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

Katie Ledecky

When Vin lies, his nose grows.

Ryan Lochte. Ian Thorpe. Katie Ledecky was already mentioned.

I'd say quite a few people know who Sha'Carri Richardson is, Usain Bolt, Mo Farah, Mondo, Jakob, Josh Kerr, Keely, Caster Semenya, but as far as long distance and marathon runners no, they don't know any of the big names. Also Shelly Ann Fraser Price was quite well known, but some big stars, even Olympic medallists, don't have any name recognition.

For example Yaroslava Mahuchikh broke the world record with 2.10m last year which is an outstanding result but has virtually no name recognition here in the UK.

That record stood for so long and it's a big deal but there was barely any publicity.

It seems like athletes with 'stories' generate more publicity rather than their performances.

The press like Keely a lot (photos of her on holiday, etc) but that seems to have calmed down now.

People don't know the marathoners at all.

Same for long distance.

Anyone who stands out a bit e.g. the Indian javelin thrower, Neeraj Chopra, gets more recognition. Big names in the London diamond league tend to stick out too.

From my interactions working with people who skew older, many of them could still name Jim Ryun and Roger Bannister. They could also name Usain Bolt, and a decent percentage could name Oscar Pistorius (or at the very least know who he is, for his running exploits rather than the killing).

Some might know Kipchoge (although the older population is actually more likely to remember Kip Keino), but if I mention any current middle distance runners there is little recognition. Right after the Olympics they may be able to recall some names, but several months later not so much.

An interesting side effect of the slow winning time of the 1500 in the 2016 Olympics is that casual fans (people who would watch the Olympics on TV and who would ask me "Have you run any races lately?") had a hard time grasping the tactical nature of that race. I had multiple people remember the winning time was 3:50, ask my what my best time was (just a few seconds slower), then say, "Huh. Did you ever consider trying out for the Olympics?"

The part that is so frustrating for me is that Track continues to be a huge participation sport at every level. At our HS we have more kids on the track team than football. And there are millions of people jogging (and a few running) marathons and 5ks. It's far more popular than swimming, volleyball, etc. So perhaps that's the silver lining. Sure, many sports get superior coverage and are easier for casual fans to ingest, but our sport is the one that people actually do.
That said the NCAA regionals continues to be a stark reminder of just how awful the coverage continues to be. It's like watching middle schoolers give a weather forecast.

Summer McIntosh and Leon Marchand were the biggest stars of Paris Olympics.

Actually, the "problem" is quite the opposite. Today, it is easier than ever to watch some niche sports whether on TV or streaming than ever before, because there are more tv channels and streaming options.

That means most people know more about sports they are really interested in, and less about all other sports. When there were only three networks and there was no "online steaming" people used to share common knowledge in many things, including sports.

It opened up opportunities for many "upstart" sports that never existed before. T&F failed to capitalize on it.

Jim Ryun was the cover story in Sports Illustrated many times in the 60’s/70’s,

when Sports Illustrated was a big deal.

Weight lifters in the YMCA I worked put in knew who he was (one comment from them was that he was kind of skinny, maybe he should lift weights; I said that his build

was obviously fine the way it was).

Frank Shorter the clothing brand? Of course.

Of currently active athletes, Keely is a big name here in the UK. She won SPOTY, a literal popularity contest. Non-athletics fans that I know haven't heard of Jakob or Kerr. Mondo is well-known because he's so dominant and breaks WRs all the time. Dina Asher-Smith is a big name here, and so is Kat Johnson Thompson, who has an amazing narrative to her career, it really is like a movie. Quite a few of the women I work with love Femke Bol even if they don't really watch athletics. I think the relay stumble and redemption in Budapest made her a big story.

Some retired athletes are also massive names and known by the public at large - Radcliffe, Coe, Cram, Farah, Jess Ennis-Hill, Denise Lewis, Colin Jackson, Linford Christie, Sally Gunnel, and Liz McColgan.

You make a valid point and I will add:

The average golf duffer or tennis player at that level know who the stars of their sport are. Hobby Joggers no.

Most can't even comprehend fast times.

I have a HJ friend who ahs never broken 30-32 minutes for 5K.

Her 7th grade daughter who runs regularly ran a 5K in 29:00 and this woman thought she was a prodigy (I'm serious) because she beat her.

I know a LOT of these hobby jogger types and none of them know who any top runners are.

The faster runners here follow the top runners on Instagram, etc and we talk about them.

We had a group chat, we were talking about weekly mileage (50-80 mpw) that woman chimes in- Is that per week?! I thought you were talking per month!!

There's just complete ignorance at that level.

Imagine if every hobby jogger in every race around the country followed the sport like we do?