Most overrated runner ever?

This is one race Drew Hunter could win

Hey, Brooks PR Two Mile

Julien Wanders

1. Pre. (If he had not died young, there would not be a DL meet named after him.)

2. Bannister. (WR in a distance only a small minority of countries care about. Did not medal in his only Olympic appearance.)

3. Ryun. (Leo Manzano also won an Olympic silver medal and Emsley Carr Mile.)

Bannister broke 4 minutes when it was seen as a physical barrier. For those who say it is commonplace, many more people have climbed Mt Everest. Also, most it the athletics world cared about the mile

If anything Jim Ryun is underrated. When he was running everyone in the sporting world knew who he was. He was the Sports Illustrated sportsman of the year in an non Olympic year. When he made a comeback and was to race Marty Liquori it was a huge story in the mainstream press and the SI cover “Liquori grins and Wins” still has a place on my gym wall. When he won the silver, at altitude, an American official told him he let his country.

Do a little research or watch some YouTube videos before you claim some is overrated. You’re right about Prefontaine though.

Wow - comically wrong on all three!

Galen Rupp

Prefontaine

Nobody else remembers a 4th place of an Olympics otherwise.

Parker Stinson. Ever since he made those poor choices and had to block all the oregon guys from his insta for it, it has been clear what his true colors are.

Every celebrity and non track person thinks S Richardson was robbed of gold. Most Letsrun posters think Tuohy is the top grad from her class even though she is only a good NCAA runner while Mu won gold.

Name any ultra runner who’s famous and seen as a great and they fit as the most overrated.

Bannister underrated. Even by today’s standards he would a talent. He didn’t start running until senior year of HS. Trained 3-4 times per week during his lunch break and broke 4.

Dude was probably a sub 3:50 talent.

Farah maybe? He thrived in the period between KB, El G, Geb, and EK on the track and the current era of Chep, Jacob, Jakob, and Barega.

But still I just don’t think he deserves all the hype and reverence as a runner that he receives.

The 4-minute "barrier" was hype. The record had plummeted from 4:06 to 4:01 during world war 2 when sports were mostly on hold. Post-war sub 4 was inevitable, but inevitable doesn't get people excited like impossible does.

But Prefontaine is still clearly the most overhyped. Figurehead of the Nike shoe company and also still worshipped by gray-haired cult weirdos, who will probably be triggered by this

I don’t like the ratio of downvotes to upvotes on the OP. It’s a perfectly valid question. We don’t have to be all thumbs-up all the time.

Pre is the obvious answer. I’ll see if I can think up some less obvious ones.

Bannister was a special athlete. His loss in the 1952 Olympics was down to the Olympic Committee "moving the goal posts" by inserting an extra round at the last moment. Roger's very sparse training - because of his medical studies - was based on him having to run only two races: a heat and a final. It's rather telling that the winner Barthel was - for the time - and high mileage trainer which gave him the strength to easily get through the rounds.         And, the person who said that - at the time- everybody knew that the four minute mile was soon going to be broken is rewriting history. For example, Landy in 1953, after a number of races in in the 4min 2/3 sec area, said that he thought the sub-4 mile was probably impossible.  

I didn't say "everybody knew," I said the 5 second drop to 4:01 over the course of just three years (a historical fact) meant sub 4 was inevitable.

Maybe Landy was fooling himself, but more likely he was playing the hype, being among those racing to get there first. Which he wouldn't have been doing if he honestly thought he couldn't.

Another part of history people get upset when I mention is which drug came into use right around the same time the 5 second plunge happened. This was a revolutionary era in sport that ended in 1968, for elite track at least.

For God sake, by the beginning of the 1954, the world records for the mile and 1500m had stood for 9 years!  The majority of athletes/coaches believed that Hagg's records were probably the limit of man's capabilities. Again, you're trying to rewrite history!

Dion Marquise Hayes.