Eliud Kipchoge is the GOAT

Aleksandr Karelin

From Wikipedia:
His wrestling record is 887 wins and two losses, both by a single point. Prior to his farewell match versus Rulon Gardner in September 2000, a point had not been scored on him within the previous six years. He went undefeated in the world championships, having never lost a match.

Nine gold medals at the world championships, three golds and one silver at the Olympics.

He's amazing, no doubt for distance running.

Greatest of all time for all sports. I don't think you can give anyone that designation.

I agree actually, I used to firmly believe it was Bekele but being so completely dominant over literally everyone for so long speaks for it self

I couldn't agree more but I think only Lionel Messi comes close.

He couldn't get Gonzalo Higuain to beat the goalkeeper and couldn't get his teammates to score and win the world cup. Football is a team sport and that's why he has no world cup title.

I am sure football fans will disagree but Messi is a lamb. He is meek and down to earth and only talks with his feet. So is Kipchoge.

I can't believe I missed the race. I am still jet lagged having flown for twenty two hours. I slept a few hours before the race and have just woken up. Kipchoge and Kosgei are the in thing..

The greatest of all sports

1) Bolt Olympic Triple Triple

2) Pele 3 Jules Rimet

3) Kipchoge

Oh, please. He's not even Wilt Chamberlain or Jim Brown. Or Eddy Merckx.

Or Jack effing Nicklaus, as far as that goes.

Do you want to go for Garry Kasparov?

You should be happy that anybody considers doping oneself to the gills and then running down the road is even considered a sport.

This win --and time!--come at a time when the goat lineup was pretty close among more than a few. Now imo it seems pretty clear who is The Man (or goat.!) Doesn't take anything away from the Bekeles, Shorters, or Zatopeks but sets Mr. Kipchoge up on the top tier in my view.

He will never be consider the greatest athlete since he does distance running.

but I will give it to him, the way he runs is impeccable. Also how he finishes without even looking tired.

Well what Kipchoge has done in the marathon is incredible . We have never seen a dominance like his own for a so long period of time and most of all races at world record pace!!!! Except for the two gold Olympic medal all others marathon were near or at World record pace !!! Thats Insane !!! Plus the Breaking two and Sub two!!! It's Unreal And this is even more incredible considering the difficult of the event!!!! I think he has very few contender to the GOAT status in every sport.

Saying this of course the greatest personality and Goat status to me always goes to Muhammad Ali and I agree with Mike Tyson emotional crying remembrance of the Champ :

“I always like to think I'm a bad motherf**ker. A vicious motherf**ker. I don't give a f**k, but that's the part where he, Ali, overshines me, because I can't understand a man that's willing to die for this. I talked the sh*t, but he's the real deal. Ali is a giant. There's no way other fighters can match him. He'd die for this sh*t. I'm not going to die for this. That's real talk. Ali is a savage, he's an animal. He's a different breed of person. He's not like us.

Here we go again.

Bekele is the goat of overall distance running and its only close with Haile not Kipchoge.

The reason kipchoge switched to the marathon. It's Bekele and Mo farah. Now if you want to disregard that due to recency bias. Go ahead and do that but world titles trump major marathons every time and Bekele has more of them than kipchoge.

Don't get me wrong I'm not hating on major marathon victories. But that's like winning a diamond league race once or twice a year. It's not like every single one is a Olympic marathon field. Kipchoge for the most part of his marathon career has chased fast times at London and Berlin( and those appearance fees nothing wrong with that. ) But for me that's not enough to just say he's the overall greatest runner. He'd need to have at least HALF of Bekeles accomplishments in xc/track which he doesn't. He has accomplished 1/9th of what Bekele has done on the track.

In fact I argue that Bekele is just as good at the marathon as kipchoge was in in track. Why can't we be fine with accepting that kipchoge is the best marathoner ever. Being this good at one thing can't make him the best overall distance runner. If that was the case David Rudisha has a great argument for being the best distance runner of all time

The GOAT of money.

I agree completely. It must be noted that Kipchoge switched to the marathon because he was getting smoked on the track. The marathon fields he has been defeating have not been as strong as the track or cross country fields that Bekele routinely dominated. That's because marathons are filled with runners who are either past their prime on the track (like Kipchoge) or who were never fast enough to be competitive on the track to begin with.

Even if Kipchoge were to win another 12 marathons, it still wouldn't make him the overall distance running GOAT because his accomplishments on the track and on grass just don't pass muster.

N othing more wrong than this!!!!! So if the Goat status is given by gold medal in championship and Olympic , Maybe Mo Farah is one of the greatest in distance running even better than Bekele and Haille but of course we all know is not like this.

The accomplishment Kipchoge has done in marathon running is way far superior by what Bekele and Haille did on track!!!! And listen I m not a Kipchoge fan, I like him of course but I dont speak with the mind of fan!!

PerformancePlaceDate2013
2:04:05
Berlin (GER)
29 SEP 2013
2014
2:04:11
Chicago, IL (USA)
12 OCT 2014
2015
2:04:00
Berlin (GER)
27 SEP 2015
2016
2:03:05
London (GBR)
24 APR 2016
2017
2:03:32
Berlin (GER)
24 SEP 2017
2018
2:01:39 World Record
Berlin (GER)
16 SEP 2018
2019
2:02:37 (Considering London course this still near or better that WR)
London (GBR)
28 APR 2019
2020
2:06:49
London (GBR)
04 OCT 2020
2021
2:04:30
Enschede (NED)
18 APR 2021
2022
2:02:40 (strong headwind in the final part this one too one of the greatest time)
Tokyo (JPN)
06 MAR 2022

Plus 2:00:25 at Breaking two plus 1:59:40 at INEOS 1:59 challenge

Plus Olympic gold at Rio and Olympic gold at Tokio

This ^

Kipchoge on the track is better than bekele on the roads. And Kipchoge on the roads is on his way to being better than KB on the track. Only cross country is keeping bekele ahead all time.

Its egregious to assert that Kipchoges track career is a stain and bekeles marathon career isn’t.

farah was untouchable on the track and what is he on the roads?

There are just different kinds of sports performance. Over here's an impressive fatass who can slug a home run off an MLB pitcher, and here's an impressive skinny guy who can cover certain distances faster than anyone ever has, etc etc.

Personally I just feel like to the "best athlete" would have a more significant contribution from strategy and coordination. Sure sure you need to be coordinated to run efficiently, and racing has strategy. I don't think someone who perfects ONE aspect of sport (running at steady speeds) can be the greatest athlete of all time.

Like by the same thinking, a powerlifter who specialized in one specific type of lift could be the greatest athlete of all time as long as he dominated his competition. But I don't think he can inherently qualify for the distinction of GOAT of all sports.