cracksmokimg wrote:
Coevett wrote:
Seems like a coincidence that the two greatest milers during WW2 were from the only country in the world not fighting in it.
Seems like we would never have heard of Gunder Hagg or Arne Andersson if not for WW2.
Some say Sydney Wooderson would have been the first if not for WW2.
Some say a Brit or a German would have broken 4 minutes in the 1920's if not for WW1 wiping out an entire generation (with the disabled, weak, and cowards who survived breeding the next generation).
Not to mention British professional runners were breaking 4 minutes on the roads routinely in the 18th century.
What
Put the bottle down and get off the boards
Well I'm blown away by your razor sharp dismantling of my arguments. I feel like the intellectual equivalent of a force five gale has blown me over, but nevertheless, I'm going to pick myself up, dust myself off, and try to respond to your radar directed points of logic.
First of all, Gunder Hagg would likely never have been born (1918) if Sweden hadn't been virtually the only country in Europe to stay out of WW1.
Secondly, there is not a chance we would even have ever heard of him if Sweden hadn't also been virtually the only country in Europe to stay out of WW2.
Hagg and his fellow great Swedes had the floor to themselves for almost a decade of their prime. With no international competitions or Olympics, all they had to fulfill their competitive urges was to target world records in race after race, which they successfully did.
Not only that, but they were the world's first professional milers. They (both Hagg and Anderson and others) were actually banned in 1946 for taking payments for running.
Right up until the 1980's, most milers had been forced to retire by their early to mid twenties. Hagg and Anderson were taking turns to break world records in their late twenties at a greater frequency than even Coe and Ovett 40 years later.
Clearly running sub 4 minute miles is something a lot of the best European runners can do with full time training and decent coaching, even on cinder tracks. You're smoking crack if you don't think there were many potential sub 4 minute milers in Europe long before the 1950s.
It's actually surprising that the Swedes DIDN'T manage to go below 4 minutes given all the favorable circumstances for them at the time.
https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-27298505