Is Catherine Ndereba The Greatest Female Marathoner in History? Rank Your Top 10 Here

Naoko Takahashi also had the world record and an Olympic gold medal.

I think top 4 should be:

1) Joan Benoit Samuelson

2) Paula Radcliffe

3) Catherine Ndereba

4) Grete Waitz

Is this only post-1984 Olympics?

#1 right now (historically speaking) is Joan Benoit hands down. Her times from nearly 30 years ago on tougher courses still rival the world's top times. (obviously Paula's WR is a good deal below those, but still)

You blkes are crazy.Radcliffe is far and away the best ever female marathon runner.Look at how far ahead her WR is.

i'd say

1) Catherine Ndereba

2) Paula Radcliffe

3) Joan Benoit

4) Grete Waitz

Judy wrote:

You blkes are crazy.Radcliffe is far and away the best ever female marathon runner.Look at how far ahead her WR is.

Sure, but records fall over time. I think JBS is the the greatest in history given her entire career. But then again Paula is still competing, so it's difficult to compare athletes from different eras.

PeteRose wrote:

#1 right now (historically speaking) is Joan Benoit hands down. Her times from nearly 30 years ago on tougher courses still rival the world's top times. (obviously Paula's WR is a good deal below those, but still)

Really?

Benoit’s PB is 2.21.21.

To my mind there’s no question as to who is the greatest female marathon runner of all time.

The lady that still owns four of the five fastest times ever run.

Her best three marathon times average 2.16.48.

Which is about two minutes faster that the next lady, Ndereba’s best time of 2.18.47.

Apart from the two Olympic races where she was clearly either injured or ill and had it not been an Olympic race, she’d never contemplated running - she’s uniquely unbeaten in every race she’s entered fully fit, including the World Championships.

Margaret Okayo, who has the course records in both Boston and New York City, should be on the list somewhere

No contest

Radcliffe.

The others can line up and get the Emotional Votes.

Joan Benoit, though, ran her races and times without the benefit of many forebears--she was essentially out there all by her lonesome lighting the place up. For that alone I put her at #2 and Radcliffe at #2.

johnny wins. jbs ran faster or beat anyone she needed to to prove her dominance. and she has a gold medal from the olympics but you know that and choose to overlook it.

JBS seems to be getting a few extra points based on which country she represented.

Oprah and who f***en cares

Ndereba is the greatest competitor - fearless. I'd put her #1. Not sure by Ingrid Kristiansen is down so low...I'd bump her up a bit.

Unless you have concluded that she was a drug cheat, Uta Pippig should be top five. 3 Boston victories, 3 Berlin and one in NY.

I ran against Greta Waitz in a 5K in 1983, and she kicked my butt pretty handily, for what that's worth. I haven't raced any of the others.

Didn't Paula have some goofy escort/pacemaker when she was setting her world records?

YOU FORGOT about Fatuma Roba who was the first African to win the Olympic Marathon in 1996 along with 3 consecutive Boston Marathon Wins.

There are several tiebreakers between Radcliffe and Ndereba that go in Paula's favor. Paula has three times faster than Ndereba's best, the fastest of which is 3:22 better. In very close finishes, races that were not routs, Paula beat Susan Chepkemei in one NYC Marathon and Gete Wami in another, while Ndereba lost to Okayo in Boston. And in the closest thing that qualifies as a match race between the two, when both were fit, Radcliffe beat Ndereba at the 2005 Woirld Championships.

1) Waitz

2) Radcliffe

3) Benoit-Samuelson

4) Ndereba

solely by looks:

1) Allison Roe