Runner of the decade... World? US?

world: kenenisa bekele

US: Gay, Ritz

Men

World: Bekele

US: Meb

Women (tougher)

World: Ndereba, Radcliffe, Diaba....hard to choose

US: Deena, Shalane

dibaba

double world champ in 5 and 10k

double olympic gold 5 and 10 k

5k world record

3 cross country

i think its not even close ... radcliffe has done little the last 3 years and ndebera is impressive but does not come close to dibaba. dibaba will run 2:13 ..1:04 29:30 and 14:06 8:10

mark my words

Men

World: Bekele

US: MEB (Lagat maybe, but he only has half a decade for the US)

Women

World: Dibaba

US: Shalane

Radcliffe - 2:15 Marathon - Still Amazing - Greatest Performance of the Decade - Man or Woman

Men-World: Gebrselassie, Bekele. Maybe Tergat (but that might be swayed by pre-2000 success).

Men-U.S: Meb, Angelo Taylor (400/400H only but international success, longevity. He's kind of forgotten.)Broe (not really but I thought I'd throw it out there).

Women-World: Radcliffe. 2:15 is ridiculous. Not to mention the 2nd and 3rd fastest times as well.

Women-U.S: Kastor, Flanagan, Felix..... Toss up?

It's not even close...........Osama Ben Ladin, he has been running since 2001 and NOBODY can catch him.

Bekele

5000m Junior Silver Medalist 2000

XC Junior World Champion 2001

XC Short Race Silver Medalist 2001

XC Short and Long Course Champion 2002

XC Short and Long Course Champion 2003

10000m World Champion 2003

XC Short and Long Course Champion 2004

5000m Olympic Silver Medalist 2004

10000m Olympic Gold Medalist 2004

XC Short and Long Course Champion 2005

10000m World Champion 2005

XC Short and Long Course Champion 2006

10000m World Champion 2007

XC Senior Race Champion 2008

5000m Olympic Gold Medalist 2008

10000m Olympic Gold Medalist 2008

5000m World Champion 2009

10000m World Champion 2009

World Records in the 5000m and 10000m outdoors. World bests in the 2000m, two mile and 5000m indoors. The guy has been a stud this whole decade, no one even compares or comes anywhere close.

world/decade, my vote goes to:

http://www.zazzle.com/paula_ladies_tshirt-235741769632519127

US - Hall or Meb

World - Bekele hands down

Old_Steepler wrote:

Radcliffe - 2:15 Marathon - Still Amazing - Greatest Performance of the Decade - Man or Woman

Plenty of people have run faster than that. Don't give me this "man or woman" shit.

The decade ends at the end of next year. Why don't we wait until then?

In terms of U.S runner of the decade...

Here's a longshot...

Bryan Clay.

World Champion 2006

World indoor 2008

Olympic Silver 2004

Olympic Gold 2008

Other major championship medals...

The only thing holding him back is the fact that running is his weakest discipline...

But he has won much much much more major championships than any other american athlete over the last 10 years on track.

Beatles Fan wrote:

The decade ends at the end of next year. Why don't we wait until then?

No actually 2000-2009 is 10 years. Next year will be the beginning of the next decade.

US male distance runner is Meb, hands down. Olympic Silver, NYC winner, Boston 3rd, AR 10K, Too many US road and track top 3 finishes to list, 2 olympic teams. No one else has come close.

Clay is a good one for Track athlete.

All runners, sprinter, mid, long distance, field events? Too big to get my head around so I can't even compare a shot putter to a marathoner.

World is either Bekele or Geb. No one else comes close when you factor in titles, records and having done it for all of the (10 year span).

If Bekele had done even one successful marathon, I think he would get the nod. For me their track credentials are close, but with Geb you add a whole extra dimension with the marathon.

VF Runner wrote:

World is either Bekele or Geb. No one else comes close when you factor in titles, records and having done it for all of the (10 year span).

If Bekele had done even one successful marathon, I think he would get the nod. For me their track credentials are close, but with Geb you add a whole extra dimension with the marathon.

I'm a big Geb fan (GOAT), but if winning is what matters, no one is even in the same universe as Bekele. Doesn't he have somewhere north of 20 world and olympic championships?

As for extra dimensions outside of track..sure Geb has marathon (and no world or oly titles), while Bekele has XC (and something like 10 titles there).

Distance:

1990-1999: Geb

2000-2009: Bekele

1990-2009: Geb

Sprints:

1990-1999: M Johnson

2000-2009: Bolt

Women Distance:

1990-1999: Pippig ?

2000-2009: Paula