Interview with Daniel Komen

But, he didn't have today's super shoes or super tracks

Interesting story about Komen, published back in 2014 or 2011:

web.archive.org

What Ever Happened To Daniel Komen? - Competitor.com

@RunCompetitor

Profile on Kenyan long-distance runner Daniel Komen, who broke world records with amazing regularity in the 1990's, then was never heard from again.

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Shoes - a little bit over 3000m (but these guys are so efficient and smooth it's not a lot).

Tracks - in terms of actual surface, no real difference.

Tracks - with pace lights scooting around the rail? Massive.

I don't think Komen would be quite at the same level of Jakob, but I do think he would have run 2-2.5 seconds quicker with wavelight. He was so similar to Jakob in terms of being this long-striding pace metronome - not a great acceleration or turnover guy, but just a threshold machine. So with todays in-race "support" (that would have also helped his pacers), I think a low to mid 7.18 time would have been where he landed.

Definitely one of the most naturally talented runners the planet has ever seen.

The end of the outdoor track season forced Komen to take a break, but he continued to race at every opportunity, and at the same jaw-dropping level, for another year and a half. According to routine, after a few months at home in Kenya, Komen would return to Europe to compete in indoor track and cross country events in January and February, then head to Australia to train and race outdoors, and finally settle down in London—where he bought a house and brought his wife, Joyce, who earned an MBA at the London School of Economics—as his base for the summer track season.
If Komen’s 1996 summer track campaign was magnificent, his 1997 encore was utterly without parallel. In July he travelled to Hechtel, Belgium, to make a bid to reclaim his two-mile world record, which Gebrselassie had lowered to 8:01.10 in May. In a press conference the day before the race, Komen was typically laconic and inscrutable. Only one question got an answer of more than a few words.
“What are your tactics for the record attempt?” a reporter asked.
“A soldier does not discuss his tactics before he goes to battle,” Komen said. Truth was, he had no tactics. Never did. (Months later, when McDonald gave Komen a plan of split times for an indoor 3,000m world record attempt, Komen rejected it. “Just tell me faster or slower as [I go],” he said.)
The next evening Komen ran the first mile of the two-mile race in 3:59.4 That’s exactly the time Roger Bannister posted when he ran history’s first sub-four-minute mile in 1954. And then Komen did it again, running a second 3:59.4 mile to set a new world record of 7:58.61 and become the first human to run back-to-back sub-four miles. He remains the only sub-eight-minute two-miler today.

Didn't know that at all. Seems like he only raced for money, yet you'd think that with his wife as a MBA from a top EMEA business school they wouldn't need it so so much (even though he grew up poor)

and

1 7:54.10 Jakob INGEBRIGTSEN

The article is always a phenomenal read. Komen is like the Kenyan athlete version of Shaq in a sense. Did he reach his absolute potential and always take care of himself? No, not really. But he accomplished great things, made a ton of money, and seems to be pretty happy with his time in the sport.

Contrast that with a Kobe Bryant parallel for Tergat/Kipchoge, let's say in someone who got every ounce out of themselves before their body betrayed them.

As the article covers, Komen was a major overspender. Even recently, this has plagued him as his wife said he sold a property without her permission: https://nation.africa/kenya/sports/athletics/elite-athletes-kipchoge-kipruto-embroiled-in-sh100m-property-4623724

Article was from 2014. I just copied and pasted it.

But he had quarts of EPO and other drugs flowing through his veins.

I think all things being equal, Komen crushes Jakob.

Wishful thinking

Oh the poor babies

And why did you do this?

I love Komen.

BANG BANG BANG the drum. Relentless, loved to race, fearless. Forget the doping rumors. Who doesn’t love a guy that goes all gas for years until his body gives out.

Yes he flew too close to the sun but that dude FLEW

You think the top athletes today aren't doped to the gills?

Wave lights are so overrated by some on this forum. They're the one thing that make no physical difference. Sure it's easier to pace with them, but watches and pacers have always existed and it's not that hard to know what pace you're going at.

Disagree, I think wavelights make a big difference in allowing for truly even pacing. Go back and look at some fast races from the 1990s, it's shocking how uneven some of their pacers were.

While in theory you are right, look at Komen's splits. Or El Guerrouj's.