Who are the top 100 distance runners of all time?

1. Lower Mo, he’s a doper. 2. Raise Lagat, he’s been a top teir runner for longer than anyone. 3. I should be number one on the list. 4. Jager?

Uhhhhhh wrote:

1. Lower Mo, he’s a doper. 2. Raise Lagat, he’s been a top teir runner for longer than anyone. 3. I should be number one on the list. 4. Jager?

Yes take mo down, he is obviously a doper. Komen and aouita are fine though. Same with bekele...

Smh

Aouita is as close to a proven drug cheat as you can get without the actual proof. And presumably he's so high because of his 'versatility and range' (i.e. expert in the art of ducking Coe, Ovett, Cram).

But if that's the case, what the hell is an 800m specialist David Rushida doing at number 7 above the likes of Coe??? Do you think Rushida would have been running 1:41 back in 1981 on crap tracks and in flimsy plimsoles if he'd been spending the majority of the season trying to outdo Ovett over 1500 and Mile?

Uhhhhhh wrote:

1. Lower Mo, he’s a doper. 2. Raise Lagat, he’s been a top teir runner for longer than anyone. 3. I should be number one on the list. 4. Jager?

LOL, lower a guy who has never failed a test for being a doper. Raise a guy who has.

Letsrun logic at it's finest.

This is hilarious, Roger Bannister is only Honorable mention.

Hey wait minute here young fella....what's up with this? Where's Rashid Ramzi? You've got Baumann listed who served a ban for doping, so what about Ramzi?

Why do you rank Cruz above Ovett? Cruz 1 Olympic gold and one bronze at 800m.

Ovett, Olympic gold 800m, bronze 1500, 5 Olympic finals, Multiple WRs 1500 to two miles. National records 800 to two miles. World cup wins, European golds, and even a Commonwealth Gold at 5000m when GB was best 5K nation in world. Suck on that. Ovett should be top 10 if you are considering 'range'.

Cram should also be higher. In 85 he beat Cruz at 800m, Aouita at 1500 and Coe in the mile. He even won the AAA 5000m in twighlight of career in 13:29 when he was even more shot than Ovett had been (when moving up). Over 3 decades later not a man alive that can run 1:42 and 3:29, and only 3 or 4 on your list could.

Gündёr Hägg and Ärnё Arnёsön knocked 5 seconds off the mile WR in the space of about as many years, down to 4:01 by the end of WW2. This before the myth of "unbreakable" retroactively spun by British/US media for Bannister, who correctly isn't in the top 100. But the Swёdёs should be.

As long, that is, as other benzedrine-era runners are allowed to remain. The chunk that they took out of that WR in 5 years was about the same amount taken out of it in the preceding 50.

Bad Wigins wrote:

Gündёr Hägg and Ärnё Arnёsön knocked 5 seconds off the mile WR in the space of about as many years, down to 4:01 by the end of WW2. This before the myth of "unbreakable" retroactively spun by British/US media for Bannister, who correctly isn't in the top 100. But the Swёdёs should be.

As long, that is, as other benzedrine-era runners are allowed to remain. The chunk that they took out of that WR in 5 years was about the same amount taken out of it in the preceding 50.

Could the fact that Sweden was one of the few countries in the world not engaged in total war at the time, helped them? Just as it hindered Rudolf Harbig who should certainly be on the list.

No bruce denton smh

No Gordon Pirie

next time wrote:

No Gordon Pirie

Nor Speedy Gonzales ?

What? Where is Joey DiFeo?

Lower Aspel Kiprop. He sucks. Also, at least mention Ryan Hall. That is sure to get some hate but good grief.

My only real issue with the list is the Ezekiel Kemboi should be higher, in the 10-20 range IMO. He's the El G of the Steeple, truly dominant for over a decade.

Coevett, whether right or wrong, your gushing defense of the Brits is not a good look.

The Dingo^3 wrote:

My only real issue with the list is the Ezekiel Kemboi should be higher, in the 10-20 range IMO. He's the El G of the Steeple, truly dominant for over a decade.

Coevett, whether right or wrong, your gushing defense of the Brits is not a good look.

Yeah, I think it's obvious you prefer the ebony look.

Coevett wrote:

Bad Wigins wrote:

Gündёr Hägg and Ärnё Arnёsön (blah blah blah) benzedrine-era runners

Could the fact that Sweden was one of the few countries in the world not engaged in total war at the time, helped them? Just as it hindered Rudolf Harbig who should certainly be on the list.

It helped them in the sense that not everybody suddenly got 5 seconds faster, only they did.

If something like that happened today, LRC opinion would be unanimous as to why.

Bad Wigins wrote:

Coevett wrote:

Could the fact that Sweden was one of the few countries in the world not engaged in total war at the time, helped them? Just as it hindered Rudolf Harbig who should certainly be on the list.

It helped them in the sense that not everybody suddenly got 5 seconds faster, only they did.

If something like that happened today, LRC opinion would be unanimous as to why.

Herb Elliott was running 7 seconds faster little more than a decade after the Swedes. That and the rapid improvement in WRs in the 30's and 50's across all events indicates that they were helped by not having to spill their guts fighting for or against nazis.

Track and Field exploded in the 30's thanks to newsreels, the increasingly well organized and promoted Olympic Games, and commercial air travel. WRs were improving rapidly in the 30s, then largely stagnated for obvious reasons in the 40s (aside from the 1500/Mile due to the lucky co-incidence of distance running being strong in Sweden and that country being one of only a handful in the entire world to remain outside of the conflict), then rapidly improved again in the 50's.

Pretty sure there would have been a European (non-Swede) 1500/Mile version of Rudolf Harbig if it wasn't for the War. Put it another way - if Rudolf Harbig had been born just 2 years later, we likely would never have heard of him. If he was born 2 years earlier, we might consider him the greatest athlete in track history.

Not to diminish the Swedes, but are you not the guy who denigrates Coe/Ovett due to the Moscow/LA boycotts, and yet you think a pair of Swedes who were effectively the only runners competing during 1940-1945 (and many of their would be rivals after 1945 killed or maimed) deserve to be near the top of the all-time list? And they were the only athletes in track history to be clean too?