What are the greatest moments in Track & Field history?

The fact that you remember Meb first tells us that you know nothing about T&F.

Nurmi with the double in under an hour, Bannister sub 4, Zatopek with the triple, Coe with the repeat, Juantorena's double, Viren with the double double.....

Momentous wrote:

2012 Mo winning 10K Gold in London

2011 Robby Andrew's kick to win NCAA's in the 800

aight....

Boston isn't even track and field

Hicham El Guerrouj's 1500/5000 double at the 2004 olympics

priority wrote:

The fact that you remember Meb first tells us that you know nothing about T&F.

Nurmi with the double in under an hour, Bannister sub 4, Zatopek with the triple, Coe with the repeat, Juantorena's double, Viren with the double double.....

IF you weren't blind you could see that he wrote them in reverse chronological order, that being the most recent. Come on man.

THE undisputed greatest is Jessie Owens winning 3 golds at the Berlin Olympics in front of Hitler

Good call on some of the others, especially Rudisha. Except, I think Bolt's Berlin performance was even more incredible than Beijing.

Also for consideration:

Jonathan Edwards TJ WR is just so freakin ridiculous.

Carl Lewis and Mike Powell LJ battle

I think the combo of Mo's double in London and Ennis' victory was pretty special.

Jesse Owens winning the 100 in Munich.

Bob Beamon breaking the long jump world record by nearly two feet in Mexico City in 1968.

Flo Jo winning the 100m and setting a world record in the 200m in Seoul in 1988.

Carl Lewis winning four gold medals in the 1984 Olympics.

Jim Ryun breaking 3 world records in the summer of 1967 that still stand today.

Shame wrote:

priority wrote:

The fact that you remember Meb first tells us that you know nothing about T&F.

Nurmi with the double in under an hour, Bannister sub 4, Zatopek with the triple, Coe with the repeat, Juantorena's double, Viren with the double double.....

IF you weren't blind you could see that he wrote them in reverse chronological order, that being the most recent. Come on man.

Because that's how he's thinking.

A wise track fan(me) always goes back into the past first.

Joanie winning innagural Olympic marathon on home soil

John Ngugi throwing down a 59 on lap 3 of the 88 Olympic 5k then holding on to win.

Lindgeren beating the soviets as a high schooler in the usa ussr dual meet.

Michael Johnson smashing the existing wr in the finals of the '92 Olympics.

That Chinese guy throwing all the hurdles out of the way.

Nice additions. I'm not very educated on Field events or even sprinting so I wasn't really going to venture there. But i'm sure it'll be crazy if the High jump record goes down this year or next. I wanted to add Ashton Eaton's world record in 2012. He didn't clinch it until he PR'ed in the 1500 as the last event. Talk about riveting. I'm not really sure how to quantify it because it was over multiple years and events, but Coe v. Ovett v. Cram kind of culminated in the LA olympics in 84.

The majority of the list is American. Some of the moments you mentioned were not even the greatest moments of the night they took place.

Alan Webb's HS mile record, seriously. An 18y/o has run under 12:50 for 5000m. 3:53 is kindergarten stuff when compared to that.

2008 / 2009 bolt performances the 2009 performances were time wise better (obviously theyre the world records) but they didn't have the impact of those in 2008.

MJ's 400m WR in 1999 its all in those gold spikes

1964 Billy Mills 10k "Look at mills! Look at mills!"

1972 Wottle 800m the hat says it all

1968 Kip Keino winning by the largest margin ever in the olympic 1500m and beating Ryun

1968 Amos Biwott winning the 3000m steeplechase and starting the kenyan dominance.

2000 Haile beating Tergat by .09 (the 10000m was won by a smaller margin than the 100m in Sydney)

1954 Roger Bannister first ever sub 4

1997 Daniel Komen becomes the first and only man to run under 8 minutes for 2 miles

1992 first ever sweep of the 3000m steeplechase by Kenya

2004 El G pulling off the 5k/15 double in incredible races

2004 steeplechase Kenya completes a steeplechase sweep again with 3 of the greatest steeplechasers ever Paul Koech, Brimin Kipruto, and Ezekiel Kemboi

2003 WC steeplechase Shaheen (formerly stephen cherono) beats Ezekiel Kemboi in an extremely emotional race fueled by cherono's nationality switch.

2012 David Rudisha running 1:40.91 from the front after rounds.

just sat down and started typing this is what i came out with, im sure there are many many more

Beamon 29-2 (I don't think Boston ever jumped 28)

Petranoff 327

US sprinters in Mexico City.

Hingle McCringleberry wrote:

1968 Amos Biwott winning the 3000m steeplechase and starting the kenyan dominance.

1992 first ever sweep of the 3000m steeplechase by Kenya

2004 steeplechase Kenya completes a steeplechase sweep again with 3 of the greatest steeplechasers ever Paul Koech, Brimin Kipruto, and Ezekiel Kemboi

2003 WC steeplechase Shaheen (formerly stephen cherono) beats Ezekiel Kemboi in an extremely emotional race fueled by cherono's nationality switch.

just sat down and started typing this is what i came out with, im sure there are many many more

Wild guess, but are you a steeplechaser?

Momentous wrote:

Hingle McCringleberry wrote:

1968 Amos Biwott winning the 3000m steeplechase and starting the kenyan dominance.

1992 first ever sweep of the 3000m steeplechase by Kenya

2004 steeplechase Kenya completes a steeplechase sweep again with 3 of the greatest steeplechasers ever Paul Koech, Brimin Kipruto, and Ezekiel Kemboi

2003 WC steeplechase Shaheen (formerly stephen cherono) beats Ezekiel Kemboi in an extremely emotional race fueled by cherono's nationality switch.

just sat down and started typing this is what i came out with, im sure there are many many more

Wild guess, but are you a steeplechaser?

To be fair, the 2003 WC steeple is one of the all time greatest races. The race itself is great, but the background of Stephen Cherono's defection to Qatar and the fact not only are the Keyans out for his blood, HIS BROTHER, Abraham Cherono's, is one of them, makes it even more intriguing.

Here's the race.

If we are talking about the steeple, then Kemboi's kick and subsequent dance in Berlin WC cannot be ignored.

For more field events. The shot competition at the 2000 Oly trials was amazing. Don't know if it was a creates moment or not but the final round saw world leading throws one after another. That was the first time I really ever got excited about a field event competition.

Daniel mofo Komen, 2M 7:58 and 3k WRs, 1997 2M & '96 outdoor, '98 indoor

Mary Decker beating the Russians in the '83 Wold Championships.