Lame Fake Name wrote:
Those of you who Ryun would have won gold at sea level in 19968 most have not noticed who fast Keino ran in that 1500 and how much he won by. As to why Ryun didn't have a long career, he'd been world class since age 17 and being in two Olympic Games in those days was very exceptional. Plus, naive as it seems in retrospective, people really did have high hopes for that new pro track tour in 1974 and 1975. Ryun needed to make money and was probably getting a lot of pressure from his peers to join up.
In case you haven’t noticed, Keino was aided by the altitude, just like sea level runners were aided in the 800 (hitting PRs in Mexico City). At sea level it’s possible Keino would have run slightly slower. Either way Keino’s best was 1.7 sec slower than Ryun’s, enormous at that level. The fact is the Mexico City games were a gift to Keino and others, never mind sprinters and jumpers who set records left and right.