Best Olympic Marathoner Ever!

Shorter.

I assume you just got banned. Surely you know you can't start a thread saying you don't like ______.

Bikila

Mota

Cierpienski

Shorter

Agreed. Not only were both races world best times but Bikila finished over four minutes ahead of the next runner in 1964. I have never seen a marathoner finish fresher than his 64 race. He had done a series of exercises on the grass infield of the track before the next runners had finished.

I like Bikila as well. He was so smooth in 64 and it seemed easy for him event though he had an appedectomy about 40 days earlier. I also think Zatopek's easy win in 52 in his first marathon to complete the triple was pretty awesome as well.[quote]Orville Atkins wrote:

Bikila is the best ever Marathoner PERIOD!!!!!! The 2 world records in Rome and Tokyo....Bare foot in Rome and 4 minutes ahead of everyone after an apendectomy a month earlier?? that is insane...... Zatopek's victory is also one of the unique events in Olympics history that we will never see again........there have been so many other exceptional marathoners in the olympics before and after Bikila and Zatopek but they will always be in a league of their own.

'Can't be any doubts... It was Bikila...

is it true that the japanese runner killed himself after failing to win the marathon in tokyo olympics?

Paula Radcliffe. Hands down.

Bikila would have won in 1968 also but was injured and dropped out.

[quote]four eyes wrote:

I assume you just got banned. Surely you know you can't start a thread saying you don't like ______.

I never started a thread saying any thing bad about ----

My name must have been hijacked. I have never made a remark against anyone(O.K. but my Larry and Carol comments were tongue in cheek and a tad playful not mean spirited)

Anyone familiar with my posting history knows it was not me. I've gotten messages off board telling me my sign in name was stolen. I just posted a disclaimer I'll see if it went thru..

JTC wrote:

Bikila would have won in 1968 also but was injured and dropped out.

. . . But he didn't.

Was there ever anything out on Bikila's training? I remember in Noakes LOR some comment on the Ethiopian team at the time, about their British coah telling them to go warm-up and run to a hill off in the distance and back and it ended up being like a 40k run (coach didn't realize the huge gulley between the track and the hill). I can remember reading something about old Ethiopian marathon training that included lots of 20 mile runs covering the second 10 at marathon pace.

Alan

Lopes. 84 was the best field ever assembled, the race results only being skewed because of the conditions in LA. It was the last Oly marathon not terribly affected by who's getting-paid-what for a fall marathon, and who's saving themselves for a pay day--the pay days CAME FROM the performances in LA. Virtually every great runner at the time was there.

I cannot get on the train of "Abebe was God" express. If you eliminate Cierpinski from the 2X Gold medal list, that makes Shorter a two time winner---and along with his 4 Fukuoka's, that blows away Bikila. AB's story has elements of the exotic, an ending of tragedy--it makes a better movie--but in pure running terms, Shorter was better. The fact that he was one of us--and that he's a putz as a person, according to people on here--the respect for him is greatly diminished. Maybe if he had stayed in Pre's car, he'd be getting more appreciation on here (and I'm NOT a huge Shorter fan, BTW).

Bikila won twice in world record time. Shorter never came close to the world record in the marathon. Winning the olympics in world record time is as big as it gets, Bikila did it twice. He was clearly way way better than the competition.

Plus we're takling about olympic marathoners here, so if we leave it to just olympic accomplishments, which is the point of this thread, then there is no one else but Bikila.

Lopes 84 run deserves some mention, a gotta agree with you. But we've seen how fickle the marathon is doign it twice is a huge achievement.

agree with original poster.

spiridon lewis

To me the Royal Flush of Track and Field is to win the Olympics with a WR.That says to me "To beat me you have to run faster than any man before you and THEN you still have to catch me".

Emil Zatopek 1952. This little victory was after he won the 10,000 earlier in the week and the 5000 the night before. His race face grimace makes Paula's face look serene while she is running.

oh come on people - Joanie in 1984, hands down - end of thread.