Fast Dude Runner wrote:
The main reason why people want to erase Wang's records is because it's off the charts.
Guess what? It's not.
The Chinese 3,000 and 10,000m records align pretty much perfectly with the 5,000m record (McMillan calculator) and when compared with Paula's Marathon record, they can be considered WEAK.
Not true. I think the main reason people were shocked is that it came in China and was not on tv and because she ran the 2nd half of the 10,000 faster than the WR. People need to remember that the race was run in 1993. The WR for the 5000 at the time was 14:37.33. Wang's second half was 14:26.
Africa is still today (20+years later) a pretty sexist place. Back then, there was very little African competition so the women's WR should have been faster. Recently, last summer, I did start to think to myself, "A woman like Dibaba definitely could run a 29:31." So I agree that it's possible now 20 years later.
I've always thought about reaching out to Wang. You people do realize she's a University of Colorado grad, right? After she retired, she went to CU. So I assume she speaks good English and I'm always fascinated that the greatest runner to ever be a Buffalo might have been on campus and never interacted with Wetmore. Did Wetmore even know she was there? It would be so interesting to know if they ever talked.