Which elite athlete since WW2 has been the least talked about runner on Letsrun?

Gebre Gebremariam....his name is so hard to spell that no one even bothers to bring him up.

PRs:

5k - 12.52

10k - 26.52

Silver medalist at world cross 2004 in both races (4k+12k) behind Bekele.

Dick Beardsley

It's got to be either Goetzke or Paxton, those warhorses.

Which elite athletes were discussed on letsrun.com before WW2?

I thought letsrun has only been around since the late 90s early 2000s...

Dave Wottle FTW!

Ben Jipcho, Nafteli Temu, Mamo Wolde, Alain Mimoun, Vladimir Kuts, Amos Biwott, Mohammed Gamoudi, Brahim Boutayeb, JOhn Ngugi, William Sigei, Dave Moorcroft, Fernando Mamede, Rosa Mota, Ingrid Kristiansen, Grete Waitz, Dave Power, Kerry O'Brien, Dick Quax, John Landy, Merv Lincoln, Ian Thompson, Bill Adcocks.... oh yeah I nearly forgot Steve Prefontaine.

William Segei and to a lesser extent Moses Kiptanui. Both were fabulous and versatile runners.

Dave Wottle came to my mind as well.

Juha Väätainen of Finland is another one, a mind-boggling athlete starting out as a sprinter (junior) working his way up to the 10K. His 10K win in the European Championships in Helsinki 1971 must still contain one of the fastest last lap in a distance race (51.low).

And at least 50 East Africans we've never heard of...

If you were talking about only Americans, Bob Schul has to be the most overlooked Olympic gold medalist in US track history. Billy Mills has the story as does Steve Pre. Bob won a gold medal and Pre is just a dead guy famous for partying and his brash style. That is too bad!

Sammy Koskei - 24 years ago he set the African record (WK t/a Danish) for 800m 1:42.28 and is still the 4th fastest 800m runner of all time.

How about Brian Diemer, 1984 Olympic Bronze in steeple.

By the way, anyone got the entire race video (and of him charging past Marsh in the homestretch?)...not the short version of the spectator running on the track)

Larry James, "The Mighty Burner"

...Alberto Cova, Gerard Nijboer, Miruts Yifter, Charlie Spedding, Belaynah Densamo, Douglas Wakihuri, Ralph Doubell, Wilson Kipketer, Joaquim Cruz, Toshiheko Seko, Jim Peters, Alison Roe, Anne Audain, Bron Malinowski, Anders Garderud ...

mopak wrote:

Wilson Kipketer, Joaquim Cruz

good list but those are discussed plenty, Kipketer in particular

what kind of an idiotic thread is this?

George Young! 3 time olympian and perhaps toughest US distance runner Ever.

Edelen always gets mentioned in "greatest American runner" threads and there was a thread on Roelants 2 years ago that was about 5 pages long.Truax, is a good pick though.

Tardis Runner wrote:

Buddy Edelen 1st

Max Truax 2nd

Gaston Roelants Third

Chris Bennett, North Carolina

Bob Schul no doubt...The only US 5k gold medal for crying out loud! He won it in terrible conditions with a ridiculous kick that puts Billy Mills finish to shame.