i'm going to go with one of the relatively recent ones... Blanks, Hicks, etc. Rono? That's absurd! At 70-something years old, he would have no shot? Goucher? He's too old now as well.
Rono would still beat you with his walker.
That's funny BUT- I beat Henry Rono once in a 10K.
He was "coming back" from his first stint as an alcoholic and as I passed him he looked at me and his shirt said- I'm Henry Rono.
He was traveling running races, but very slow. This was in Rochester- the Lilac 10K when it was world class. I had a really bad day but not as bad as his.
Too bad, alcoholism is sad, no one deserves to suffer like that.
I had a close friend, we drank together. I probably drank more than he did. He was alcoholic, I wasn't. Sad.
I think the six women in contention are Vicki Huber, Sonia O’Sullivan, Shalane Flanagan, Sally Kipyego, Katelyn Tuohy, and Parker Valby. My initial thought was that it would come down to Kipyego vs. Valby in a pure test of who could cover the distance the fastest, but there’s probably some recency bias in that.
I know a girl who at 14 was already 4th in the world at 800. No doubt the best ever at 18-22 years old. But never went to college! She would have slayed those gals.