Jim Ryun - Best of History's Top 7 milers.

ethnocentric!

What does that mean?

I am only seeing the best of

the best Milers in the History of the

recorded World's best.

You may not agree with my opinion ...

but you have not suggested who you think

are the best.

Your responce is trivial and politically

motivated.

Any list not including El G is either made out of ignorance of his accomplishments, or stupidity. Take your pick, but his record speaks for itself.

Lagat ran exactly the same time.

And Bannister, with todays luxories,

would have run a similar time. Scott,

who knows. Walker, same thing. Ryun ...

good chance he would have beat the all

of them. Coe ... shit ... 2 x 1:46 is not

out a' situ.

Yah, El G has the record ... but any of the

dudes I listed, under the same conditions, could

a handed him his scalp.

Yup, they could have maybe if everything went exactly right and you actually knew for sure that they had the talent/ability to do what El G did... but oh wait. You don't know. Lagat didnt' run the same times, or else it would be a shared record.

I would say that yes, those milers you listed are good. But El G is the GOAT. And you have no idea if those guys could have ran faster, so don't act like you do. Maybe they could have, maybe they couldn't.

Points taken.

You must, though, factor in

very significant and legitimate,

easy to equate factors. Simple ones,

but possible using modern algebra ...

IE

Slow cinder running surfaces vs. super fast synthetic ones.

Heavy, uncomfortable shoes vs. fit like a glove light

as a feather ones.

Full time financed training vs. train/work/study/.

Professional Coaches/masseuses/nutritionists/etc. vs.

amateurism or loose your Olympic dreams.

Etc. etc. etc. ... these are just a few "factors" and likely

not the most significant. My guess is that, if you took

my side of the argument, you could come up with reasons

much more legitimate, pursuant to the support of the greats

that I have mentioned.

I guess that all of the guys I mentioned would have run

3:26 or better ... just as El G and Lagat did ... and what

does a few 10's of a second mean anyhow? Who knows what

would have been the time had those two been in the same race the day they were both capable of 3:26?

Salud

I wouldn't put him in the top fifty and since he's also a nut, I don't think you should stroke his ego.

Interesting that you include Bannister . . . he's often overlooked when it comes to listing the best all-time milers. But I agree, if you look at how little he trained, it's almost frightening to think of what he could have accomplished under different circumstances.

Ryun-greatest pure talent.

Elliott--my favorite . . . what a class act! Have only seen still photos, but understand he was silky smooth--ala Lasse Viren.

lets see some of that math instead of just talking about it. You are a moron.

Steve Scott is not one of the top seven milers of all time. That is a joke.

Yep. ElG is clearly missing from that list, and Morceli is a good alternate.

Mmm, i agree. Scott and Walker, but no Cram or Morceli? I don't think so.

Lagat may have run just slower when losing to El G, that much is correct, but you seem to forget Landy running faster within weeks of Bannister's record. Also, several of the people you mentioned weren't even the best (or second best) miler of their generation, let alone in the top seven all-time.

Did you purposefully decide to put together an all-white list in the face of crushing evidence for a more diverse group?

Morceli belongs ahead of most of the people on this list. I'm not impressed by "what ifs" when measured against a guy who actually DID run extraordinarily fast for almost a decade. And as much as I liked Steve Scott, by what measure could he possibly be put ahead of Ovett or Cram?

Morceli is not an alternate. He has won three World Championships in the 1500m and the 1996 Olympics 1500m. At one point, he held all world records from 1500m to 3000m, as well as the indoor 1000 and 1500. Its too bad El G and Morceli never raced when they were both at their prime. To leave these 2 guys off any "best milers of all time" list is silly being that they are two of the top 3 ever (It my opinion #1 and #2....but I can see the arguement that lagat ran faster at the 1500 than Morceli, but never held the World Record).

Jim Ryun would have lost by over 2sec to either of these guys.....I am not even sure if you gave Ryun a downhill track he could touch El G or Morceli.

Granted my top 3 were probably all dopers (lagat for sure), and I think Ryun was clean so he was probably better (still not better than steve scott who I also think was clean)

Has anyone even mentioned Noah Ngeny, the second fastest miler in history? 3:43.xx, Olympic 1500m Champion over El G and Lagat, and 2:11.xx 1000m WR.

qucassidy wrote:

Who knows what

would have been the time had those two been in the same race the day they were both capable of 3:26?

El G and Lagat were in the same race when they both ran 3:26. El G missed breaking his WR by a little over a tenth, but Lagat ran his fastest time to date for second.

Yes, thank you. Morceli was the "ElG" of his time.

Just noting that it is wierd not to see Morceli and ElG on any list. Of course, this being LetsRunatthe mouth I should expect that kind of omission.

didnt ryun run his record on an all weather track?

Walker and Coghlan and Scott are the only ones under 3:50 without the aid of epo.