Matt Centrowitz's Rio Gold made him the BEST U.S. Middle Distance Runner Ever

Agreed, especially when adding his various medals at worlds.

Too bad he did all of that under the cheating doper Salazar though.

Bernard Lagat should be placed ahead of Centro though.

As an american Lagat won 1 world title and 1 bronze in the 1500.

Centro won 1 Olympic Gold, a world bronze and a world silver.

Yes BUT Lagat is the US record holder at 1500m. Centro never tasted a record did he? Lagat also had a WC Gold and 2 WC Silvers as an American @ 5000 if that is at all germane here. Lagat also had been a U.S. record holder @ 3000m.

Lagat won the double. 1500m and 5000m at the same world champs. If Centro had done that this messageboard would have imploded.

Well said. Such a tactical masterpiece and you see behind him all the guys he outfoxed. Souleiman defeated by a swim move at 450 to go. Kiprop failing to pass him on the straight and running the last turn at a dead sprint in lane 2. Makhloufi having to play roller derby and run nearly in lane 3 to go around Kiprop. All these guys were probably 2-3 seconds better in overall fitness, but couldn’t touch him.

Only losers care about the olympics.

The olympics destroyed the sport of professional athletics. Stop playing along! Gluttons for punishment.

Middle Distance? Have you heard of Dave Wottle? His gold was waaaay cooler than Centro's. Just sayin'.

It was actually. Both were cool but Wottle’s was beyond cool.

I wasn't counting any of Lagat's distance stuff because the thread was about the best middle distance runner.

Best overall distance runner I think we have to give it to Lagat.

100% clutch. He may have outkicked them all because he may have run the least distance. There was a moment when things were ramping up and I think Souileman was passing him and Centro found room to slip his elbow past him so he could keep his position on the rail and in the lead. All the more satisfying because the best racer won that day.

OK fair enough but do you place any stock in Lagat being the US 1500m record holder? Centro did not even come within 1 second of Lagat’s US 1500m record.

Centro is 33. After the age of 33, Lagat won a couple more world 5000m medals, another world 1500m medal, and three more world indoor 3000m medals including two golds. Centro’s remaining wins are Twitter arguments with high schoolers.

Makes you wonder. I don't think he was clean.

I agree (although not sure who really disagrees with this). David Wottle is really the only other contendar, as he was also an olympic champion, but Centro had multiple world champ medals, and even a near miss at the olympics in 2012. It's not even all that close. One could make the argument he is the best american distance runner period (not just middle distance). Frank Short would be pretty good in that category also with one gold and a silver.

He got into an Instagram argument with Cooper Teare, Ben Crawford, Evert Silva and all those “new Gen”guys when they were like 22. I don’t even really like Centro, but the New Gen guys had been poking fun at him for a while in his comments and talking trash about him on podcasts.

I don’t know why it’s that bad for a 31 year old to respond to a group off 22 year olds that have a big media presence and had been trolling him for a while.

And Steve Bradbury is Australia’s great speed skater ever.

Ryun broke 4 world records - two of them at only 19. His mile and 1500 records obliterated the previous marks. He "only" got silver at the Mexico Olympics because it was at altitude and he'd had mono earlier in the year. In his era he was far better than Centro ever was, as he was clearly then world's best. Centro is the Josey Barthel ('52 Helsinki) of his era - although Barthel won in a much better time than 3.50.

I clicked on this thread assuming the OP was going to get absolutely destroyed based on the title, but actually the OP made a pretty good argument here. Brought up some points I haven't considered.

I guess I would consider Centro's 1500 gold the be the best U.S. Middle Distance Performance ever... even OP acknowledges that Centro's performances up until this race and after weren't all that insane. But the race itself was, indeed, beyond insane. Either that race or Wottle's 800 gold, whichever you prefer.

I still think Lagat takes the cake for best US middle distance athlete, but not by a ton. There's still plenty of room for a current US athlete to cement themselves as the unquestioned greatest!