Is it safe to say Chris Solinsky is the greatest white distance runner in human history?

Yawn! Who cares? Bringing up race all the time in these threads sure gets old.

How about something more interesting-- Greatest brown-haired distance runner? Greatest left handed distance runner? Greatest distance runner with freckles? Greatest distance runner with lots of body hair? Greatest distance runner with a mustache?

Primordial Ooze wrote:

Yawn! Who cares? Bringing up race all the time in these threads sure gets old.

How about something more interesting-- Greatest brown-haired distance runner? Greatest left handed distance runner? Greatest distance runner with freckles? Greatest distance runner with lots of body hair? Greatest distance runner with a mustache?

There are some things we'll need to sort out before we discuss these.

Greatest left handed distance runner: A lot of people do some things left handed and other things right handed. What if someone writes left handed but throws right handed? We need to define what it means to be left handed.

Greatest distance runner with lots of body hair: How much is lots?

Greatest runner with a mustache: What if someone doesn't always have a mustache? Does someone count as a runner with a mustache if they have a mustache for the majority of their races, or is their some other threshold? Do we only count races run while they have a mustache?

no, it is not safe to say. it is safe to say that he is an awesome runner. imho he needs medals.

nitpicker wrote:

There are some things we'll need to sort out before we discuss these.

Greatest left handed distance runner: A lot of people do some things left handed and other things right handed. What if someone writes left handed but throws right handed? We need to define what it means to be left handed.

Greatest distance runner with lots of body hair: How much is lots?

Greatest runner with a mustache: What if someone doesn't always have a mustache? Does someone count as a runner with a mustache if they have a mustache for the majority of their races, or is their some other threshold? Do we only count races run while they have a mustache?

1. Writes left handed. Who cares about throwing. It's not freaking baseball.

2. Hairy division = Al Sal body hair or greater on race day

3. Mustache division = >Hitler mustache on race day; clean-shaven races don't count

OK. This is a joke now. Paavo Nurmi, Zatopek, Coe, Ovett, Moorcroft, Ryun, Shorter, Baldini, Viren. I am gonna stop there, but I could keep going. I know Solinsky personally and he would be pissed off at the moniker you laying out there on him. He has a good enough sense of history in this sport to be uncomfortable by what you are doing when you put that type of nonsense out there.

Primordial Ooze wrote:

Yawn! Who cares? Bringing up race all the time in these threads sure gets old.

How about something more interesting-- Greatest brown-haired distance runner? Greatest left handed distance runner? Greatest distance runner with freckles? Greatest distance runner with lots of body hair? Greatest distance runner with a mustache?

Aww, you are so politically correct, congrats to you!

Safe to say he is having a great year!

Dieter Baumman? Didn't that guy win Olympic Gold. Yes I know he had pos. test for an archaic drug 5 years after the fact or something. He was also faster than Solinsky by a good deal in the 5, and a lot in the 15

The Oracle wrote:

I didn't say middle distance. And I don't care if he isn't, but I do think 26:59 and 12:55 merit him some discussion.

I am a huge fan of Chris and think he has done amazingly well this year, but here are a few Americans that had better careers than Chris (granted Chris has many yrs to go):

Rodgers

Salazar

Shorter

Scott

Spivey

Bob Kennedy

Dathan Ritzenhein

Craig Virgin

Steve Prefontaine

All of these guys had multiple ARs, won or placed HIGH at many Euro meets (and/or marathons) for years. Some won or placed HIGH at WCCC. Most won or placed high at global championships, and were at or near the top of the annual lists in the 5k or 10k (or 1000m-3k for Spivey and Scott). Some won multiple NCAA titles, National and Olympic and World Ch Trials titles.

There are probably a few more. He is undeniably the fastest 5k/10k runner in American history, with only Ritz/Rupp/Meb/Abdi being close. And all of them are about 20-30 seconds away when you add up PRs.

I guess it has already been established that he is the fastest non-African 5k/10k runner of all-time. That by itself is astounding!

I saw him run at FLocker REgionals yrs ago, and then again at the Big 10 track meets and XC meets and I knew he would be something special, but even I thought he would be about 13:05/27:20 ... he has surpassed nearly everyone's expectations.

Go Chris!

Voice of Reason wrote:

Dieter Baumman? Didn't that guy win Olympic Gold. Yes I know he had pos. test for an archaic drug 5 years after the fact or something. He was also faster than Solinsky by a good deal in the 5, and a lot in the 15

If you consider 0.8 sec a good deal of time...

He needs medals.

1. he's not white

2. he has no major medals

Yeah my bad, remembered incorrectly. Baumman did have a devastating kick. His competition wasn't as good, but boy did he take advantage.

concord wrote:

There are a lot of definitions of "white" and "caucasian" - probably why there is so much confusion. Here is the U.S. Census Bureau's definition of "white". By this criteria El Guerrouj clearly qualifies.

"White. A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa. It includes people who indicate their race as "White" or report entries such as Irish, German, Italian, Lebanese, Near Easterner, Arab, or Polish."

there was an article where it said activist for people of mideast and arab descent living in the USA are not happy about being classified as white basically because they dont feel they should have to score as high in test's as whites and asians to get into schools, and that they should have jobs reserved for them like blacks and spanish because they also face discrimination.

this was in a front page article in the los angeles times about 4-6 months ago.

i just wanted to mention this as i am considered the bad guy at letsrun because i am against american runners because i am against american only prize money as i feel it discriminates basically against african (black) runners.

the article seemed to me to be saying that whites and asians are at a disadvantage in getting into schools and getting jobs and the mideast/arab activist do not want the groups they are trying to represent to be in this category for this reason.

i am just being consistant in my beliefs that each person regardless of what the census considers them should be judged and rewarded on merit.

Central Asia and Eastern Europe were influenced by the Mongol Hordes, 1250AD-1550AD, thus the descendants today are Mongol Caucasian.

Maybe if he won a race first? Just a thought.

Coach Dunce Lives wrote:

One fell, one didn't. Enjoy your misery.

Rupp is 2 years younger and on the level already. He also runs about 20-30 less miles a week. He has room to grow.

His lower mileage doesn't make him more likely to improve, it just means he probably isn't maxing out his development. I suspect that Solinsky and Rupp have similar volume if you add in cross-training, though.

Greatest distance runner with a mustache?

Pre

Yooo wrote:

Greatest distance runner with a mustache?

Pre

Dave Bedford had a World Record.