Unpopular Bekele GOAT opinions

Letsrun somehow bumped me off the nick Johnson thread, oops. Ignore that ^^^

Just so we are clear these races are not head to head but regular championship style races.

So giving El G at least 20% is basically a guarantee as is giving Kipchoge at least 23%. El G would almost automatically win the 1500 in his prime over anyone as would Kipchoge in the marathon.

Bekele would win a high percentage of 5/10ks but he would be splitting those with all the other runners (El G, Cheptegei, Farah, Geb, Komen, etc.)

I do give the edge to Farah in those races but I understand the point of view that Bekele would win over Farah as well. As I said it depends on the race tactics.

I agree that Bekele destroys El G in the marathon every time, but he loses to Kipchoge every time so it doesn’t matter he still loses.

In this made up game I’m giving no credit for 2nd place over 10th place etc. it’s strictly winning percentage. That may be a flawed way of looking at it but that’s what I was doing when making my analysis.

To say El G would win 1500 even 50% of the time, or that kipchoge would win the marathon 70% of the time, against ALL athletes in their prime is foolish at best. They were/are stellar in their event, but they are not indomitable. 2:01:41 Bekele beats prime marathon Kipchoge 2-3/10 times, let alone including all other runners in history. It took El G 3 tries to win the Olympics. The proof is there; it is HARD to win these races, and you’re overestimating their ability vs others.

You really think that? Bekele had 5000m and 10000m PRs that were ~16 and ~30 seconds faster than Farah's, respectively. There is no way that Farah would beat Bekele unless Bekele was injured. Besides that, you are completely disregarding that Farah was the king of running the bulk of the race slow and then turning it way up at the end. Sure, Farah put out a final 1000 that was ~5 seconds faster than Bekele. But Bekele won the 2008 Olympic gold in 12:57.82 while Farah won the 2015 world gold in 13:50.38. Farah was just about 53 seconds slower.

There's no way Farah could kick like he did in 2015 off of 2008's pace. He'd be toast

What? No love for Said Aouita? He's the only Olympic runner to medal in both the 800m (bronze, 1988) and the 5,000 (gold, 1984) and he set WR's in the 1,500 and 5,000 meters in 1985. The guy was versatile, to say the least. Why isn't on the list --- because of doping allegations?

C'mon, man. Viren? Really? The guy was the poster boy for blood doping.

Paula Radcliffe is regarded as the GOAT in women long distance running and rightly so.The reason is because of the kind of super human performances she had during her era.Even though she didn't do well in cross country,her PRs and WRs in the marathon, on roads and 10ks stood for a long time,hence make up for her no-shows in cross country.Based on the same logic EL G ,Kipchoge and Komen have an edge over Bekele.Again ,can I remind you that all of Bekele's records have been broken already exfeot the bew masters marathon WR which is quite vulnerable anyway. Also, his number of wins and dominance will be eclipsed by either Kiplimo or Cheptegei.On the contrary the records of Kipchoge, ELG and Komen will stand for a long time to come.By the way how many people ever beat EL G in during his reign?I think its only Noah Ngeny and Kipchoge. Whereas Bekele was beaten by Kipchoge(2003 in 5000 and severally in the marathon),EL G (several times in 5000),Shaheen (once).Tedese (once in world cross) so his GOAT status can be queried in comparison for instance to EL G one.

He was pretty good, too!

I’ve never seen or heard anyone refer to Radcliffe as the female GOAT. She’s known for her infamous Olympic failures as much as she is for her fast marathons. I’m not sure who is the female GOAT but it’s definitely not Radcliffe. Tirunesh Dibaba had a much better career.