Crag Mossback wrote:
agip wrote:has anyone ever come back from 3+ years of mediocrity and regained world class form? Serious question.
K Bekele I suppose, but he is obvi a once or twice a generation talent.
unfortunately there is no reason to be even cautiously optimistic for those two.
Ummm...ever hear of Lasse MF Viren?
(granted he was spending a few of those years stockpiling blood)
hmmm I don't know much about Viren's non-OG years. So possibly a good example, except again, you have to look to guys with twice in a generation type talent to find someone who came back from mediocrity.
Plus Viren was 40 years ago
Plus Viren may not have been mediocre between the games - from Wikipedia:
After difficult leg surgery early in 1974, and between his Olympic double victories, he won a bronze medal in the 5,000m at the European championships behind the British athlete Brendan Foster with a time of 13:24.57. Two days later, in Helsinki, Virén won a 5,000m race in 13:26.0, defeating Anders Gärderud (Sweden). Three days after this Helsinki race, Virén again encountered Foster in a 2-mile (3.2-km) race at the Coca-Cola international meet in London at the Crystal Palace. Foster was again victorious, with Virén finishing fourth, only 0.06 seconds behind the second place runner. Virén recorded his fastest 10,000m for the 1974 season with a winning time of 28:22.6 at a Finland vs. Soviet Union international match on 21 September.
__
Not superb, but pretty good.certainly not mediocre like Wheating and German have been.