zxcvzxcvx wrote:
However he got to that point, Aouita with whatever legal and illegal help he received, and I'm sure that he was blood doping, taking steroids, and possibly even taking EPO in one of its trial phases in the mid to late 1980s, was magnificent at his best, with 4 simultaneous world records across 1500m, 2000m, 3000m, and 5000m, being the 2nd man under 3:30, the first under 7:30, and the first under 13. He ended up about 6/10 of a second outside of Cram's mile wr.
If anyone in the 80's would be jumping on EPO from the research clinics it would likely have been Aouita.
If Aouita was doing all this with pharmaceutical help, you have to consider him something of a fluke of timing. His 'range' was nothing more than the fact he was blood doping and/or EPOing in an era when it was not yet common. His 3000/5000m times would barely be competitive in the next decade when all the African elite had their hands on EPO. Even his 1500/Mile times need to be seen in that light. In the 90's there was at least some better testing for roids and HGH (if I'm not mistaken). That means that the likes of Morcelli and El G really had even less to work with than Aouita, and yet ran 2 or 3 seconds faster over 1500.
He wasn't even the 'king of the cheats'. He was just the 'first of the cheats'.
Ovett probably represented the maximum natural range of any athlete in history (with the stress on natural), although we don't really know exactly what that was/is because Ovett didn't chase the clock until 79 and only ran the odd 5000m etc for fun or training until he was well past his best. His beat down on Rono in the Two Miles in 78 gives an indication.