GOAT is a comparative argument. For either to not be the GOAT of their respective events, someone would have to have surpassed them. Who do you genuinely believe has surpassed them?
Their accomplishments, for reference:
Bekele - WR 5K, WR 10K, 11x Cross Country World Champion, 5x World Champion, 3x Olympic gold, 2x Marathon Major champion, first to double 5K/10K at worlds, Olympic records at 5K and 10K, World Championship record at 10K, PRs of 7:25/4:49i/12:37/12:49i/26:17/2:01:41
El G - WR 1500, WR Mile, WR 2K, 4x World champion, 2x Olympic gold, second man after Nurmi in 1924 to double 1500/5K at Olympics, seven of the top 10 1500m times in history, Olympic record at 1500, World Championship record at 1500, PRs of 3:26/3:43/4:44/7:23/12:50
Bekele is still distance GOAT and El G is still 1500 GOAT. Cheptegei and Jakob are the only challengers and I wouldn’t consider either one to be that close, though both are great in their own right.
I personally think Jakob has a chance to surpass both of them but only time will tell. Yes they are still the GOATs however I would say we should consider Nurmi and Zatopek as honorable mentions just because they destroyed the competition and changed training in ways that have not yet been surpassed(except Lydiard).
While most people on LR would agree that Jakob seems better than Chep at the 5k, Chep actually has a better championship record (1 Oly gold and 3 WC gold) vs Jakob who only has 1 Oly gold. Either way, both are quite far from surpassing El G or Bekele.
In itself the idea of GOAT belong to the "romantic" world of medias.
Take the example of Phelps (19 Olymp Gold?) are you really convinced inside of yourself he is a GOAT? Or just you want to please yourself with the idea?
Carl Lewis at one time was also a puppet in the media world of GOATs. We know what happened to his image later...
This post was edited 2 minutes after it was posted.
Bekele is still distance GOAT and El G is still 1500 GOAT. Cheptegei and Jakob are the only challengers and I wouldn’t consider either one to be that close, though both are great in their own right.
If Jakob can win the double Gold this year, I would put him over El G, because he would have one more 1500 Gold and much better 3k(2 miles) 5k performances and his 1500 PB is only slightly slower than El g . As for Bekele, it depends on your perspective. Personally I think 1500m/5k double is more harder to pull off than 5k/10k, so I would also put him above Bekele, if he wins this year. And if he wins this year and get the 1500/5k WR in 2025/26, then the debate is completely over. He's the GOAT of distance running.
I think people may suffer from the nostalgia just as OP said. Yeah, they did great at their times, but their era was also not as competitive. All Bekele had to beat back then was just Kipchoge(with a PB of only 12:48) in the 5k (and El g in Athen) and some unknown guys in the 10k, who would not even make it to the podium with the current crop of sub-12:40 runners. Same goes for El g. The only obstacle was Ngeny (who was pretty much a non factor after an accident, while Jakob has to face Josh Kerr, Wightman, Nugese and a horde of sub 3:30 runners in the 1500 and loads of sub 12:50 or even 12:40 runners in the 5k.
While most people on LR would agree that Jakob seems better than Chep at the 5k, Chep actually has a better championship record (1 Oly gold and 3 WC gold) vs Jakob who only has 1 Oly gold. Either way, both are quite far from surpassing El G or Bekele.
Jakob actually has two WC golds in the 5000m. He won the two most recent WCs. Cheptegei has never won a WC 5000m.
If Jakob can win the double Gold this year, I would put him over El G, because he would have one more 1500 Gold and much better 3k(2 miles) 5k performances and his 1500 PB is only slightly slower than El g . As for Bekele, it depends on your perspective. Personally I think 1500m/5k double is more harder to pull off than 5k/10k, so I would also put him above Bekele, if he wins this year. And if he wins this year and get the 1500/5k WR in 2025/26, then the debate is completely over. He's the GOAT of distance running.
I think people may suffer from the nostalgia just as OP said. Yeah, they did great at their times, but their era was also not as competitive. All Bekele had to beat back then was just Kipchoge(with a PB of only 12:48) in the 5k (and El g in Athen) and some unknown guys in the 10k, who would not even make it to the podium with the current crop of sub-12:40 runners. Same goes for El g. The only obstacle was Ngeny (who was pretty much a non factor after an accident, while Jakob has to face Josh Kerr, Wightman, Nugese and a horde of sub 3:30 runners in the 1500 and loads of sub 12:50 or even 12:40 runners in the 5k.
So he only beat the best 1500 runner of all time and the most consistent marathoner of all time?
The only time I hear of Bekele as GOAT is in this forum.
Can you give a solide confirmation about this fact.
A solide scientific reference.
Yes I solide fact Ethiopian ran 13:03 prior to 1994.
Can you fact solide?
Should you wear a glass to see it? Its right there in the image I posted from the world athletics. The only prior performance to Gebresselassi is from Fita Bayisa (13:05:40 1993).
Not surprising that small country of 5 millions population is owning you with a single runner. Even Katir smarted his brain to cut you in the latest WC.