I sorted the table by the 1% adjusted time (fastest first) to see how the top times would rank differently.
Some observations: Ingebrigtsen's 3:26.73 from Monaco drops from #4 all-time to #24, landing right next to Elijah Manangoi and Mo Farah's performances. Cole Hocker's 3:27.65 Olympic win moves down to #30 on this list. With even a 1% shoe advantage assumed, the early 2000s depth looks pretty hard to reach.
Obviously, all these athletes are incredible. An adjusted time on a spreadsheet isn't the same thing as actually racing in traditional, lightweight spikes. I know people talk about super shoes a lot on here, but I wanted a clean reference table to look at a plausible range of what today's times might look like without super spikes.
This isn't to take anything away from athletes like Ingebrigtsen, Hocker, Kerr, or Nuguse. They have to race with the tech of their era. None of them are going to handicap themselves with plain, lightweight spikes just to make a point. It's just an interesting exercise to look at the potential range of what they might have run on those days without the advanced spikes.
# Time 1% Adj 2% Adj 3% Adj Athlete Date
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1 3:26.00 3:26.00 3:26.00 3:26.00 Hicham El Guerrouj 14 Jul 1998
2 3:26.12 3:26.12 3:26.12 3:26.12 El Guerrouj #2 24 Aug 2001
3 3:26.34 3:26.34 3:26.34 3:26.34 Bernard Lagat 24 Aug 2001
4 3:26.45 3:26.45 3:26.45 3:26.45 El Guerrouj #3 12 Aug 1998
5 3:26.69 3:26.69 3:26.69 3:26.69 Asbel Kiprop 17 Jul 2015
6 3:26.89 3:26.89 3:26.89 3:26.89 El Guerrouj #4 16 Aug 2002
7 3:26.96 3:26.96 3:26.96 3:26.96 El Guerrouj #5 08 Sep 2002
8 3:27.21 3:27.21 3:27.21 3:27.21 El Guerrouj #6 11 Aug 2000
9 3:27.34 3:27.34 3:27.34 3:27.34 El Guerrouj #7 19 Jul 2002
10 3:27.37 3:27.37 3:27.37 3:27.37 Noureddine Morceli 12 Jul 1995
11 3:27.40 3:27.40 3:27.40 3:27.40 Lagat #2 06 Aug 2004
12 3:27.52 3:27.52 3:27.52 3:27.52 Morceli #2 25 Jul 1995
13 3:27.64 3:27.64 3:27.64 3:27.64 Silas Kiplagat 18 Jul 2014
14 3:27.64 3:27.64 3:27.64 3:27.64 El Guerrouj #8 06 Aug 2004
15 3:27.65 3:27.65 3:27.65 3:27.65 El Guerrouj #9 24 Aug 1999
16 3:27.72 3:27.72 3:27.72 3:27.72 Kiprop #2 19 Jul 2013
17 3:27.91 3:27.91 3:27.91 3:27.91 Lagat #3 19 Jul 2002
18 3:28.12 3:28.12 3:28.12 3:28.12 Noah Ngeny 11 Aug 2000
19 3:28.75 3:28.75 3:28.75 3:28.75 Taoufik Makhloufi 17 Jul 2015
20 3:28.79 3:28.79 3:28.79 3:28.79 Abdalaati Iguider 17 Jul 2015
21 3:28.80 3:28.80 3:28.80 3:28.80 Elijah Manangoi 21 Jul 2017
22 3:28.81 3:28.81 3:28.81 3:28.81 Mo Farah 19 Jul 2013
23 3:28.81 3:28.81 3:28.81 3:28.81 Ronald Kwemoi 18 Jul 2014
24 3:26.73 3:28.82 3:30.95 3:31.24 Jakob Ingebrigtsen 12 Jul 2024
25 3:28.95 3:28.95 3:28.95 3:28.95 Fermín Cacho 13 Aug 1997
26 3:28.98 3:28.98 3:28.98 3:28.98 Mehdi Baala 05 Sep 2003
27 3:29.02 3:29.02 3:29.02 3:29.02 Daniel Kipchirchir Komen 14 Jun 2006
28 3:27.14 3:29.23 3:31.37 3:31.46 Ingebrigtsen #2 16 Jul 2023
29 3:27.49 3:29.59 3:31.72 3:31.82 Azeddine Habz 20 Jun 2025
30 3:27.65 3:29.75 3:31.89 3:31.99 Cole Hocker 06 Aug 2024
31 3:27.72 3:29.82 3:31.96 3:32.06 Phanuel Koech 20 Jun 2025
32 3:27.79 3:29.89 3:32.03 3:32.14 Josh Kerr 06 Aug 2024
33 3:27.80 3:29.90 3:32.04 3:32.15 Yared Nuguse 06 Aug 2024
34 3:27.83 3:29.93 3:32.07 3:32.18 Ingebrigtsen #3 22 Aug 2024
35 3:28.28 3:30.38 3:32.53 3:32.64 Timothy Cheruiyot 09 Jul 2021
36 3:28.36 3:30.46 3:32.61 3:32.72 George Mills 20 Jun 2025
37 3:28.76 3:30.87 3:33.02 3:33.13 Mohamed Katir 09 Jul 2021
38 3:28.80 3:30.91 3:33.06 3:33.17 Brian Komen 12 Jul 2024
39 3:29.03 3:31.14 3:33.30 3:33.41 Festus Lagat 20 Jun 2025
