Is Aouita really the most versatile athlete ever?

Michael Johnson. 200m and 400m golds and WRs ain't happening again.

... and Jeremy Wariner will not surpass his accomplishments.

World indoor championships simply do not have the level of competition that outdoor ones do. When Aoiuta won bronze at 1500m in the outdoor world championships, he raced Cram, Scott, and Ovett. What outdoor medalists/world record holders did Geb race when he won the indoor 1500m?

I know that they don't -- but Geb has proven that he is no slouch over 1500m. The indoor 1500m is run fairly regularly and only one other man has ever run sub3:32 -- El Guerrouj.

Haile Gebrselassie is by far the greatest runner in the history. No question about that. His range from 1500m to the Marathon also is absolutely astonishing. And I'm not an Gebrselassie fan, but definitely one of Aouitas greates fans. What Aouita has done also is absolutely unique. Running 1:44,38 and 1:43,86 (while winning great international races) and INBETWEEN beating the best in the world over 10000m will hardly been seen again by the next generations of distance runners. In none of all the distances, Aouita has come close to his limit, I think. He started late with athletics (no tradition at the time in Morocco) and (also because of injuries) lost relatively early his motivation. And 800 - 10000 - 800 hardly is the perfect way to reach your potential.

No, both Deion Sanders and Bo Jackson were much more versatile athletes.

Oh God be serious. They played football and baseball. It takes a great athlete to come to bat 4 times a game and sit there and watch them the rest of the time, then stand in a field and wait for something to happen.

Or, you coldrun down a field and hope that the QB passes to you, then sometimes you'l catch it.

So which is worse, an athlete who dopes, or a coach who promotes it? How about both? Definite versatility.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/athletics/aouita-probe-to-leave-no-stone-unturned/2006/02/20/1140283988796.html

Hitting a pitched ball in the MLB is about the most difficult thing to do in sports. Neither Sanders nor Jackson were receivers, idiot.

Don't believe everything you read. Aouita knows that most of the successful athletes nowadays are doped so im assuming that he told his athlete that to be successful you have to take drugs and they took it as if he was trying to get to take drugs. Just my thought.

So Aouita flees his positionas Nationa Coach in Australia to Qatar because of an offhand comment?

I hope that Santa brings you a clue next Christmas.

Inshallah

Bekele:

The best xc runner EVER.

The best 5k, 10k runner EVER.

Example of speed:

In Lausanne, Switzerland on July 1, 2003, Bekele recorded a 200 m segment during the last lap in 24 seconds and a 100 m section in 11.xx seconds to run a 52.63 final lap (at the end of a 5k).

This is range that has never been seen in the history of running.

nobody has any idea on what their talking about.

Paul tergat: A great xc runner and distance guy 5k- marathon- no speed ( the very reason he never won a gold on the track)pure strnegth guy

Haile G: very versatile 1500-marathon, yet how much faster he ran than Aouita is not relevant to his range. To be Honest I don\'t think he would be in any serious contention for an outdoor 1500 gold, whereas Aouita was. Also, the 800-10k range is far more impressive than a 1500-marathon range. Most all 5k-10k types have decent mile speed and almost all of the real talents move up to the marathon. thi srange is normal. We see it in Rod Dixon, Mark Caroll, Haile, eventually Kenissa, and a whole host ofothers. Yet, we don\'t see many medal hopes in the 800 and the 10k- that spped and endurance is unheard of. the 1500-marathon may be longer and entail more distances. But then again, if an athlete could medal in the 400 and 1500 he would be an absolute freak and they are that far apart in retrospect-so we need to keep our pespectives staright- bottom line -Aouita has more range.

Kenisaa-another more talented Geb, who will win xc,10k from now till who knows when, but will never win the 15-and know his 5k time doesnt make him the best-he actually lost the olympic 5k to a more savvy racer in elg, People perspective, Houcher is not better than Viren based on personal bests.

Elg: not diverse, give me a break. The most dominant 1500 man of our time, but he wasn\'t fire in any event, he won the 5k , but the race was ridic and he wasn\'t even the best man in the field, mediocre pr also. He acually is not the most 1500 meter runner either. I think Coe was more superior, and some of those brits may have held better range.-Aouita rules the battle of the range.

Did you ever see Bo play? You honestly think Geb or any of those guys are more versatile athletes? How about Babe Didrikson or Jim Thorpe.

But the range of Bekele is more impressive than Aouita:

200 m segment during the last lap in 24 seconds and a 100m section in 11.xx seconds to run a 52.63 final lap (at the end of a 5k).

Willie Davenport:

110m hurdle Olympic gold medal (1968)

Bobsled Olympic gold medal (I forgot what year...)

In my opinion, potentially, at the end of his career Nick Willis of NZL will have the greatest versatility of ANY athlete. His credentials will approach the following:

800m-1.44 Low

1500m-3.28

mile-3.46

3000m-7.30

5000m-12.50

10000m-27.10

Marathon-2.08

Yeah, why is no one bringing up decathletes?

They are the most versatile athletes.

You all are just talking about versatile runners.

Versatile distance runners.

Who all the sudden when compared with sprinters and decatheles don't have much range at all.

Quick question...has Geb ever won ANY title over 5K???