Just watched Fam's last career steeple ever- 8:56.6 at Music City Distance Carnival

Hippo wrote:

Stick with eharmony wrote:

You Fam badgers are hilarious. Fam is one of the greatest runners in American history. Please stop ripping him apart

Solid troll post. This will ruffle everyone's feathers for sure: stat-nerds, historians and anti-Fam fans alike.

Not trolling. I did a run with him in 2013. I picked him up from the airport in chattanooga and dropped him off at his hotel. He wanted to go on a run and I had on jeans. He lent spare shorts. He's a class act

I watched it too and now there's a mess in my pants

Dretch wrote:

Actually you only listed seven because you have Lincoln on there twice.

Well Lincoln is 2x as good as Fam.:) Fam was good. Any one who wins a national title or makes an olympic team is good. But a guy wins the national championship every year and 3 guys make the olympic team. They are not going to all be top 10. The point was that anyone who thinks Fam was top 2 is an idiot. He isn't close.

asdfasf wrote:

Rabbit Jillian wrote:

Anthony Famighlietti. The second best American steepler of all time.

Probably doesn't make the top 10

Marsh

Diemer

Lincoln

Jager

Lincoln

George young

Ashenfeller

Croghan

are clearly better. And you can make arguements that guys like Cabral, Marc Davis, Tim Broe are either better or equal.

Of course I am assuming we are just looking at running ability not ability to be attention whore. Fam was definitely top 10 in that.

I assume you're breaking Malmo's balls on purpose ..... or you know nothing about the history of the event.

I list him as 4rd behind Dan Lincoln and ahead of Zach Ornelas.

Did anyone listen to his 18 min interview afterwards, where he pretty much says that Rupp and Solinsky were doping in '09.

In reality Fam was a 5000/10000m runner but he wanted to be a steeper. He had solid wheels and had a 13:11 5000m pr and a 27:3x debut (these are both from memory so please correct me) at a time when a 13:11 was a slammin time for an American. When he ran his 5000m pr he had never really even trained for a 5000m. He never really ran smart and didn't do much mileage either. He def had a lot of potential and Rupp and Solinsky more than likely doped. I hate Rupp and love Solinsky but that injury of his is a classic steroid injury.

Stick with eharmony wrote:

Hippo wrote:

Solid troll post. This will ruffle everyone's feathers for sure: stat-nerds, historians and anti-Fam fans alike.

Not trolling. I did a run with him in 2013. I picked him up from the airport in chattanooga and dropped him off at his hotel. He wanted to go on a run and I had on jeans. He lent spare shorts. He's a class act

Then say he is one of the classiest runners in American history. I can't argue with that and dont have any facts.

But don't say greatest runner if you don't mean greatest runner. That's the same thing OP did, and it was wrong.

SomeCoach wrote:

asdfasf wrote:

Probably doesn't make the top 10

Marsh

Diemer

Lincoln

Jager

Lincoln

George young

Ashenfeller

Croghan

are clearly better. And you can make arguements that guys like Cabral, Marc Davis, Tim Broe are either better or equal.

Of course I am assuming we are just looking at running ability not ability to be attention whore. Fam was definitely top 10 in that.

I assume you're breaking Malmo's balls on purpose ..... or you know nothing about the history of the event.

Being one of the only four Americans to ever beat Henry Marsh I think I'm qualified to weigh in here. His list is good but not in the right order. Jager, "The Natural", is far above everyone else. He was far above from day one. Fam could have been top ten but isn't because of his marching to a different drummer shtick.

malmo wrote:

SomeCoach wrote:

I assume you're breaking Malmo's balls on purpose ..... or you know nothing about the history of the event.

Being one of the only four Americans to ever beat Henry Marsh I think I'm qualified to weigh in here. His list is good but not in the right order. Jager, "The Natural", is far above everyone else. He was far above from day one. Fam could have been top ten but isn't because of his marching to a different drummer shtick.

That list wasn't remotely ranked in order. It was just the guys I can think of off the of my head that you would have to struggle to rank Fam ahead of. It is heavily biased towards the 90s on with only the medal winners and big studs (i.e. Marsh) popping up instantly. I have no clue if I would rank Malmo above Fam. I could see arguements for either. I am sure Malmo could come up with a another half dozen names from the 60s/70s/80s (how about Doug Brown. Did he make 3 olympic teams?) that you could talk about being at the level of Fam and depending on your personal preferences (olympic teams versus fast times. short brilliance versus long careers).

Again this isn't ment to belittle Fam (or Malmo for that matter). But when you make top 10 lists, not everyone can be in the top and the idea that Fam is top 2 is just stupid. Doesn't mean he wasn't a great runner.

Putting Doug Brown in the top ten is automatic. A top ten world ranking, TWICE American record holder (the first under 8:20) and 3 time Olympian. The only other contender for the top ten would be John Gregorek. A top ten world ranking and Olympic Team to nowhere (Jimmy Carter)

Criteria:

1. World records

2. World or Olympic championships

3. World rankings

4. National records

5. Olympic teams

6. Natonal championships

7. National rankings

I would also throw dan huling into the mix. 5th in the world during the Kenyan era is no joke, plus he has solid PRs too.

Give it a rest wrote:

Good lord, sometimes you people make it nearly impossible to enjoy discussing the sport of running. If you don't think Fam is in the top 10 all time American steeplers then you are either 1) very uninformed or 2) an enormous hater of him. He is obviously top 10, no questions asked. Idk if I'd put him at #2 behind jäger, but I don't think that was OPs point. Fam has had a long, great career. Yesterday was his last steeple ever. Can we just appreciate his contribution to the sport of track and field rather than calling him an "attention whore"?

Honestly sometimes I wish I didn't like running as much as I do because this place just depresses me with its negativity.

I appreciate Fam and would say he is in the top-10, albeit in the back half. You can't fault his for his lack of success in international competitions because very few athletes any where in the world were able do dispose the Kenyans. I also think Fam got the most out of talent.

Dude had fun, ran hard and had great career, we should all do so well. Remember being at 2008 Trials he when he went balls out from the gun.

Fam was slightly better than Malmo. George would agree that he couldn't have beat Fam.

usnspecialist wrote:

I would also throw dan huling into the mix. 5th in the world during the Kenyan era is no joke, plus he has solid PRs too.

No olympic team is going to hold him back compared to Fam. But yeah he is in the ballpark.

Pascal Dobert is another guy that is about the same as Fam (a bunch of national titles,world and olympic teams and a faster PR). All come down to your preferences.

When you start go back to the 80s /60/70s, it gets messy in a hurry as the times are slower than Fams, careers shorter (i.e. a lot of guys do 1 olympics and retire) but the guys are much closer to the world record and being competitive in international races.

I'd add John Gregorek to that list

Rabbit Jillian wrote:

Anthony Famighlietti. The second best American steepler of all time.

There is no "h" in Famiglietti brother.

Daniel Lincoln was a better steepler and a massive overachiever. Look at his high school pr's and what he did in college and as a pro.... Viva John McDonnell