most intelligent/ most stupid runners ever?

Oh, SNAP!

Mr. Obvious wrote:

Stupidest? You have your pick of innumerable Letsrun.com posters.

Dr. Bill Cosby was an excellent quarter miler in HS and College, wrote a couple of books and was a pretty good entertainer as well.

Dr. Leroy Meriweather was a working physician while still competing in AAU TAC/USATF events.

Edwin Moses accepted an academic scholarship to Morehouse College in Atlanta, majoring in physics and engineering.

At Morehouse, where he basically coached himself, he was known as "Bionic Man" due to his improbable, fierce workouts. He took a scientific approach to analyzing his performance and developing his own training methods. The method paid off in his breaking his own world record with a 47.45 at the Pepsi Invitational, an AAU meet, in 1977.

Edwin Moses has a bachelor's of science degree in physics and master's in business administration from Pepperdine. As a child he built volcanoes, dissected frogs, collected fossils and launched homemade rockets would become one of the most distinguished track athletes in history. Two Olympic gold medals and 107 consecutive victories in 400-meter hurdles finals.

TrackCoach wrote:

Edwin Moses accepted an academic scholarship to Morehouse College in Atlanta, majoring in physics and engineering.

At Morehouse, where he basically coached himself, he was known as "Bionic Man" due to his improbable, fierce workouts. He took a scientific approach to analyzing his performance and developing his own training methods. The method paid off in his breaking his own world record with a 47.45 at the Pepsi Invitational, an AAU meet, in 1977.

Edwin Moses has a bachelor's of science degree in physics and master's in business administration from Pepperdine. As a child he built volcanoes, dissected frogs, collected fossils and launched homemade rockets would become one of the most distinguished track athletes in history. Two Olympic gold medals and 107 consecutive victories in 400-meter hurdles finals.

As an adult Moses cruised Sunset Blvd at night for hookers, eventually getting arrested for soliciting an undercover vice cop. His expensive attorney found a sympathetic jury and he was acquitted. Guilty but free, ala OJ.

Are you thinking of Delano Meriweather?

Vice squad wrote:

As an adult Moses cruised Sunset Blvd at night for hookers, eventually getting arrested for soliciting an undercover vice cop. His expensive attorney found a sympathetic jury and he was acquitted. Guilty but free, ala OJ.

The fact that he couldn\'t keep his hand out of the cookie jar doesn\'t mean he wasn\'t/isn\'t intelligent.

Just observing... wrote:

I am I the only one to notice the high number of CAUCASIAN people listed among the smartest? How about the high number of NEGROES among the dumbest? Just observing...

Or how for smartest there are more DISTANCE guys and for dumbest there are more SPRINTERS.

How about Haile Geb? He's always reminded me as a smart guy.

Gerry Lindgren he went insane thats pretty stupid. But he did run 8:40 2 mile in high school.

I'm pretty sure Bill Cosby received an "honorary doctorate" which has about as much value as a MacDonalds napkin.

smartest? and black? easy:

justin gatlin

timmy montgomery

marion jones

cj hunter

trevor graham

ben johnson

jerome young

michelle collins

I once knew a runner who was so dumb that he used the phrase "most stupid."

dumbest and white?

try gabe jennings and tony fam

Craig Masback

Most stupid-Jim Ryun. So superstitious that he would fit right in the Middle Ages. I call that stuperstitious.

FOR DUMBEST, HOW ABOUT THE 1500M FINAL FIELD IN MONTREAL?

They let Walker have the race despite knowing he was injured and running at a sub par level.

Second choice....Pre for not going for the medal and trying to grab the whole thing.

Third.....and could go either way smartest or dumbest the drug cheats who came up with wild defenses and were later cleared by usatf read Mitchell, Slaney, etc

Paula Radcliffe has a First Class Hons Degree and is multilingual (English, French and German). She also has four A Levels (all 'A' grades).

Actually, rather than compare smart versus dumb (which is a little silly anyway) why not give praise to those that value their education and pursue with focus. I notice Richard Kiplagat at Iona just finished his education with a 3.75 GPA in three years - and felt privileged to be here doing so. Is that not a lesson for us all?

I started reading this post looking to see about intelligence as applied to running. Intelligence is not a quantity or a solo performance measure but can be measured only as it is applied to some task. To make the comparison meaningful apply intelligence to the same task. Can we really compare a writer to a surgeon?

So who has been really smart in applying intelligence to getting racing results? Surely we have known runners who maximize their racing results with good decisions and those who constantly sabotage themselves. Some very smart people can make some really dumb training/racing decisions. Who comes to mind?

Tom

See the comments on Moses above. Brilliant.

asdv wrote:

The fact that he couldn't keep his hand out of the cookie jar doesn't mean he wasn't/isn't intelligent.

I didn't say he wasn't. The title of the thread is "most intelligent/stupid runner ever." Moses fits the bill.