What is the greatest world record of all time?

Easy:

Women's 400

And

Women's 10,000

438 yards wrote:

Easy:

Women's 400

And

Women's 10,000

If they were clean, yes. But both were documented steroid users.

The 2nd best women's 10K (Surprisingly not held by T. Dibaba) should be the real world record and would be one of the most impressive records ever.

The greatest (most unreachable) one is most certainly NOT one that relies primarily on training, selection, or even doping, but one that relies on luck, fluke, chance, or error.

All distance records are OUT, unless there was an error--i.e. in timing, or measurement, like a downhill marathon course, or failing to detect that an athlete took a shortcut. Other than that, training, selection, and doping even things out, yes, even for Radcliffe's WR.

So we are left with sprints, throws, and jumps.

Bolt's 100 is WAY out there, and is the product of training, selection, and doping, meaning that other people will get it if and when those factors line up.

FloJo's 100, however, is the product of not only selection, training, and doping, but also a major wind gauge error, and is thus the greatest sprint WR, better than her 200, or the W400. The chances of that error being repeated are much less than the chances of those other conditions being met.

The best candidates for luck, fluke, or chance, are the throws and the jumps, especially the throws because they are affected more by things like wind, a major uncontrollable element. Jumps have the uncontrollable element of chance in that a foul might not be properly recorded, but none Beamon, Lewis, nor Powell's current WR were fouls IIRC. I don't know if Edwards fouled or not, I don't think so.

So while Edwards' jump is good, as were Beamon's and Powell's, Zelezny's JT has to be up there, but the possibility of fluke, chance, or error is not as great as it is for FloJo, and is a mere suggestion. Shot is out, not enough chance element. Hammer maybe, and discus a strong possibility, I don't know about that WR.

In order, I have it:

W-100m....the winner by far

M-JT....a possible 2nd place, with a decent suggestion of luck

M/W-DT [unsure, but the possibility of luck/chance is high]

El G's 2k record of 4:44 is just an insane time and arguably stronger than his 3:26... that record is going to last forever the 2k is almost never contested and its going to take a monster talent to take it down.

Hingle McCringleberry wrote:

El G's 2k record of 4:44 is just an insane time and arguably stronger than his 3:26... that record is going to last forever the 2k is almost never contested and its going to take a monster talent to take it down.

Indeed. A monster talent that has high motivation and is also willing to get doped up. Mm.

Tadese took 10 seconds off of the existing record. It's a great record, but, at the time, it was just part of the progression.

Bolt's 9.58 and Johnson's 19.32 were a case of dismantling the existing records. We looked at those and thought "Did a human being actually do that?".

That said, I *do* like Komen's back to back 4 minute miles, just because of the history of the 4 minute mile.

Loot wrote:

Mike Powell's LJ record is not even the true WR. That belongs to Ivan Pedroso who was victim of the worst WR robberies ever. Pedroso broke the record in '95 in Italy, it was clean, wind was +1.2, the mark even remains an official mark. Yet the Italians refused to ratify the record. (They came up with some ridiculous excuse, said some guy was blocking the anemometer, which was proven on video to not be the case, and it still had a reading of +1.2, so couldn't have been blocked)

Much speculation as to the real reason why. It probably was political. There was a Mercedes given to any WR back then and they didn't want to give it to Castro.

Do you really think Italians offer a Mercedes? Maybe you check where Mercedes is located.

And - if I remember correctly - here indeed someone was blocking the anemometer always when Pedroso was jumping. And not to forget that Sestriere is 2035 above sea level.

I don't know if Pedroso's jump should have been ratified or not, but Powel's jump was the far better performance.

Coach.. wrote:

The winner is clearly bolts 9.58

Honourable mention to gebs 12-44

The incredible sudden drop in distance records coincided suspiciously with the advent of EPO it must be said

Not so clearly...

The jump for Bolt's record was barely better than the jump for Ben Johnson's record. Johnson went 9.83, then 9.78. It wasn't until 1999 that they met that time again.

Now, everone scream and say DOPING. OK.

Now, all those who think Bolt is clean, raise their hand. Yeah, I didn't think so.

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense, A jump that is shorter is far better.

It was at altitude, but so was Beamon and so was Powell (although not as high)

The fact remains it was legal and is still an official jump. (How is a wind legal jump that is an official mark, the longest ever but not a WR? It doesn't make sense). Altitude is obviously not disqualifier for WRs

As for the Mercedes, who knows what it was, they paid bonuses too. They didn't want to give him a Mercedes. It was likely political. They didn't want another commie to have a WR (Sotomayor already had the HJ). Maybe they just didn't like him. Whatever the reason, the fact is it was a blatant robbery

The video clearly shows no one anywhere near the anemometer when he jumps. And it got a reading. Case closed. It was and remains a robbery.

The long jump world record belongs to Ivan Pedroso

I actually agree with you when you put it that way

Flo Jo's 100m is absurd. The beneficiary of not only an athlete loaded with insane amounts of roids, but a huge wind that was likely in the +4-5 zone. (All races before and after her race were +4-5)

It's the record that should most be removed from the books. They are finally considering doing that. Don't know why it has taken so long. One look at the video and you can see the bibs of the athletes being lifted by wind at the start line. As for roids her training partner confessed that he gave her roids.

But even if you keep the 10.49, which is unbreakable by any clean woman under wind probably for 100 years, Zelezny's jav is even far ahead of it

Zelezny's jav is not even human, not even animal. It's more like he launched a rocket. .

And since we're talking about steroid records, Koch's 400m is just as unbreakable as Flo Juice

You ar right, Powell's record was also set at altitude (although not as high - as you stated). To be more precise: 6m of altitude. I've heard they are planning to held ski alpin downhill races there.

So you are also continuing that they didn't wanted to give him a Mercedes. You are right here again, they didn't wanted to do that( but also never had planned). I have the full meeting on tape and maybe I check again in the next days, but as far as I know, someone always blocked anemometer when Pedrose was jumping. Most other wind readings (in LJ direction) on this occasion were well over 2m/s. I strongly believe the jump actually was wind affected (and also altitude affected - but just a little bit more than Powell's jump from Japanese-Himalaya). Again, I don't know if Pedroso's jump should have been ratified or not. But Powell's was the better performance, that's for sure.

Rising from the dead after 3 days!

Hingle McCringleberry wrote:

El G's 2k record of 4:44 is just an insane time and arguably stronger than his 3:26... that record is going to last forever the 2k is almost never contested and its going to take a monster talent to take it down.

Hard to accept "greatest" and "almost never contested," together. Especially if it's not clearly (rather than arguably) stronger than other strong records.

Star wrote:

Wilt Chamberlain

20,000

Yes, that's a good one, but unverifiable.

His other record of averaging 50 points and 20 rebounds per game in one season will never be broken.

Has anybody mentioned Johnny Grays 600m WR of 1.12.81 set in 86. Rudisha ran 1.13.71 last year , even if he was not at his best he still had plenty of speed and 600m is probably his best distance. Well he is back again at Birmingham for another attempt at it. This year. Some other guys too.

radcliffedoppppppppedup wrote:

the OP is talking about CLEAN records.

and yeah I'm going with komen but not his 3000m but two mile. sub 4 minute mile back to back twice is something that man might never be able to achieve again.

LOL

Komen and clean can't even be mentioned in the same story. His caffeine escapades never mind his obvious EPO use are the stuff of legend.

1:40.91 in London. Now that was awesome.

Coach.. wrote:

cbenson4 wrote:

If we're talking about any world record at any point in time, I'll go with Bannister's sub-4.

Dude was doped to the gills on oxygen

1.) Is oxygen listed as a doping substance?

2.) Does anyone have actual evidence of this (e.g. video of him on a respirator or oxygen feed seconds before the race)?

Concupiscurd wrote:

After seeing Farrah running his indoor record, I'm not so sure that he couldn't break 8 minutes if he concentrated on shorter distances.

Easy on the optimism (no sarcasm intended). At that level it takes extraordinary effort to progress with every fraction of a second. Don't forget that Haile tried 3 times to go sub-8, and ran an 8:01 every time.

Tough call, but I'd narrow it down to these three:

Paula Radcliffe's marathon

Daniel Komen's 3000m

Michael Johnson's 400m

Maybe there are other unbelievable records at obscure distances and/or in field events which I do not know about, but these stand out as records that nobody has ever (yes, ever) even been in shouting distance of. Note: I'm ignoring all of the records by Ma Juaren's Chinese athletes in the era of Wang Junxia as well as the women's 800 meter world record which was obviously run by a dude.