Many of Vin Lananna's friends don't know who Jakob Ingebrigtsen or Cole Hocker is - Do your friends know who they are?

I post on letsrun, and so I have no friends. Does this count as 100% or 0%?

Some of my non running friends know who Cole Hocker is, but probably only because I've shoved updates about him down their throats.

Did average joes and average sports fans know who Pre was back in the 70s, though? I doubt it. The same type of folks who don't know Hocker probably didn't know Pre.

Now ... how about Jim Ryun? Did average joes know who he was back then?

The only athlete close in the last 25 years has probably been Bolt. Lot of average folk know who Usain Bolt is.

I had never heard about Pre until I moved to the USA.

Outside of the USA, he is not important.

Lasse Viren who is from the same time periode is known among track geeks, but not Pre.

So if some Americans say there will be no new Pre, they cannot follow track or have knowledge about the sport.

Who?

Only maybe half of my running friends know Jakob. Cole Hocker maybe 10%. Non-running friends. Absolute zero.

Let me kick this off with a softball question, Rojo. Who cares?

His friends aren't really into track if they don't know who Sha'Carri, Cole Hocker or Jakob Ingebrigtsen are.

His friends are into people who ran with Prefontaine? Really?

Even today Pre and probably Jim Ryan, Bill Rodgers, and Frank Shorter are more known by the general public than Jakob and Cole are.

Every sports fan knew who Jim Ryun was. 5x cover of Sports Illustrated. SI sportsman of the year.. Wide World of Sports carried his WR races. He and Jesse Owens were the most.well known track athletes.

Perspective from the other side of the pond in continental Europe: Most people in my office know Jakob, or at the very least "those Norwegian running brothers". Femke is known by sports fans, but not the general public. Most of my friends also know Mondo. They don't know Cole Hocker or Sydney. Sha'carri is known because of the weed ban.

I work in a major sport retailer and at the entrance of the store there are large, full size Nike placards of
Jakob Ingebrigtsen, Athing Mu and Keely Hodgkinson. Not a single employee or customer have any idea who they are or what they do. Having said that I went to a Nike seminar and I was the only person other than the Nike rep that had any knowledge of Steve Prefontaine either.

That part of my European friends who are interested in sport, including athletics, know Jakob but not Hocker. I think that the same kind of friends would know both if I lived in the US.

Jakob is more known worldwide than Hocker.

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Really? Have you asked random people on the street if they know who Jim Ryun and Jesse Owens are?

I had dinner with a few friends (5 continental europeans between the ages of 28 and 35, at least two of whom run most days of the week) and asked them about this, and if they could name any current or former pro runners in general.

For current runners, they knew Kipchoge and also thought Mo Farah might still be active. I had watched the 1500m final with one of them last year, who could recall the nickname "the goose" but nothing else about the race.

For past runners, they knew Bannister had the first sub 4 mile and Bolt of course. None of them had heard of Prefontaine but one of them inexplicably knew who Ryan Hall is, although she couldn't recall why. They also couldn't name a single female runner despite both runners in the group being women.

Two of them do, but most of my friends just aren't into esoteric sports. Hell, they're barely into major pro sports.

I think the majority of people around the world would still know Usain Bolt, ⚡

I said every sports fan knew who Jim Ryun was. That means in the 1960s every sports fan knew who Jim Ryun was

Television creates a fan base and it has been so poor in its coverage of Track and Field for decades now that the average viewer has been completely turned off the sport .We have commentators who cannot generate any excitement or enthusiasm and talk incessantly about things other than what the audience is viewing on the screen. We have producers who know nothing about the sport and miss key moments where events are decided. Our sport on its hands and knees puts up with this because it seems happy to get coverage of any kind. I contend we would be better with no coverage at all than the pathetic offerings served up which just further alienates viewers from the sport. The international feed through World Athletics is so much better and given wider coverage may help to produce a fan base. We have a sport which is the focal point of the Olympic Games and it deserves more respect!