With Usain Gone, Who's Currently the Sport's Biggest Ambassador? Dare I Say Eliud?

yhrebray wrote:

El Keniano wrote:

Eliud has only started standing out from other Kenyan runners in the last three years and finally, in 2018, has become our biggest star since Kip Keino. Before Rio, Kemboi, Rudisha, Kiprop, Tergat, Wanjiru, Ngugi and many others were more famous. The only reason Farah got googled was because Kenya's flavour of the moment was always asked how they would fare against him. It was the same for Bekele and Gebresselassie.

And the gold in the mental gymnastics competition goes to....

Ok. Obviously you know better than I, an actual Kenyan. Mo is more famous than Eliud in Kenya ... do seriously believe this?

The hordes of hobby joggers ?‍♂️ that register for mass participatory events like marathons, half marathons and other road races, open cross country and even triathlons are not going to buy Lebron's shoes. They're looking at Vaporflys wondering what helped the guy smash the world record.

This is Nike's biggest campaign in a generation.

El Keniano wrote:

yhrebray wrote:

And the gold in the mental gymnastics competition goes to....

Ok. Obviously you know better than I, an actual Kenyan. Mo is more famous than Eliud in Kenya ... do seriously believe this?

No, but that link shows very, very clearly who is more popular worldwide, and you are trying desperately to do backflips to argue otherwise. It's okay for Farah to be more popular - EK has the marathon record and is well-liked. You don't have to let facts ruin your day.

Bahahahahahahahaha!

"James has been one of the NBA’s elite shoe salesman since he entered the NBA in 2003 armed with a seven-year, $90 million contract from Nike. Early editions of LeBron’s signature shoes were not that well received, but sales took off with the LeBron VI. Nike was selling more than $300 million worth of LeBron sneakers annually by 2013. The company locked up James to a “lifetime” deal at the end of 2015 worth as much as $1 billion, according to James’ business manager Maverick Carter. Nike released the 14th version of LeBron’s signature shoe this season."

Not.For.Runners!

You said "This is Nike's biggest campaign in a generation" with no qualifier of it being their biggest running campaign. That is unadulterated lunacy.

You're not just talking about ambassadors, what you're really asking is who the next Track and Field legend is going to be, because that's what Owens, Lewis and Bolt were: Multiple Olympic gold medalists, dominant performances and world record holders plus holder of the title "World's Fastest Man" to boot. Can a Track and Field athlete even reach that level without being the World's Fastest Man? The only track athlete that didn't run the 100m that was even close to that level of notoriety was Michael Johnson, and he certainly had the Nike marketing machine (gold shoes etc) behind that to some extent, and he still had some level of claim to the fastest man title with the way he destroyed the 200m WR. We only get athletes like that once a generation if we're lucky, look how long basketball has been waiting for the next Michael Jordan? It's likely we haven't seen the next Bolt even run yet.

So the only apparent heirs to Bolt's throne right now would appear to be someone like Noah Lyles or Christian Coleman. I just don't think Lyles can beat Coleman in a 100m, the kid's funny and all but if he wants to be a super star he should probably look to reproduce the 200/400 gold double in 2020, and then he has Norman to worry about in the 400. Coleman has some promise, he already has a WR, he will shine if he can win the 100m in 2020, but I don't know if he can beat Lyles in the 200 so he won't dominate multiple events in the Olympics, and with the problems with the US 4x100 we could see Coleman with only one Olympic medal in 2020, not exactly super star territory. Coleman would have to run a 9.4 in the 100m or so to reach that rare air, and he's about as charismatic as a box of rocks. If the 2020 Olympics sees something like Coleman, Lyles and Norman split the 100/200/400 golds none of them will really be able to rise to super star status unless they absolutely destroy the world record by fair margin.

There's one other person that I've had complete non-track people ask me about in the last year or two that could transcend the sport I think, and that's Mondo, the media has really latched on to his story and his record breaking performances over the years. If he wins gold in 2020 and breaks the world record he could be well on his way to becoming a household name, but even then not the level of a Lewis or Bolt, the pole vault is a pretty niche event. On the other hand if Mondo destroys the world record, something like the first over 21 feet...he will be known for a long time...

El Keniano wrote:

They're looking at Vaporflys wondering what helped the guy smash the world record.

They're looking at vaporfly's wondering if they look better than Adidas. They have no idea what elite wore them, where, or how fast.

(Colin Kapernick)

Kapernick sounds almost Kenyan, like Kapcherop.

With Kevin Mayer bursting on the scene it's definitely going to be him. Decathletes were always high profile and now with a young charismatic world record holder, this can be the start of a decade long athletics leadership for him. No one better to represent since a decathlete performs many of the important events and does them well.

At this time wrote:

With Kevin Mayer bursting on the scene it's definitely going to be him. Decathletes were always high profile and now with a young charismatic world record holder, this can be the start of a decade long athletics leadership for him. No one better to represent since a decathlete performs many of the important events and does them well.

This is true. And Mayer is a photogenic guy that could sell lots of kit. But he doesn't have Bolt's charisma. Also, his world record, set on the same day, was completely overshadowed by Kipchoge's exploits in Berlin. I think the decathlon only comes to prominence during championships, especially the Olympics.

Again. Show me evidence of this kind of coverage of Mo outside the U.K.

http://en.kiosko.net/es/2018-09-17/np/marca.html

Usain could be back on the track by next year.

http://kwese.espn.com/football/central-coast-mariners/story/3665453/usain-bolt-admits-fridays-trial-match-will-determine-football-future

The Scot wrote:

You'd have to ask non-runners. But most of the public 'get' the 100m sprint because it suits their short attention span so all things being equal, a personality in the 100m will trump anyone else.

As regards Eliud v Mo here are some stats for you:

Twitter followers

Mo = 1.58M

Eliud = 84k.

Do you still think Mo Farah is a bigger star than Eliud Kipchoge?