Courtney was beat badly at two 24 hour world championships. She won’t cross over again to race the best women ultrarunners. Trailrunning is for those who aren’t fast enough to compete on the roads.
You could just as easily say road runners aren’t strong enough to cross over and compete with Courtney up and down mountains. (Camille has already demonstrated this multiple times)
This is why this whole thread is just stupid. It ignores the things that distinguish an athlete being good at one thing and not another. All of the arguments that road marathoners could destroy Walmsley and Dawaulter assumes that their bodies have the physical requirements to hold up to this type of athletic pursuit and training. There is a difference between a linebacker and a QB on the football field in terms of what their bodies are capable of doing. Same goes for runners. Some runners are built for the flats and roads. I’m not an elite athlete but after training for trail races for a couple of years I learned my body isn’t built for it. I’m a flat runner. And I’m sure many road marathoners would find their body isn’t built to train to the degree necessary to throw down a 5:42 downhill mile after running over 100 miles (see Walmsley’s Strava data).
can you go through each sport for us and rank them all by the quality of their star athletes?
Top level would include but not be limited to track, soccer, tennis, swimming, gymnastics, and basketball. Ultra is not a real sport and therefore would not appear on the list.
Courtney was beat badly at two 24 hour world championships. She won’t cross over again to race the best women ultrarunners. Trailrunning is for those who aren’t fast enough to compete on the roads.
You could just as easily say road runners aren’t strong enough to cross over and compete with Courtney up and down mountains. (Camille has already demonstrated this multiple times
You expect Kipchoge to beat Kilian at a mountain ultra, or Kilian to beat Kipchoge at a road marathon? Road running is massive more competitive. Where’s the African runners at UTMB? Trail runners are delusional.
Again, this thread is full of people with opinions on trail and ultra running, but clearly do not follow the sport. On the Golden Trail Series there are two funded fully african teams, Team Run2gether Kenya and Team Skyrunners Kenya as well as another team sponsered by ON that have a number of east africans. And other than at Sierra-Zinal, which is the most 'runnable' course in the series, they don't dominate at all, in fact, the athletes coming from mountain sports such as Skimo, like Sophia Laukli or Remi Bonet are the ones that dominate. These races are usually around HM - Marathon distance, in the 2-4 hour range.
I do agree that their arent enough examples in ultras though and it's definetly a white, middle/upper class sport, which is a shame. I can barely afford to enter more than 1 or 2 a year. But even if Hoka or Salomon went and found a sub 2:08 Kenyan and funded them to live in the Alps for a year, I don't think they'd even finish UTMB.
If Walmsley can win a UTMB at 125 lbs, so can 1000 other Kenyans.
hold on to your all white sport. Imagine marathons and track without black people. It’s unimaginable, it upends the entire sport. Now imagine ULTRAS without blacks- NO CHANGE. NO TALeNT POOL.
Simone Biles is as good at gymnastics as Courtney Dauwalter is at ultrarunning. They are the only two at that level of being so far beyond second place that it is almost inconceivable. The end.
Simone Biles is as good at gymnastics as Courtney Dauwalter is at ultrarunning. They are the only two at that level of being so far beyond second place that it is almost inconceivable. The end.
Courtney competes in trail running, not ultra running. She’s lost badly against the best ultra runners and has no chance at races like Comrades against the Africans. The end.
When Walmsley ran 14:06 at Western States a few years ago, one of the brojos said if he ran sub 14 they would've done the black page. I guess epic Ultra feats just aren't epic enough.
How many shot putters can come within 20cm of the Olympic high jump standard?
Let's be honest - steeplechase runners are just people who can't compete at the 5000m. Triple jumpers are failed long jumpers. 400m hurdlers are just people without the leg speed to run the flat 400.
That’s funny. SML has the fastest flat 400 time of any woman in the world this year, and Rai had the fastest split on the US 4x400 relay team that won the gold.
You ultra runners are hilariously desperate to make your extreme hobby jogging activity seem legitimate and on par with true what real athletes do. It’s not!
Fair point on the 400h. I picked a bad example there (maybe 110m/100m hurdles would be better).
I've never run an ultra.
Look, I generally agree that ultra races don't have the same level of competition that most other athletic events do.
Except.
I'll bet more people run an ultra in any given year than run the steeplechase.
Ultra running is not a sport. It’s just an extreme activity for a tiny number of mediocre hobby joggers who aren’t good enough to hack it in standard distances but still crave attention.
"extreme activity" is the perfect name for Ultrarunning. Courtney would probably beat most everyone on Survivor or Fear Factor.
Bruh you seriously fell for that troll? Maybe he/she is right 🤦♂️