What's hardest to win Olympic Gold, WC Gold, or DL Championship

Webbsurfer wrote:

Have there ever been runners that were widely accepted as "dominant" that haven't won DL titles?

Mo Farah comes to mind (though that might change in Zurich), and Bolt only won it once (in 2012).

On the other hand, Lavillenie has won every single DL PV title since its founding in 2010. Gotta give him props for that.

DL, WIC, WXC are not major championships.

Golden League. Only some of the best Olympic, or World champions have won it.

The world champs is probably the toughest because dominant countries can have 4 entries by bringing in the previous World or DL champ. Winning the DL is probably the easiest because not all of the best runners show up to the final.

The reason you gave for DL being tough is actually the reason why it's (historically) the easiest. You can be 4th best in the world, but if you show up to every DL race while your betters skip some, you win the DL.

Of course, this year they've moved to a system where the winner at the DL final is the outright champion. That makes things a bit different, and it looks like that (and more importantly, the increased prize money) have made the DL championship a bigger deal than it used to be.

Said another way, which races have the toughest competition. Depth, etc.

DL championship would have a lot more going for it if you actually had to win the championship race to win the title and the purse.

Its all the best runners, not limited by nationality, with a requirement of high level performance over the course of a season; require them to win the race to win the title, and you'll have some real, honest-to-goodness racing.

As it stands, the world championship is technically harder then the olympic title, considering the defending champion gets a bye, but you also can't ignore the psychological pressure of winning an olympic gold being greater than a world gold.

DL

London Marathon. Stronger field than WC or Olympics.

ontheroadagain5 wrote:

London Marathon. Stronger field than WC or Olympics.

^^^^ This is actually the first thing that popped into my head and it wasn't even an option in the title

London Marathon is definitely the most prestigious win in distance running in my opinion

As far as my opinion on the thread title, I would have to say Olympic Gold medal. I feel like an Olympic Gold. I feel as though most athletes always seem to be in the best form of their life for the Olympics (which is expected since theres more prestige behind an Olympic title), but maybe I'm wrong.

I thought DL title at first, but so many of the top athletes in the world dodge the DL, but maybe with the new point system moving forward my opinion will change. For example, in the DL final Paul Chelimo might have to go up against 6 Ethiopians, Cheptegai, Farah, and 4-5 more Kenyans. That's a lot harder than just 3 athletes per country and everyone is running on fresh legs so it's more honest.

For the DL final, if someone that qualifies by points scratches out do they replace that person? Seems to me that having to score enough points to get into the final would make it harder to win this title, i.e. Jenny Simpson has a stack of Global Medals but (maybe) won't make the DL final. Don't know if that is confirmed yet. Here is a question for you: Is it harder to win a DL title in a non-global championship year, than it is during an Oly/WC year. The $$ that the DL could dish out to top talent would have to be an even bigger draw when there is no Global Championship out there to build name/brand recognition (as if anything will ever help track and field athletes gain name recognition).