Is Khalid Khannouchi the greatest American Marathoner of All-Time?

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19 years ago 10/27/2006 9:17am EDT

Ten Fastest Marathons by an American (As of 10-27-06)

2:05:38 Khalid Khannouchi London 2002 (#3 All-time)

*2:05:32 Khalid Khannouchi Chicago 1999 (#4 All-time)

2:05:56 Khalid Khannouchi Chicago 2002 (#7 All-time)

2:07:01 Khalid Khannouchi Chicago 2000 (#54 All-time)

2:07:04 Khalid Khannouchi London 2006 (#59 All-time)

2:08:44 Khalid Khannouchi Chicago 2004 (#319 All-time)

2:08:51 Alberto Salazar Boston 1982 (#364 All-time)

2:08:53 Dick Beardsley Boston 1982

2:08:56 Abdi Abdirahman Chicago 2006

2:09:00 Greg Meyer Boston 1983

2:09:21 Alberto Salazar Fukuoka 1983

So Khannouchi has the 6 fastest times by an American, and still has the 5 fastest if you throw out Chicago in 1999. His best is 3 minutes faster than the second fastest American. He has 6 times in the top 350 All-time, and no other American has any. He is the only American to hold the world record in the marathon since 1963. His only blemish is his lack of olympic medals.

I think you would have to say Khannouchi is better than Rogers and Salazar becasue Khannouchi's times are faster and Rogers and Salazar have no medals either. Meb has a silver in Athens, but has only run 2:09:53, almost 4 minutes behind Khannouchi, good for only the 12th fastest American and the 21st fastest time by an American.

That leaves us with Frank Shorter. Shorter never held the world record, and his fastest is only 2:10:30, not even in the top 1000 All-time. Kannouchi's would have finished nearly 5 minutes, or almost a full mile in front of Shorter. However, Shorter has an Olypic gold in Munich and a silver behind a confirmed doper in Montreal. There are 5 or 6 races a year where the World Record could possibly be broken if the conditions are good (Chicago, London, Rotterdam), but the chance to win an olypic medal comes on a single day every 4 years.

So I believe the question of is Khalid Khannouchi the best American marathoner of all-time boils down to this: Khannouchi vs. Shorter, what defines greatness, World records and total domination of the all-time list, or Olympic medal count?

19 years ago 10/27/2006 9:24am EDT

re: KK vs FS

There's certainly a lot of room for argument in my opinion. I also wonder what Meb would run if he ran in good conditions on a really fast course. I don't think he'd run KK's times, but I think a 2:07 is reasonable, maybe better. How would you then fit him in?

times:

important places:

there is enough fodder for votes for anybody.

then you've got the PED issue.

19 years ago 10/27/2006 9:28am EDT

re: SB

SB wrote:
I also wonder what Meb would run if he ran in good conditions on a really fast course.

Remember the OT? Fast course, good conditions.

19 years ago 10/27/2006 9:31am EDT

re: KK vs FS

19 years ago 10/27/2006 9:32am EDT

re: SB

The Olympics is the biggest stage our sport has and Shorter came through with gold and silver. KK has run run fast in major marathons, but hasn't come through with a world championship or Olympic medal. Meb and KK are close and I can go either way.

19 years ago 10/27/2006 9:43am EDT

re: Just my take...

I think the biggest tell tale sign of a great runner in our sport is the old rule of "who's the best on that particular day, course and time." Therefore I'd go with Shorter, since he's been able to come through and beat the top marathon fields in the world in the biggest races (Olympics). I don't think you can truely compare runners just on time. Weather, course and field conditions all go into the times. I guess the only way to really know who is better would be to have Khalid and Frank run the same course, on the same day and both at their peak. Unfortunately we won't ever get to see a race like that.

Altho I am a huge fan of KK too, I wish he would run something like the Olympic marathon and see what he can do for medals. This is a dumb question, but I really don't know so forgive me, is he even eligible for the Olympics now?

19 years ago 10/27/2006 9:49am EDT

re: KK vs FS

Let's be more fair to Frank. How high did he place on the list at the time he ran his fastest races?

Comparing times run in the last few years to those run 30 years ago isn't quite fair, at least the way I think.

19 years ago 10/27/2006 9:56am EDT

re: KK vs FS

Khannouchi doesn't just have the better times relative to a runner from an earlier era, he also held the World Record for nearly four years (although the record he set as an American only lasted a year and a half).

And it's hard to say that Shorter beat better competition than Khannouchi did at London 2002 (Tergat and Gebrselassie).

But the fact that he never medaled at Olympics or World Championship does mean there's room for debate.