Fair or Foul: Tirunesh Dibaba named greatest women's track athlete of all time by Athletics Weekly readers. JJK not even top 3.

Well, since neither Carl Lewis nor Jesse Owens was ranked in top 3 men, I would question how they ranked the women as well.

I am Sam wrote:

Salvitore Stitchmo wrote:

To make a long story short - this is horseh$t and the readers of AEW are idiots.

Or maybe they rate the 5,000 and 10,000 much higher than LJ and heptathlon, like most other people do

I'm sorry this is one of the dumbest points I've ever had to deal with. The entire point of a poll like this is to eliminate event bias. It's like saying, "John Stockton is the greatest NBA player ever because well I value assists and steals above all else". The point is you look above steals and assists, or the 5000 and 10000m and take a step back from your preferences and biases.

And if you can't do that. then as I said, go and look at the relative worth of the performances when basically "normalized" by the scoring tables. Dibaba's best results ever are vastly inferior to Jackie Joyner-Kersee's.

I don't even understand the discussion here. If you said I could name the best 3 female track and field athletes ever and JJK wasn't allowed in there, I'm not even sure that Dibaba is in there.

Sport Athletics

Event(s) 100–400 m, 80 m hurdles

Club University, Applecross, Melville

Achievements and titles

Personal best(s) 100 m – 11.3 (1955)

200 m – 24.1 (1955)

400 m – 56.6 (1956)

80 mH – 10.89 (1956)[1][3]

Medal record[hide]

Representing Australia

Olympic Games

Gold medal – first place 1952 Helsinki 80-metre hurdles

Gold medal – first place 1956 Melbourne 80-metre hurdles

Gold medal – first place 1956 Melbourne 4×100 m relay

Silver medal – second place 1948 London 4×100 m relay

Bronze medal – third place 1948 London 100 metres

Bronze medal – third place 1948 London 80-metre hurdles

Bronze medal – third place 1952 Helsinki 100 metres

British Empire Games

Gold medal – first place 1950 Auckland 80-metre hurdles

Gold medal – first place 1950 Auckland 3×110/220 yd

Gold medal – first place 1950 Auckland 4×110/220 yd

Silver medal – second place 1950 Auckland 100 yards

Silver medal – second place 1950 Auckland 220 yards

Pretty great variety of excellence on the track?

casual obsever wrote:

I disagree regarding the bias. I'd bet that most Brits think higher of the US than of Ethiopia.

.

Are you British? Mate, I think you might find you are very off the mark with that statement.

Oregon Juice wrote:

Um, ever heard of Jordan Hasay?

who?

Exactly, If Bruce Jenner had decided he was a she/Caitlyn, he or is it she would have the Heptathlon by a huge amount, also his or is it her 400 time of 47.51 would be the WR holder for well over 40 years, and Marita Koch would never of had the 400 Record.

Paris 2024 Women's 100 Meters

In Lane 1, Josephine who was Joseph Last year

In Lane 2 , Michelle who was Michael last Year

In Lane 3 Laura who was Lawrence last Year

In Lane 4 Bernadette who was Bernard last year

Stop the Insanity

Salvitore Stitchmo wrote:

casual obsever wrote:

I disagree regarding the bias. I'd bet that most Brits think higher of the US than of Ethiopia.

.

Are you British? Mate, I think you might find you are very off the mark with that statement.

Hmmm, ok, things seem to be changing over there.

We may not like it but it appears to be happening. A better analogy is the offensive player of the week in NCAA football is typically a QB or RB with the occasional receiver. It is not usually a lineman. Linemen are like field events. The skills positions are the runners.

Spruce Jenner wrote:

We may not like it but it appears to be happening. A better analogy is the offensive player of the week in NCAA football is typically a QB or RB with the occasional receiver. It is not usually a lineman. Linemen are like field events. The skills positions are the runners.

Dude I'm a runner and a running guy. But that's just disrespectful and ignorant. Not only that, given her PRs of 12.61 (100h) 22.30 (200) and even 2.08.51 for the 800 it's perfectly reasonable to state that with a track only focus she could have been an Olympic gold medalist on the track.

Want me to back that up? No problem. 100m hurdles - JJK had a lifetime best of 12.61 (+0.2) (and even 12.69 IN a Heptathlon). The 100m hurdles was first held for women in 1972 - had Joyner-Kersee performed to her best (as a multi-event focused athlete), this is what running 12.61 in an Olympic final would have got her.

4 Golds

4 Silvers

2 Bronze

a 4th place and a 5th place

(12 Olympic 100m hurdles finals for women have been run in history)

So don't try and tell me or anyone that Jackie was just a "field expert" because she could have been one of the greatest hurdlers of all time even as a Heptathlete as well as being the best multi-event and long jumper of all time.

siberian traveler wrote:

rojo wrote:

Kersee won 4 WC golds, Dibaba won 5 but there was a Worlds every 2 years when Dibaba was competing.

There was a worlds every 2 years when Kersee was competing also. But otherwise, I agree with you. I would put Kersee first, then Dibaba with FBK 3rd.

nope-there weren't worlds every 2 years until 1993 towards the latter part of Joyner-Kersee's career...JJC for the win in this one--maybe the people who voted on this were younger than 40?!

+1

Well Dibaba and Pryce are dope frauds. Problem is so were a ton of other people up for consideration, including Kersee. About as grubby as choosing the greatest cyclist.

If Rojo points out we are taking into xc and other non-track events, isn't Radcliffe the queen?

SEVEN WORLD XC MEDALS, seven European Cup Medals, three gold World Half Marathon titles.

8:22

14:29

30:01

65:40

2:15.25

Oh, and WON the 1996 and 1997 Fifth Avenue Mile in 4:26.29 and 4:26 4:22.96. What range does any other mortal have?

BOW DOWN TO THE QUEEN. Paula is the greatest of them all.

Looking at the caption, my first though was it was going to be a toss up between JJK and FBK. After giving it some thought, Dibaba has to be in the mix, but SDFP didn't even come to mind.

If JJK is an option, why so completely forget Heike Drechsler? She ran as fast, jumped as far, and stayed on top of her event for longer. She even had a 6700+ point heptathlon in 1994 at the age of 30 when she tried it, so I would say her natural athleticism was similarly off the charts.

And they got their best marks during the same period, meaning the same testing regime.

Old era: FBK

New era: JJK

No contest. Dreschler admitted using. Check out FBK’s record.

“Track” is always understood as “track and field”. It is all a single discipline with multiple components, IMO

What about the world record holders for the 400 and 800

tyler herro haircut wrote:

If Rojo points out we are taking into xc and other non-track events, isn't Radcliffe the queen?

SEVEN WORLD XC MEDALS, seven European Cup Medals, three gold World Half Marathon titles.

8:22

14:29

30:01

65:40

2:15.25

Oh, and WON the 1996 and 1997 Fifth Avenue Mile in 4:26.29 and 4:26 4:22.96. What range does any other mortal have?

BOW DOWN TO THE QUEEN. Paula is the greatest of them all.

Plus:

7 Major Marathon victories

1 World Champs silver medal for the 10,000

1 World Champs gold for the marathon

Women's only WR

Mixed gender WR - a WR that no one could even get within 2 minutes of until the pogo shoes came along

It's not even close. She's the GOAT