Top 10 American Marathon Runners

Scubacane wrote:

Rodgers winning Boston and NYC 4x each cannot be underestimated. There was no London or Berlin back then - Boston and NYC were THE only major marathons back then ( with Fukuoka possibly as the third- which he won once).

Fukuoka was often said to be the de facto world championship; only the Olympic race had greater status in the world of high-level marathoning. In 1978, despite winning both Boston and NYC, Rodgers was ranked second in T&F News behind Leonid Moiseyev, largely because Rodgers placed only sixth in Fukoaka, while Moiseyev placed . . . fifth.

Agreed, Moore needs to be on this list.

Meb Keflezighi's not an American. His family came in from Africa & cheated their way into citizenship on a spurious political asylum petition even though the real motive was economic. There's nothing wrong with Eritrea, and the Keflezighi family resumed travel to and business ties with their home country as soon as lawyers had secured their fake legal status in the US.

Alberto Salazar's Cuban, and he was and is an obvious drug cheat. His current health problems are 100% self inflicted.

Khalid Khannouchi is Moroccan and is an obvious doper.

#M4GA

I thought about this since I posted yesterday. Because of the different eras involved, I think the first question should be: "Was the runner considered the best (or one of the best) marathoners in the World at their peak?"

First, I looked at the Track and Field News World post-1960 (post-Bikila).

The following Americans have been ranked number one in the World:

Edelen

Khannouchi (once as an American)

Rodgers (3 times)

Salazar (2 times)

Shorter (3 times)

The following have been ranked in the top 10 more than once:

Beardsley (2 times)

Edelen (4 times)

Khannouchi (2 times as an American)

Moore (2 times)

Rodgers (6 times)

Rupp (2 times and counting)

Salazar (3 times)

Shorter (5 times)

The following have appeared in the World top 10 once: Durden, Fleming, Hoag, Kardong, MEB, John Kelley (he had also appeared before 1960), Pfeffer, Plaatjes, Sandoval, Spence, Virgin.

Ryan Hall never made a World top-10 list but was the dominant American marathoner for a stretch (sorry Meb fans) and has the American "all-conditions" record plus the third fastest time on a record eligible course .

I agree with the list.

kjl wrote:

1. Frank Shorter - Olympic Gold and Silver, 2 x US Trials Champion, 3 x World #1, 5 x US #1, 4 x Fukuoka Marathon Winner

2. Meb Keflezighi - Olympic Silver, US Trials Champion, Boston and NYC Marathon Champion, 6 x US #1

3. Galen Rupp - Olympic Bronze, US Trials Champion, Chicago and Prague Marathon Champion, 3 x US #1

4. Steve Spence - World Championship Bronze, US Trials Champion, 2 x US #1

5. Bill Rodgers - 4 x Boston and 4 x NYC Marathon Winner, 1 x World #1, 4 x US #1

6. Alberto Salazar - 3 x NYC Marathon and 1 x Boston Marathon Champion, 1 x World #1, 4 x US #1, WR Holder

7. Buddy Edelen - US Trials Champion, WR Holder, 4 x US #1

8. Khalid Khannouchi - 2 x Chicago and 1 x London Marathon Winner, AR Holder, 3 x US #1, WR Holder

9. Ryan Hall - US Trials Champion, 4 x US #1

10. Bob Kepmainen - US Trials Champion, 4 x US #1, 2nd at NYC and LA Marathons

1. Khalid Khannouchi - was the best in the world for a short time ahead of Tergat and Geb

2. Galen Rupp - top 5 today = top 20 all-time

3. Meb Keflezighi - NYC, Boston, 2nd + 4th at Olympics. Top three could be in any order

4. Ryan Hall - consistently near the top of WMM not too long ago. 3rd fastest PR (or first)

5. Bill Rodgers - best in the world for a several year stretch, and with the titles to prove it. But the race has moved on since 1980...

6. Frank Shorter - same as Rodgers. They could be in either order

7. Alberto Salazar - same as Rodgers and Shorter, but couldn't hold the peak as long

8. Abdi Abdirahman - Several top 5 WMM performances, and a 2:08 PR

9. Dathan Ritzenhein - 9th at the Olympics and 2:07 in Chicago. A little snakebit in his marathon career

10. Dick Beardsley - London (co)-champ, Duel in the Sun, 2:09 at Grandma's

Lydiard Cerutty wrote:

Boston Billy wrote:

Why?

Overall he had the best career.

Really? How many Olympic medals does he have? World Championships? Yes, he did win both Boston and New York a number of times as well as Fukuoka but he was never able to perform well in the big Olympic marathons.

..........and I'm a Billy fan!

Nice list! One athlete that I'd add from the "amateur era" is Clarence DeMar, who won Boston seven times, and picked up a bronze medal at the '24 Olympic games. His career was also exceptionally long for a marathoner, and he competed in the event at the Olympics in 1912, 1924 and 1928, and won his final Boston marathon at the age of 41 in 1930.

Scubacane wrote:

Rodgers winning Boston and NYC 4x each cannot be underestimated. There was no London or Berlin back then - Boston and NYC were THE only major marathons back then ( with Fukuoka possibly as the third- which he won once) - BR’s only knock was his Olympic performance which he ran hurt . He basically won 9 world majors. Shorter deserves to be in the discussion as well with Gold and Silver ( should be 2 Golds) in the Olympics and 4 wins at Fukuoka.

You cannot underestimate the influence these 2 guys had on kicking off the running boom in the 70s.

Not to derail the discussion, but I've always wondered why Shorter never ran Boston or New York. Surely he'd have been a favorite to win either, had he entered.

No Pat Petersen!? The American record holder in the late 80s early 90s. Finished Top 4 at NYC three times.

Brianruns10 wrote:

Scubacane wrote:

Rodgers winning Boston and NYC 4x each cannot be underestimated. There was no London or Berlin back then - Boston and NYC were THE only major marathons back then ( with Fukuoka possibly as the third- which he won once) - BR’s only knock was his Olympic performance which he ran hurt . He basically won 9 world majors. Shorter deserves to be in the discussion as well with Gold and Silver ( should be 2 Golds) in the Olympics and 4 wins at Fukuoka.

You cannot underestimate the influence these 2 guys had on kicking off the running boom in the 70s.

Not to derail the discussion, but I've always wondered why Shorter never ran Boston or New York. Surely he'd have been a favorite to win either, had he entered.

Shorter ran NYC 3x with best finish 2nd in ‘ 76 to ..... Bill Rodgers

He ran Boston in 78 finishing 23rd.... again a race Rodgers won

Rodgers is the GOAT

Rodgers ahead of Steve Spence for 3rd.

Thrill of my life as a spectator; as a high school senior in '75, my best running pal and I chased the Boston Marathon in my dad's slant-six Valliant. We checked 6 miles at Framingham, then stopped at Wellesley College, and got to the finish with 5 minutes to spare to witness Rodgers 2:09:55. You shoulda heard that home-time roar for Boston Billy. Talk about a Celtic war-cry!

If you don’t define the criteria, then the list is meaningless. For example, someone says, so and so should be No1 because of a fast time then you say, ah, but they didn’t win a global medal. OK - thanks for completely NOT defining your criteria ahead of time and instead just making a list of your favorites

plz retitle the thread Top 10 American Male Marathon Runners

unless you intend to include Joanie

Apart from the Olympic marathon, in Rodgers' era there were three major world marathons--NYC, Boston, and Fukuoka (with most runners of that time considering Fukuoka the unofficial world championship marathon.) Bill: FOUR NYC's, FOUR Bostons, 1 Fukuoka. Fast time after fast time after fast time from Boston 1975 to Boston 1981. Track & Field News ranked Rodgers #1 in the world in the marathon in 1975, 1977 and 1979 (and he deserved it in 1978), and ranked #6 in 1976. In 1976, he ran & won the Sado Island, Japan marathon in 2:08:23, which was 200 meters short--so he essentially ran ~2:09:00 flat. NO way BR shouldn't be in either the #1 or #2 spot, and certainly not ranked behind Steve Spence.

Rodgers is the greatest. 8 majors and his PB still as fast nearly as Mebs 35 years on. Shorter is the only one with a case based on Olympic gold and silver (should've been gold). Bill and Frank still make an Olympic team in 2016.

Southie wrote:

Rodgers is the greatest. 8 majors and his PB still as fast nearly as Mebs 35 years on. Shorter is the only one with a case based on Olympic gold and silver (should've been gold). Bill and Frank still make an Olympic team in 2016.

No.

Shorter is numero uno

Park Rogers where you wish. Iconic, but not the best. Shorter was the best

kjl wrote:

2. Galen Rupp - top 5 today = top 20 all-time

Top 5 today, what other 4 active American marathoner runners are even remotely close to competing with Rupp?

Scubacane wrote:

Rodgers winning Boston and NYC 4x each cannot be underestimated. There was no London or Berlin back then - Boston and NYC were THE only major marathons back then ( with Fukuoka possibly as the third- which he won once) - BR’s only knock was his Olympic performance which he ran hurt . He basically won 9 world majors. Shorter deserves to be in the discussion as well with Gold and Silver ( should be 2 Golds) in the Olympics and 4 wins at Fukuoka.

You cannot underestimate the influence these 2 guys had on kicking off the running boom in the 70s.

+1