvie wrote:

All the top women marathoners in a race, your life on the line, would you get on Molly getting top 10?

As opposed to putting my life on her not being top 10?? Yeah I’m putting it on top 10.

Bower Man wrote:

Fisher ran the 13th best time of the year 40 seconds off 1st while Seidel ran 59th best at 7 minutes behind.

Who's got the medal, bro?

juvie wrote:

All the top women marathoners in a race, your life on the line, would you get on Molly getting top 10?

In less than ideal conditions, there are not 10 others that I would rather bet my life on.

High hopes wrote:

Bower Man wrote:

Fisher ran the 13th best time of the year 40 seconds off 1st while Seidel ran 59th best at 7 minutes behind.

Who's got the medal, bro?

Medals dont mean anything.