Has Fisher surpassed Rupp as the American distance GOAT?

Frank Shorter

/thread

Rupp also has a marathon bronze from 2016

No.

\thread

Jim Ryan

I love Fisher, but his bests are barely better, if at all, than Rupp's when considering super shoes (and I'm personally of the belief they don't help that much). On top of that, Rupp has two medals. If Grant somehow manages a silver in the 5k, then he probably is, but as of now, no.

True - I suppose this is only counting track.

Fisher will have to prove himself at the marathon in a few years.

And in Rupp's prime if he had the super shoes and super tracks of today some of his PBs would be faster than Fishers.

Rupp also won 7 or 8 consecutive national 10,000m titles.

I knew we'd see at least one thread asking this.

My answer is certainly no (for now), but isn't it crazy how much Fisher is on the "Rupp track"?

Top-10 in several global finals, clearly the man domestically, but had some national setbacks (for Fisher, losing at USAs a few times; for Rupp, not breaking the American record, and having trouble versus Lagat).

Then one year it all comes together, and Rupp (resp. Fisher) is one of the studs and wins a 10k medal.

The races even felt kind of similar. Great positioning, Rupp/Fisher ran like a stud who knew it. Farah/Cheptegei had the lead before the last lap and were never seriously threatened. Despite this, Farah/Cheptegei didn't pull away at the end which even makes us wonder (almost certainly incorrectly) whether Rupp/Fisher could have won with a slightly different strategy.

Jim RYUN

Agree, I think Fisher is awesome, huge fan, but Rupp has TWO Olympic medals and comparable times pre-super shoes.

Fisher can get there!

Rupp's marathon bronze does a ton of heavy lifting for his resume. Historically bad event for Americans especially right now.

The times don't matter that much, it's all relative to the people running at the time. Both were/are running world class times.

I think the only thing that could displace him would be Fisher snagging a gold somewhere or Fisher getting like 8 more years worth of very solid finishes in WC and Olympics.

Rupp is not the American distance GOAT. Lagat is. Idk why this board forgets about him every time this discussion comes up.

Lagat and Ryun for 1500/5000, Rupp and Shorter for 10,000/Marathon. Grant is a bit in between those two groups but more of the Rupp/Shorter style. No, he has not surpassed Rupp. Rupp had a more successful NCAA career, has many more national titles (Grant "broke through" by finally winning this time around), 2 Oly medals, at least one (maybe more?) DL wins, won a major (Chicago) etc.

Grant has a path to being better but isn't there yet IMO.

Beside having two Olympic medals to his one, Rupp also has 11 national titles in Olympic distances (1 5k, 8 10k, 2 OMT) while Fisher has 3 (2 5k, 1 10k). Rupp also made teams in every distance event minus the steeple (1500/3k indoors, 5k/10k/Marathon outdoors) while Fisher had just made teams in the 5k/10k.

No knock on Fisher, especially after his career defining performance today. He has time to catch Rupp, but as it stands now, Rupp is clearly the more accomplished runner - more medals, more national titles, greater range.

Adding to Gaylen Legend, Rupp was a US-born NCAA XC champion(!!!!), multi time NCAA champion on the track, etc. Etc etc.

Conversely, Grant was doing things in college such as getting completely washed/devastatingly outkicked by Cooper Teare (love ya Coop) in the Pac12s 5k final (look it up, educate yourselves).

No disrespect to Rupp, but that bronze comes with a huge asterisk. He got that bronze with a Vaporfly prototype when it's not available to many other runners he beat in the race.

I think Rupp’s career is better by a little but. The longevity. The amount of American titles. The 2 Olympics medals. If Grant is somehow able to snag a medal in the 5,000 this Olympics I would put Grant ahead of Rupp. For now Rupp is the GOAT.

The same Lagat who competed for Kenya after gaining U.S. citizenship?

correct