The GOAT of Distance Running IS NOT Kenenisa Bekele or Haile Gebresallaise

Come on, this is ridiculous.

For sure, Aouita wanted to be the greatest distance runner in history and at the end of the 1980s was on a good way to achieve it. But with this will in his mind to beat also the best over 800m and 10000m (even in the steeple) in some way he ruined his career.

If you want to be serious, you can't rank Aouita's 7 top-class seasons ahead oh Gebrselassie's around 20 and Bekele's 15 (missed some through injury; still counting).

If Aouita would have achieved his biggest goal (Olympic champ in Seoul over 800m and 1500m and in Barcelona over 5000m and 10000m) he definitely still would be the greatest ever (despite much slower times) but he fell short on this in the first event (for sure injured and hindered by Elliott and the tactics of all his opponents) and later totally lost his dedication.

Yes, to beat some of the world's best over 800m, later all of the best over 10000m and later almost all of the best over 800m again is absolutely unique. But overall his record just is too weak to be a real challenger of the two Ethiopians.

His 800m from Seoul was worth something like 1:43.0 (look the extra distance)

His 1500m from Nice definitely around 3:28.5 at least (almost unique finish)

His 5000m from Oslo (super fast finish) and Rome (humidity) around 12:55

His 10000m from Oslo at least 27:18 (half of the race close to 2nd lane)

Can't tell a lot about his steeple from Latakia (reportedly he almost came to an stop in the last lap)

Unfortunately he started too late with athletics (absolutely no history in Morocco at the time; came to it just by "accident")

By the way, you better check your math skils.

I have checked my math skills and the times are not as important considering he ran in the early to late 80's. Almost 30 years before Haile and over 30 years to my favorite athlete Kenenisa Bekele. What math do you have to check when someone WINS 115 out of 119 of their races. Over legendary athletes in their speciality like Joaquim Cruz, Steve Cram, Steve COe, John Ngugi, Alberto Cova etc.

Only man to run sub

1:44 800, 3:30 1500m, sub 7:30 3000m and lst ever, and sub 13 min 5000m and lst ever, and throw in a 27:20 10000m debut only 7 seconds off WR.

Name one athlete who can match that range, not even Augustine Choge, Noureddine Morecli, Hicham El Guerrouj, has that 800m speed nor 10000m endurance. It is much tougher to be elite from 800m to 10000m than it is from 1500m to Marathon.

I will agree the length of his career doesn't bode well from Aouita but the simple fact that he was as dominant as anyone over 4 different events and broke 2 barriers (30 years ago) to this day is still hard for elite athletes. Said Aouita definitely deserves to be mentioned as GOAT and probably would have the title rapped and a couple more World and Olympic titles up if not for his career ending injury. Those 800m runners absolutely feared a 5000m man and even the commentator stated they was running not to lose to Said Aouita. His injury hampered the most versatile distance runner the world will see in our time!!!

OK, now try again: 27:26.11 is how much behind 27:13.81?

Now a 2nd exam for you: someone born in April 1973 is how much younger than someone Born in November 1959 (or 1960 on some sources). Small hint: "almost 30 years" is not absolutely accurate.

I'm probably one of the greatest admirers of Aouita's will to beat the best over both 800m and 10000m. But I'm not blind to ignore the facts that both Gebrselassie and Bekele have an much superior overall career record.

But nice to see that all of your observations regarding Aouita actually come from me.

Yeah, the GOAT is a guy that talked about taking drugs everyday.

"Melissa Rollison, a medal prospect in the 3000m steeplechase at next month's Commonwealth Games, has lifted the lid on one of the darkest periods in the sport by revealing that Aouita urged her to take human growth hormone (HGH) while on a training camp in the US in 2003.

"He talked about it [drugs] every day," she said. "We had to go to America because that's where you get HGH and all this stuff."

While we can suspect that the East Africans may have doped, we can be certain that Aouita did so. Not only that, but he brought the infection of doping to North Africa almost single-handedly. A less-deserving "GOAT" one could hardly imagine.

Quality Qontrol wrote:

While we can suspect that the East Africans may have doped, we can be certain that Aouita did so. Not only that, but he brought the infection of doping to North Africa almost single-handedly. A less-deserving "GOAT" one could hardly imagine.

Whether or not someone doped has nothing to do with whether they are the GOAT.

Dope hard, win easy. It is the Morocco way.

...? Mo Farah has faster PRs at 1500 up (his indoor 2 mile converts to sub 7:30) and has 4 Olympic Golds only 2-3 years after the era of KB and Kipchoge running on the track... Not saying Mo is GOAT, but it takes two seconds to irrefutably disagree to your argument by saying "Mo Farah"

First, this is a fun argument that really has no way of being settled.

It is interesting to observe a common difference of opinion in track. Those who value winning races versus those who value times.

This is common in a lot of these discussions across all sports. For instance debates about where Dan Marino falls in the pantheon of NFL QBs. His lack of titles tends to drag him down, but in a team sport it is not always up to one player. It is not like the Patriots have had the worst defenses in the league during this run of his.

Talking about scalps someone collected is ridiculous. All great runners have bad races where their scalp is gathered by non-greats. Ngugi sometimes came in DFL.

And this can be definitively settled between Aouita and 800+ GOAT Augustine Choge:

800: Aouita slightly faster

1500: about dead even

3000: Choge faster

5000: Choge much faster

winner: Choge

Choge is not better than Aouita.

Choge has never won anything substantial and has LOST more than he has WON in the sport.

I agree with VIPAM - Aouita is one of the greatests... his lack of XC and road success don't make him the GOAT in my book.

Bad Wigins wrote:

Talking about scalps someone collected is ridiculous. All great runners have bad races where their scalp is gathered by non-greats. Ngugi sometimes came in DFL.

And this can be definitively settled between Aouita and 800+ GOAT Augustine Choge:

800: Aouita slightly faster

1500: about dead even

3000: Choge faster

5000: Choge much faster

winner: Choge

Since we're all middle/distance runners (mostly)in here (Let's run), at the end of your life, who's legacy would you prefer if it was you?

Geb or Aouita?

These are two of my favorite runners! (I was at my peak in the 80s...not elite). I tend to favor the middle distances. I've raced from the 200 to the marathon.

So I tend to favor Aouita. He came down from 5000 to the 800... to be ranked #1 in the World...that's awesome!!! Pay little attention to the times. ( I happen to believe that other middle distance runners could perform at a high level at long distance IF they wanted to compete at the longer distances)

Aouita was a badass in running. (If you want to make this about morality, that will mess up the discussion about actual racing).

Peds

said88 wrote:

OK, now try again: 27:26.11 is how much behind 27:13.81?

Now a 2nd exam for you: someone born in April 1973 is how much younger than someone Born in November 1959 (or 1960 on some sources). Small hint: "almost 30 years" is not absolutely accurate.

I'm probably one of the greatest admirers of Aouita's will to beat the best over both 800m and 10000m. But I'm not blind to ignore the facts that both Gebrselassie and Bekele have an much superior overall career record.

But nice to see that all of your observations regarding Aouita actually come from me.

n >>>>>>>>> Really well done…∞…∞…∞…^∞…^∞…^∞…etc…etc…etc…

……..and so on…and so on…and so on…etc…^∞… … ...

Bad Wigins wrote:

Talking about scalps someone collected is ridiculous. All great runners have bad races where their scalp is gathered by non-greats. Ngugi sometimes came in DFL.

And this can be definitively settled between Aouita and 800+ GOAT Augustine Choge:

800: Aouita slightly faster

1500: about dead even

3000: Choge faster

5000: Choge much faster

winner: Choge

Ah - still ADDING the times!? That's our good old mate THE BAD.

But you forgot Venuste Niyongabo (or Niyonbongo - using the language of your old friend Ventolin)

slightly slower over 800m (0.25s)

much faster over 1500m (0.29s)

winner: Niyongabo

115 wins in 119 races and ran against EVERY 80's legend from 800m to 10000m in their speciality and beat them.

No he dont have as many titles but NAME ONE OTHER athlete from the 80s to now. That has that range -AND- won over 96% of their races.

Billy Fap wrote:

Yeah, the GOAT is a guy that talked about taking drugs everyday.

"Melissa Rollison, a medal prospect in the 3000m steeplechase at next month's Commonwealth Games, has lifted the lid on one of the darkest periods in the sport by revealing that Aouita urged her to take human growth hormone (HGH) while on a training camp in the US in 2003.

"He talked about it [drugs] every day," she said. "We had to go to America because that's where you get HGH and all this stuff."

….>>>>>>>>>> This is also well done…..fred…...

Who is vipam???

I think that vipam is actually...

rjm33 wrote:

Billy Fap wrote:

Yeah, the GOAT is a guy that talked about taking drugs everyday.

"Melissa Rollison, a medal prospect in the 3000m steeplechase at next month's Commonwealth Games, has lifted the lid on one of the darkest periods in the sport by revealing that Aouita urged her to take human growth hormone (HGH) while on a training camp in the US in 2003.

"He talked about it [drugs] every day," she said. "We had to go to America because that's where you get HGH and all this stuff."

….>>>>>>>>>> This is also well done…..fred…...

Who is vipam???

I think that vipam is actually...

Even if he did use HGH, he still ran some amazing times and dominated with range we have never seen since. The PED argument is moot.