Is Sebastian Coe the only white distance runner in the top 10?

Coevett wrote:

I can't remember this.

Lol.

Coevett wrote:

He has been mentioning Russian athletes a little bit recently, since I started accusing him of being a Putin troll.

That's a lie - I made fun of the crazy Poistogova/Savinova situation even before you started posting.

Coevett wrote:

But on the whole, he claims that literally everybody dopes,

That's a lie - I agree with the authors of the Tübingen/Harvard study that likely more than 44% dope.

Coevett wrote:

that Brits and West Germans were as bad as the GDR in the 70s/80s,

That's a lie - I claim that the GDR was worse.

Coevett wrote:

and together with Rekrunner, ruins every doping thread with their endless discussion on whether EPO works.

Well - I do have a history of speaking out against rekrunner's EPO-doesn't-work-at-the-top nonsense.

lame troll wrote:

Sir Mo Farah: GOAT wrote:

Very amusing double troll. First you miss the DOUBLE double Olympic Champion from your list which is laughable. Plus you added your racist angle as well. Moran.

How is it racist to point out at the majority of the best runners of all time are Africans?

It isn't. But saying apart from Coe you can't think of a single non African is. Because that's obviously playing into the Farah isn't a "real Brit" angle despite growing up here, being enshrined in British culture now and being supported by British athletics fans long before he achieved the double double and being a knight of the realm!

You are deciding he can't be what he has grown up as because of the colour of his skin. That's what makes the OP a racist.

Coevett wrote:

Does it honestly not bother any of you in the slightest that by some massive co-incidence, in the 120+ year history of distance running, that 9 of the top 10 'greatest' ever happened to be in active in the relatively very brief 12 year period or so (say 1992-2004) when the world's only ever endurance drug was available and was virtually untested for? Why not just throw in Ramzi and Kiprop in there, it wouldn't concern 90% of you, would it? You're probably far more upset at the presence of a 'whitey' in there.

This list of 10 athletes is highly debatable. Only for of them (Bekele, Gebrselassie, El Guerrouj and Kipchoge) are for certain and have to be in any top 10 list on the first four spots.

Of the 10 listed athletes

2 have not (or just slightly) competed in your time frame

2 just in a small part during their career

3 for big part

3 completely

Gebrselassie dominated his era almost completely. Why is it more easy to dominate the EPO era (steroids...) than another era? As we have learned from you, any non "white" distance runner has always used any drug available - so, why could Gebrselassie dominate as he did?

It is a list of post 1980 runners. Hard to rank guys like Tergat, Komen, morceli, and Kiptanui ahead of guys like zatopek, viren, snell and nurmi.

Sir Mo Farah: GOAT wrote:

lame troll wrote:

How is it racist to point out at the majority of the best runners of all time are Africans?

It isn't. But saying apart from Coe you can't think of a single non African is. Because that's obviously playing into the Farah isn't a "real Brit" angle despite growing up here, being enshrined in British culture now and being supported by British athletics fans long before he achieved the double double and being a knight of the realm!

You are deciding he can't be what he has grown up as because of the colour of his skin. That's what makes the OP a racist.

Fact: Mo Farah is British.

Fact: Mo Farah is not in the top 10 all time.

You're an imbecile if you think this is a race issue.

You can't compare different eras by times (for one thing because of peds), you can't even compare by medals because World Championships only began in 1983 and even then only once every four years. You can't even compare by level of domination of peers, because peds can play a part in that too. Anyone who thinks Bekele would be running even close to 13 minutes back in the 70's let alone the 20's or 40's is nuts.

Having said that, in no particular order here is a realistic top 10 of greatest ever, combing both natural talent and achievements.

1 - Seb Coe

2 - Peter Snell

3 - Zatopek

4 - Nurmi

5 - Elliott

6 - Ovett

7 - Cram

8 - Harbig

9 - Bannister

10 - Rono

Dutch Guy wrote:

You can't compare different eras by times (for one thing because of peds), you can't even compare by medals because World Championships only began in 1983 and even then only once every four years. You can't even compare by level of domination of peers, because peds can play a part in that too. Anyone who thinks Bekele would be running even close to 13 minutes back in the 70's let alone the 20's or 40's is nuts.

Having said that, in no particular order here is a realistic top 10 of greatest ever, combing both natural talent and achievements.

1 - Seb Coe

2 - Peter Snell

3 - Zatopek

4 - Nurmi

5 - Elliott

6 - Ovett

7 - Cram

8 - Harbig

9 - Bannister

10 - Rono

I have a very hard time listing guys like bannister, ovett, rono, harbig, and cram ahead of guys like Viren, Bekele, Kipchoge, and Geb. Take Rono. Guy was a total stud. Was his career noticeably better than say Daniel Koman or Ron Clarke? Was Bannisters, Cram, and Ovetts careers any noticeably better than Jim Ryun or Nourdel Morceli?

If you sit down with a piece of paper and list the top 25 distance runners of all time and then try to rank them it gets pretty hard after about 5 and a lot will depend on your preference.

wow you're a b*tch wrote:

Sir Mo Farah: GOAT wrote:

It isn't. But saying apart from Coe you can't think of a single non African is. Because that's obviously playing into the Farah isn't a "real Brit" angle despite growing up here, being enshrined in British culture now and being supported by British athletics fans long before he achieved the double double and being a knight of the realm!

You are deciding he can't be what he has grown up as because of the colour of his skin. That's what makes the OP a racist.

Fact: Mo Farah is British.

Fact: Mo Farah is not in the top 10 all time.

You're an imbecile if you think this is a race issue.

Well it's certainly not distance running issue is it? Post up the list of runners with more Olympic and World Championships career Gold medals in DISTANCE RUNNING (you know the only real yard stick by which you can compare runners from different eras) and then if he falls outside the top 10 we can talk.

Otherwise you've got absolutely nothing to stand on rather than your pathetic racist platform. You clown ?

And yet you do this exact thing with your top 10 list. Are you really this stupid?

You are a colossal dumb@ss. Of course no one thinks Bekele would have run ~13:00 in the 40s, the world record was barely under 14:00. I have no idea why you even brought this up.

Hey look! A single black guy made the list!

Congratulations on posting the dumbest thing I've read all day.

Sir Mo Farah: GOAT wrote:

wow you're a b*tch wrote:

Fact: Mo Farah is British.

Fact: Mo Farah is not in the top 10 all time.

You're an imbecile if you think this is a race issue.

Well it's certainly not distance running issue is it? Post up the list of runners with more Olympic and World Championships career Gold medals in DISTANCE RUNNING (you know the only real yard stick by which you can compare runners from different eras) and then if he falls outside the top 10 we can talk.

Otherwise you've got absolutely nothing to stand on rather than your pathetic racist platform. You clown ?

He doesn't have a single outdoor world record you useless prick. To be top 10 you need medals + dominance + world records. The OP's list is good except for Komen, who should be replaced with Viren. Farah is too slow.

Sir Mo Farah: GOAT wrote:

wow you're a b*tch wrote:

Fact: Mo Farah is British.

Fact: Mo Farah is not in the top 10 all time.

You're an imbecile if you think this is a race issue.

Well it's certainly not distance running issue is it? Post up the list of runners with more Olympic and World Championships career Gold medals in DISTANCE RUNNING (you know the only real yard stick by which you can compare runners from different eras) and then if he falls outside the top 10 we can talk.

Otherwise you've got absolutely nothing to stand on rather than your pathetic racist platform. You clown ?

You can't always use medals won as a benchmark. For Rono, Kenya boycotted in 76 and 80 and the was no WC at the time. I believe Ryun would have won in 68 if the Oly had been at sea level and he was tripped in 72. If there had been professional contracts, he might have run in 76 at age 29 as well.

My point was that a list like mine is just as valid as the OPs.

Yes of course the OP, and most of you are assuming that EPO'd up cheats lucky enough to be around in the 90s and early 00's would have been much faster than the greats of the 20's and 40's and 60's, and that if you transported somebody like Bannister to the late 20th century, trained him full-time from a young age with modern methods, put him on modern tracks and in modern shoes, let him EPO to the max from his teens, and he'd still run the mile in 3:59 rather than 3:39.

Oh look, doping testing in East Africa has gradually gone from non-existent to slightly better than abysmal over the last decade, and the only great East African runner active today started in the EPO era (Kipchoge), whilst the remarkable talents are European (Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Max Burgin).

Yes, it's virtually impossible to compare eras, so why has the OP selected 9 Africans from the full-throttle EPO era (92-2005 or thereabouts) and then thrown in Sebastian Coe from the pre-EPO era to ask if he was the only white among the ten greatest runners ever? If you want to make such a stupid thread, at least keep it to the EPO era and ask maybe if Cacho was the only white guy to make the top 10 from that shameful decade.

After seeing Coe's career unfold from an athlete in the weight room to taxoplasmosis, to not being able to race a world class 5000m, to his corruption scandal with the IAAF, I would not put it past Coe to have been doping in his time.

1. Haile Gebrselassie

2. Hicham El Guerrouj

3. Kenenisa Bekele

4. Eliud Kipchoge

5. Mo Farah

I just know as a scientific fact as a coach and professional athlete in this sport going on three decades, that Africans are superior runners than caucasians. I know it hurts, but come to my world (elite level running and racing) and you will open your eyes to what talent truly is. For every Jakob, there are dozens of Africans that can flat out run.

mooonshot wrote:

After seeing Coe's career unfold from an athlete in the weight room to taxoplasmosis, to not being able to race a world class 5000m, to his corruption scandal with the IAAF, I would not put it past Coe to have been doping in his time.

Seb Coe the pioneering blood doper whose endurance suddenly dropped off at a mile.

Seb Coe the roid junkie gym rat who was one of the most underweight 800m guys ever.

lil sebby wrote:

The top 10 runners of all time, listed in no particular order within each section:

1-3

Kenenisa Bekele

Haile Gebrselassie

Hicham El Guerrouj

4-6

Noureddine Morceli

Eliud Kipchoge

Daniel Komen

7-10

Paul Tergat

Said Aouita

Sebastian Coe

Moses Kiptanui

Aside from Seb Coe, I can't think of a single non-African that belongs on this list. Who am I missing? Nurmi, Zatopek, and Viren all come to mind but I don't see who I could replace.

S. Coe, one of top five by time trial in 800m. A gold medalist in 1500m. I consider 5000m and longer distance events. S. Coe does not belong on a top ten list of distance runners.

mooonshot wrote:

I just know as a scientific fact as a coach and professional athlete in this sport going on three decades, that Africans are superior runners than caucasians. I know it hurts, but come to my world (elite level running and racing) and you will open your eyes to what talent truly is. For every Jakob, there are dozens of Africans that can flat out run.

With the level of doping going on in Kenya, and the percentage of their top athletes going into distance running, if they had any significant superior natural talent to caucasians, they would absolutely dominate the top 100 800m/1500m/5000m lists.

What's going on is that Kenya (and East Africa) does produce a body type in great numbers suitable for sub- elite running (who knows what part culture/genes play in that) but don't to seem to excel as athletes (their near total lack of success in any other sport demonstrates this).

Give hundreds of sub-elite runners access to peds, and quite a few of them will turn into elites.

There is likely not one legitimate 17 or 18 year old African who is running as fast as Jakob or Max Burgin, perhaps never has been, at least not clean.

When it comes to dominance in the sport, you’re wrong to not put Paavo at 1. Also Herb Elliot(white) and Mo farah need to be on this list over coe