Who is the best world miler/1500m runner EVER?

I would have to go with

1)El Guerrouj as number one considering he is the records holder and considering from 1996 to 2004 he lost a total of 9 times including 4 undefeated seasons...

2)Roger Bannister... First Person To Break the 4:00 min Mile... enough said.

3)Morceli... Former King of the Mile until Guerrouj Broke all of His Records.. 1996 Olympic Champion... Works For Me

herb elliot

Easy one....Alan Webb!

Got to agree. Has to be Herb Elliott. You can't argue with

1. World records at mile (knocked 2.7 secs off in one go!) and 1500m.

2. Ran in only one Olympics and won by nearly 3 seconds in a World Record (broke record by 2.5 secs)

3. Unbeaten in 44 consecutive 1500/mile races, before retiring.

Easily the Best!

Kip Keino? Sure he might not have had as impressive winning streaks or times, but he freakin ran 3:34 in Mexico City running 53 on his second lap. WTF? Every time I think of that race I wonder how fast he could have run at sea level in a perfectly rabbited race. Considering altitude alone knocks off about 5 seconds, I'd guess 3:26-3:28.

Herb Elliott is crazy. Could you imagine winning every race of your professional career? That's nuts.

And elliott retired at 21. If he had had the ability to keep his head in there for another 5-8 years, could you imagine???

Mine would be......

1. Webb in 2007 - AR, ect.

2. Webb in HS - 3:54???? HOLY *@

3. El G - 1500, 5000 double

im laughing alot at the shouts of webb here. typical americans.

i'd arguably say Cram due to his 3 consecutive world records in 19 days over 2k, 1500 & mile. (first man to break 3:30). thats my biased english idea. alot more understandable that the bangwaggon webb fans

but El G has to be the top shout due to his ability to just keep winning! i feel sorry for lagat being in his shaddow though

uk runner wrote:

im laughing alot at the shouts of webb here. typical americans.

i'd arguably say Cram due to his 3 consecutive world records in 19 days over 2k, 1500 & mile. (first man to break 3:30). thats my biased english idea. alot more understandable that the bangwaggon webb fans

but El G has to be the top shout due to his ability to just keep winning! i feel sorry for lagat being in his shaddow though

Do you really think that the people saying Webb are serious? No one here seriously thinks Webb is the best 1500/miler ever.

i certainly would no put it past anyone on here after reading all the Osaka bant

Herb Elliot, I love watching the Olympics decades after he won and thinking where would Elliot finish in this group?oh yeah probably first. Tactically hard to beat a guy who could just dig deep and pull out a great race at any time.

Even today I think Webb could improve his chances at the Olympics by adopting some of Elliots tactics.

uk runner wrote:im laughing alot at the shouts of webb here. typical americans.

I'm laughing at the original post, which includes a top ten list with only three names.

I agree with the poster who said that the Webb chants were sarcastic. You are right that the typical American doesn't about the rest of world much, but is that really worth commenting on again?

El G is #1. Not sure why anyone wants to argue about that. There were lots of greats. Coe was pretty special, IMO, politics aside. Ovett was great. I never thought of Cram quite in the same league as those two. Not sure why.

I get so tired of people always holding up Herb Elliot as the best because he was so dominant over a short period of time. Can you name who he beat in the Olympics? I consider myself a decent historian of the sport, and I know I certainly can't (yes, I know that now some smartass will go and look it up on Wikipedia or something, but I doubt that many people know Elliot's competition off the tops of their heads). Contrast that with the likes of Ryun, Ovett, Coe, Cram, Morceli, and el Guerrouj, who faced some very serious competition (Snell, Bayi, Walker, Scott, Aouita, Bile, Cacho, Lagat, and Ngeny, to name just a few). Given your argument in favor of Elliot over el Guerrouj, do you also believe that Paavo Nuurmi would have actually beaten Gebrselassie or Bekele if he had competed in their respective eras?

I am definitely not one of those presentists who thinks that whoever the current world record holder is must necessarily be the greatest. But I do think one needs to consider the overall competitiveness of an era, as well as the athlete's dominance of that era. El Guerrouj dominated, for 9 years, a very competitive field. I think you have to give him the number 1 spot. About as close to undefeated as you get, and completely dominates the top all-time lists. Morceli likewise was a consistent winner, over multiple years, in a very deep era. He's number 2 in my book. Ryun faced some tough competition (Snell early on, followed by Keino, Walker, et al.), but he wasn't necessarily dominant, so I wouldn't give him the nod for GOAT. Coe was consistently competitive over 1500m/1 mile over a span of 8 years, and was dominant on the biggest stage of all in 1980 and 1984. I think double gold grants Coe the claim to #3. I would like to place Stevie Cram in the top 3, given that on that night in 1985 I think he could have gone significantly faster than 3:46. But, unfortunately, his career was plagued by injury, and he was never quite as consistently competitive as someone like Coe, and never had the prolonged dominance of a Morceli or el Guerrouj.

1. El G

2. Morceli

3. Coe

It was a joke man. Chill.

Ray wrote:And elliott retired at 21. If he had had the ability to keep his head in there for another 5-8 years, could you imagine???

I'm pretty sure Elliott retired at 23. Wasn't he 22 in the 1960 Olympics. I'm not a big fan of absolutist historical rankings, but I do like hearing arguments for the greatness of different runners. I never knew that much about Elliott. Obviously he was a stud. But if El G had retired at 21 he still would have run more than 5 seconds faster than Elliott ever did. And we all know that he went on to run nearly 10 seconds faster over 1500. Obviously, running fast was easier in the 90s than in 1960, but it takes a lot more than the passage of 35 years for 3:35.6 to resemble 3:26, IMO. El G could have run a 1500 steeplechase in 3:35.

an interesting read...

to add to the debate, it is the tussle between Morceli and El Guerrouj that fascinated me. I loved it how Morceli was King and was gonna fight to the end to stop El taking over his crown after such domination.

From Wiki:

"Just one month after the 96 Atlanta Olympics, in 1996 September 7, El Guerrouj became the first runner to defeat Morceli over 1500 m for four years when the two met at the Grand Prix final in Milan. Thereby about four years reign of Noureddine Morceli over 1500m ended.

In the following years, El Guerrouj became the only middle distance runner to win four consecutive world titles in 1997, 1999, 2001, and 2003."

After such disappointment at Atlanta for El, his ability to pick himself up and then dominate to win 4 world titles is UNBELIEVEABLE.

El Guerrouj is therefore the greatest EVER miler/1500m runner.

Now who is the best drug free miler of all time? :)

Jim Ryun was the most talented miler ever. He broke 4 minutes as a junior in high school, way back in the 60's when the science of running wasn't perfected, on a cinder track. With today's training, Ryun could have run much faster. Only reason Kip Keino beat him was because of the fact that the Olympic Games were at altitude.

Rorkes Drift wrote:

I get so tired of people always holding up Herb Elliot as the best because he was so dominant over a short period of time. Can you name who he beat in the Olympics? I consider myself a decent historian of the sport, and I know I certainly can't (yes, I know that now some smartass will go and look it up on Wikipedia or something, but I doubt that many people know Elliot's competition off the tops of their heads).

You really don't know much about the history of the sport if you cannot remember Michel Jazy or Istvan Rozsavolgyi. Have a look at the WR's Monsieur Jazy set in his career (clue - among them guys called Roger, Seb and Hicham also broke that record) and find out who happened to coach Mr Rozsavolgyi - I think he is reasonably well-known. Perhaps then you will really learn about the history of the sport and dispense with calling yourself a self-appointed athletics historian. Look and learn.