I realize that this is a troll attempt but there are runners out there that probably think this. Hands down KB is, without doubt, the greatest that ever walked the face of the earth. Take prime Bekele and stick him in any event 3000 - marathon and he annihilates anyone on any day with maybe only one exception (El G). Pre cheat-shoe BS, the guy was an absolute machine.
What are you babbling about? Bekele holds the 10000 meter championship record in both the Olympics and the WC.
My mistake, I knew Farah ran 26:40's to win one of his global titles and thought he broke the record, but he must have just missed as Bekele ran a 26:46 in 2009. I will still assume Farah did it with a more impressive kick, as he was known for. Bekele didn't have the top end speed like Farah, as shown by their 1500m PRs. Farah had a nasty 3:27 1500 PR, I imagine he could have run faster 5000m/10000m times if he made that his focus instead of perfecting his closing speed to win multiple double golds in 2012/2013/2015/2016. Mo has more olympic golds and more world track golds than Bekele, and it's likely because he focused on winning championship races instead of running world record attempts.
Mo deserves more credit than he generally gets around here, but you’re giving him way too much. He ran 3:28.8 which is nowhere near 3:27. No doubt he was capable of running much faster over 5k/10k than 12:53 and 26:46, but there is zero chance he was ever in world record shape. Low 12:40s and somewhere around 26:30 is probably the best he could’ve done.
Mo was a great kicker and would have seen championship success in any era, but I’m taking Bekele all day. His 10k in Paris 2003 (26:49, last 5k 12:57) and 5k in Beijing 2008 (12:57 solo in the heat) are two of the greatest championship performances ever. Mo has more track titles but Bekele is the better athlete.