Fame? Elite runners

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4 years ago 10/17/2019 7:59am EDT

re: SomeoneWhoKnows

SomeoneWhoKnows wrote:
Todd Kennedy wrote:
Watching Chicago Marathon with a group of HS kids and Todd Williams was broadcasting.
Not one of the 25 kids had ever heard of Todd. So I started quizzing them. No to Bob Kennedy. No to Greg Meyer and Lisa Rainsberger (winning Boston without another American being able to duplicate it for 30 plus years is meaningless I guess).
It’s sad that we have no heroes that our kids will recognize. I’m sure that Kara and Shalane will be nobodies in 5 years.
Why would a high school kid know who Todd Williams was? A runner whose best marathon is now just ~3 minutes slower than the women's world record. He never won an Olympic or World Championships medal.
And Frank Shorter? He won gold in 1972, 30 years before current high school kids were even born. Are you aware of American athletes who were doing stuff 30 years before you were born? Better be Jesse Owens or some other athlete who is in history books for reasons other than just winning a gold medal.
The people you mentioned are known by nerds of the sport only. I'm one. You are one. Most high school kids are not even if they are runners.

Literally this. If you ask a bunch of high school baseball players, they all would know who Mike Trout is but might not have heard of Bob Gibson.

Keep in mind the age of these kids. They all would likely know someone like Centro or Sydney McLaughlin

4 years ago 10/17/2019 11:23am EDT

re: Primo Numero Uno

Primo Numero Uno wrote:
I'm 30 and I heard of all in high school. I am a bit of a running nerd and had a coach who was sub-elite in Shorters era. But I think all those guys a lot of high schoolers would know with the exception of Meyer. I only knew him because his race with Pre at the Olympic Trials was featured prominently in without limits. Any runner who takes the sport seriously should know who both Bannister and Shorter were. Shorter was the guest speaker my senior year at NCAA XC and everyone on our team knew who he was.
From this era we have a lot of vanilla personalities who won't transcend time. For American's in the past 20 years my bet is just Meb, Lagat, and Webb(as long as American high schooler breaks his mile record) will be known amongst many up and coming high schoolers. Maybe Deena or Shalene can make that group. On the international stage Kenny B, Kipchoge, Geb, Farah, and Paula probably will.

And that was George Young that Pre beat out ftw in 1972 Trials. So we can't even get that guy right.

4 years ago 10/17/2019 11:57am EDT

re: Positive Contribution

"To not know the runners from history is to sacrifice the gift."

4 years ago 10/17/2019 12:34pm EDT

re: Cmon mannn

I started running in 1980. Everyone who was serious about the sport knew who Shorter, Rodgers, Salazar, Beardsley, Dixon, Coghlan, Steve Scott, DeCastella, Steve Jones, Seko, etc. were. Oddly enough, before the internet existed and ESPN was ubiquitous, I recall distance running being covered more in the media.

4 years ago 10/17/2019 4:18pm EDT

re: Belgian Waffle

Belgian Waffle wrote:
I started running in 1980. Everyone who was serious about the sport knew who Shorter, Rodgers, Salazar, Beardsley, Dixon, Coghlan, Steve Scott, DeCastella, Steve Jones, Seko, etc. were. Oddly enough, before the internet existed and ESPN was ubiquitous, I recall distance running being covered more in the media.

I was still pretty new at about the same time, a couple years older. Different era for sure. Sports Illustrated had a dozen or two features a year on well known runners, and that's how I got drawn in.

But to parallel the OP, we'd have to go back a generation or so. I knew of Billy Mills, Jim Ryun, and Gerry Lindgren. And was very familiar with Pre, Shorter, Rodgers, Liquori etc because they were still current or in the recent past. And even knew some of Galloway Bachelor. But I didn't know much or anything about Wes Santee, or Dyrol Burleson, Jim Grelle, Buddy Edelen, or Leonard Hill. And for some reason Bob Schul remained an almost unknown.

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