Which T&F athletes who retired 30 years or more could still medal against today's best?

Asker of questions wrote:

I say Jim Ryun and Henry Rono.

Ryun ended with some serious 53 second finals although no one ever rabbited him to a 2:48 1200m and Rono was so ahead of his time he was only lacking the kick to finish them but would still have medaled in London.

Good picks, although one might argue that Henry wasn't atually retired thirty years ago.

I certainly wouldn't want to argue against Bob Beamon.

I wouldn't rule out Viren. Although his times were obviously nowhere near today's world-class times, I think that it's very difficult to know how good he would have been against faster competition. The guy had an uncanny ability to win when it counted, and his tactical sense was remarkable.

Absolutely. Don't underestimate technological improvements in the last 30 years. Spikes have gotten multiple times lighter. A world-class track then was worse than a HS track now. I think there are guys back then who would be beating Usain Bolt right now.

Asker of questions wrote:

I say Jim Ryun and Henry Rono.

Ryun ended with some serious 53 second finals although no one ever rabbited him to a 2:48 1200m and Rono was so ahead of his time he was only lacking the kick to finish them but would still have medaled in London.

Ryun would be my pick. At his peak in 1967 he would demolish anyone no matter the tactics. He ran a sub 50 second last lap with the last 300 being run in 36.4 seconds and this was in a 3:38 race on a cinder track!

His 3:51.1 record was as good as any mile WR that has been run since. Go check out the youtube video, it is simply amazing. And notice how emotionless he looks after crossing the line!

crazy raisin wrote:

Absolutely. Don't underestimate technological improvements in the last 30 years. Spikes have gotten multiple times lighter. A world-class track then was worse than a HS track now. I think there are guys back then who would be beating Usain Bolt right now.

Perhaps you're thinking of Bob Hayes.

AN, Bob had one huge jump at altitude but I don't think he was that consistent to medal today.

Jim Ryun. Jim Ryun 1967 form would still be a gold medal contender in the Olympics to this day.

Avocado's Number wrote:

I wouldn't rule out Viren. Although his times were obviously nowhere near today's world-class times, I think that it's very difficult to know how good he would have been against faster competition. The guy had an uncanny ability to win when it counted, and his tactical sense was remarkable.

Yup, white runner's who are willing to cheat are capable of some amazing things even to this day.

John Ngugi retired less than 30 years ago, but would probably win gold in any 5000 for the next 100 years. He would run 13:11 by himself, nobody would go with him and that would be the end of it.

Not exactly what you were looking for but

Carl Lewis jumped 28-10 indoors 28 years ago-how many in that area now?

Slaney has the Am indoor mile record at 4:20ish set in '82

Let me add championship racing being what it is these days Cram Scott and Ovett could all be in the lead pack with a turn to go but again we are inside your retired 30 plus

but send instead of delete

WiT wrote:

Let me add championship racing being what it is these days Cram Scott and Ovett could all be in the lead pack with a turn to go but again we are inside your retired 30 plus

but send instead of delete

This started well, but then it kind of tapered off. When his retirement reaches 30 years, Sergey Bubka will probably vault over everyone else on this list.

I don't know his PRs, but someone who raced like Miruts Yifter might be a good candidate. He retired a little less than 30 years ago, though he would claim he only retired 22 years ago.

800 meters 1:53.28

Jarmila Kratochvílová (Munich, Germany 7/26/83

Asker of questions wrote:

AN, Bob had one huge jump at altitude but I don't think he was that consistent to medal today.

In 1968, Bob Beamon won 22 out of 23 long jump competitions leading up to the Olympics. During that stretch, his best wind-legal jump was 8.33m, which was better than the gold-medal jump at this year's Olympic Games, and his best wind-assisted jump was 8.39m, which was better than any jump, with or without wind assistance, in all of 2012. That sounds like a very consistent record of excellence that no one has matched lately, and it made him the solid favorite going into the Games.

At the Games, he had one safe jump to qualify for the finals, where he nailed his 8.90m on his first jump. People can come up with various altitude adjustments, but I think you'd be hard-pressed to find any reputable adjustments that would put any recent performances close to what Beamon did in that "one huge jump" in 1968. And, of course, "one huge jump" is still all it takes to win an Olympic gold medal, as long as you are good enough to get to the Games -- which Beamon clearly was, and clearly would be by today's standards as well.

juantorena - don't think he coulda beat rudisha, could definitely have been in the mix with james at 400m

moses - the winning streak says it all, would win gold and probably by a lot

nehemiah - would be close with merritt, most intriguing matchup to me

lee evans - first under 44 even though it was at altitude.

too many doped up women to name coming out of the 70's/80's era

oh and if you're going to mention ryun you might as well mention kip keino. he smoked ryun by 3 seconds!

sjc wrote:

oh and if you're going to mention ryun you might as well mention kip keino. he smoked ryun by 3 seconds!

*at over 7000 feet elevation with the use of team tactics

Herb Elliot retired at 22 and surely could have run even faster

Peter Snell, he would have medalled in London. He also said if he knew then what he knows now he would have trained differently

It would also be interesting to see what a runnner like Roger Bannister and many others would run on today's training. There training was so light he would run much faster

Ed Moses would crush all todays hurdlers

someone had to do it wrote:

Asker of questions wrote:

I say Jim Ryun and Henry Rono.

Ryun ended with some serious 53 second finals although no one ever rabbited him to a 2:48 1200m and Rono was so ahead of his time he was only lacking the kick to finish them but would still have medaled in London.

Ryun would be my pick. At his peak in 1967 he would demolish anyone no matter the tactics. He ran a sub 50 second last lap with the last 300 being run in 36.4 seconds and this was in a 3:38 race on a cinder track!

His 3:51.1 record was as good as any mile WR that has been run since. Go check out the youtube video, it is simply amazing. And notice how emotionless he looks after crossing the line!

While I agree with you that Ryun would still mix it with the world's best milers today, he did NOT run a sub 50 sec last lap in that 3:38 race. It was given as 50.6 in T&FN at the time. That was hand timed, so probably more like 50.8. The 36.4 is a nonsense. No footage available to public. The only person I know who has sen the footage in the UNI archive library timed it at 37.**

People still persist with these "myths."

Beamon comes to mind as does Soviet guy Robert Emmiyan. World class long jumping is all-around pathetic compared to what it used to be.

someone had to do it wrote:

*at over 7000 feet elevation with the use of team tactics

What team tactics? Didn't he just go for it from the gun and run a really fast time?