T&FN Favourite Athletes THE RESULTS No1 Haile Gebrselassie

[bushop]

I still have 4, 8, 9 left.

[gh]

Herb Elliott was my #2 choice. No doubt one of the reasons he is such a favorite of mine is that he ran his first-ever race in the US -- a magnificent sub-four minute effort on a grass track -- at the first track meet I ever attended in my life. It was the 1958 Coliseum Relays in Los Angeles.....

a grass track in the Coliseum?

[bman]

Jim Thorpe
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Thorpe

I missed this when it came through. I must say that I am stunned that he went this early; by far that is the biggest surprise for me. I suppose that he was so long ago that he isn't a favorite, but for someone to be that good.

Yea, me too. I didn't submit my list because I wasn't visiting the site when this thing started but he would have easily been my number 1. Of course his myth is really beyond track; really doesn't have anything in common with anyone else we are considering. Its like comparing apples and oranges to a shoe, for lack of a better metaphor.

[oldvaulter]

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[Tuariki]

Herb Elliot - my number 16.

6 to go: NZ, Jamaica, USSR, Czech and 2 x USA

Herb Elliott was my #2 choice. No doubt one of the reasons he is such a favorite of mine is that he ran his first-ever race in the US -- a magnificent sub-four minute effort on a grass track -- at the first track meet I ever attended in my life. It was the 1958 Coliseum Relays in Los Angeles.

I was wrong earlier today in this thread about a "unique distinction", but maybe Herb Elliott has one in being the only athlete who competed at his level (up to and including the Olympics) who never lost a race in his main event. He was undefeated throughout his career in both the 1500m and the mile. His career was shorter than most today, but long enough to include a lot of big races against the best milers of his time. He certainly never ducked anyone.

1960 - 1965 the 1500 / mile was dominated by the Antipodes. First was Elliot, the Perth school kid who ended up training on the beaches of Portsea with "crazy" Percy Cerutty. I am not sure if any anyone else ever smashed the 1500 / mile records the way Elliot did. 2.5 and 2.7 seconds respectively. He was greatly admired by kiwis and the only regret is that he retired before we could have the match-up of the century. Can you imagine how much promoters of today would have paid to have a match up with Elliot and Snell. And how fast would they have gone on todays tracks with a "rabbit".

[gh]

I love learning great arcana like that!

[oldvaulter]

deleted

[Tuariki]

Can you imagine how much promoters of today would have paid to have a match up with Elliot and Snell. And how fast would they have gone on todays tracks with a "rabbit".

This reminds me of a quote that appeared in T&FN in the sixties. This is a nearly fifty-year-old memory, but I think I have it pretty close: "Who is the greatest miler of all time? Easy: Snelliott."

If there is an athlete who inspired me even more than Herb Elliott, it was Peter Snell! Snell was relatively unknown when he won the 800m gold in Rome in 1960. He was already very well-known when he won that amazing 800m/1500m double in Tokyo in 1964.

I have to go along with that. Not only was he a kiwi but he was a Mt Albert Grammar School boy - where I live these days, just down the road. And like me he was also a Wazzu Coug having done his post graduate studies in Pullman - so this should also bring in the support of other Cougs. GH? Seeng as how he is still on my list and obviously a few others I will keep further comments until when his ranking finally appears.

[oldvaulter]

deleted

[26mi235]

a grass track in the Coliseum?

Yes indeed. I'm pretty sure it was only that one year -- 1958 --that the event was run on a grass track. This was necessitated by the fact that the Dodgers were into their baseball season at the time and their home park was still the Coliseum. This was just before Dodger Stadium was finished. The Dodgers would not allow the grass to be removed because they had home games coming up right after the track meet. So the Coliseum Relays decided to hold the event on the grass. They did clip the grass pretty short, but I recall that the sprinters said it was still slow. I'm not sure how it affected the longer distances. Herb Elliott seemed to find it pretty congenial, but he was accustomed to running up sand dunes!

Well, I went to games at the Coliseum for several years; they did not go to Dodger Stadium until 1962.

[Per Andersen]

A Elliott-Snell race would have been a race for the ages and with Elliott in Aug/Sept 1958 shape.
Elliott was my #8. I will always regret that I missed my chance to see him "live" in Oslo in '58.

But nothing can rival the Bannister -Landy race in Vancouver. The buildup was so perfect. Landy comes to Europe in the spring of '54 to finally go sub 4. He is already in Sweden when Bannister does his 3.59.4 in Oxford on May 6. Bannister is paced by Chataway who 6 weeks later helps Landy to his phenomenal 3.57.9 in Turku, Finland. Then the wait through the summer for the Empire Games in early August. Then the race itself where it looks like Landy is about to run away from Bannister who can barely hang on. There is a statue in Vancouver of Landy and Bannister at exactly the moment when Bannister passes him on the last turn. This is when Landy, unable to hear Bannister coming, turns his head inwards when Bannister passes him on the outside.

I have to confess that I am the only guy on this board who was unhappy when Snell beat one of my heroes, Roger Moens, in the Rome 800

[Rog]

I just checked my choices and I didn't include Irena Szewinska, which was clearly an oversight. Easily one of the top five female athletes of all time, multi talented, gracious and much admired, yet I forgot her when I made my list ! My only excuse is she was before my time, yet if you look at the results from last year's WC she was faster over 400 than the winner, and wasn't far off Campbell's 200 time.

Flo Jo was on my list. I know she's a controversial figure, but however she managed to run 10.49/10.61 and 21.34, we know there have since been sprinters who have tried all sorts of measures to emulate her and come up short. Her impact in 88 was astonishing - the only comparisons would be Wang Junxia or Usain Bolt, someone who suddenly leaps to unimaginable heights of performance and looks a class apart. The way she pulled away from everyone in the second half of the OG 100/200 was so exciting, and remains so to this day. She may be the only woman who could run a 48.1 relay leg despite not being a specialist 400 runner and have people complain that she didn't look like she was trying hard enough! Since though I have read she ran over distance reps at 50-sec pace, so who knows what she could have achieved at that event! On a personal level I was struck by how she was a mixture of the superficially flamboyant, with the eye-catching costumes etc, yet seemed to be a shy, quirky, creative woman underneath. A bit of a one-off. Also it is a real pity that someone gifted to have been born in such a physically exceptional body should also have carried the condition which caused her premature death.

Re Nehemiah, not one of my choices but in his day he was one of the biggest stars in the sport. I agree that he could have been a top 400 hurdler, and I think Moses did too as he made some defensive comments on the subject, saying Nehemiah shouldn't try to move into his event or he would move down to the 110h!

[72]

have Gebreselassie and Mutola come and gone? Top 3 still there and one other guy further down the field, who sprints a bit.
Elliott was my no 4; retired at the top at 22 years... different world then. Loved the way he bossed them all at Rome. Quelles memoires!

[Jon]

I've got #s 1, 3, 5 and 15 left.

Always makes me laugh every time someone says "I can't believe such-and-such has gone!" Have a look at the current overall world rankings (men and women) and remind yourself how many great athletes there are right now. That's just one year's worth of rankings. Multiply that by several decades and there have been thousands of fantastic athletes. So for any of them to receive even one or two votes by people on this forum is notable (there will no doubt be some great athletes who receive no votes!) and a ranking within the top 100 is pretty damn good. Perhaps when the full final ranking is revealed then it will all be easier to accept.

[Gabriella]

i always loved her as a kid and when she turned up in Rome 87 wearing this

Then came 1988 i remember getting Athletics Weekly and running round school telling everyone she had run 10.49 and nobody having a clue what i was on about. Although throughout the rest of the season i was right on in there with her, i'm afraid by 89 she's completely lost me. For reasons that are best not discussed here she has become one of my least favourite athletes.

This ^^^. Rome was just great; that all-in-one was superb and I remember a caption from either AW or Athletics Today saying "she'll skate it".

I caught the 10.49 result on teletext before AW came out and thought it was a typo. I remember staring at it thinking they'd got the 4 and 9 the wrong way round and how silly of them. Well, when AW came out with the interim trials results, I couldn't believe it. The women's times in the heats were crazy and many of the other events were equally surreal.
The following week AW had another spread on Florence, entitled "How Flo Jo Fashioned A Record" and had pics of her from each round in a different one-legged suit. She just looked so amazing. I wanted a one-legged catsuit myself

All summer I was waiting to see her compete in Europe and what did we get? Just two average runs in the UK and Sweden; both outside 11 secs (though she did wear the Union Jack on her white catsuit in the UK) But come Seoul that easy 10.62 in rd 2 was just astonishing. Running faster than any other women in a 2nd rd ht?

In one season she had transformed into the most remarkable running machine; musculature, technique, endurance, relaxtion - everything. Then one post-Seoul race in Japan and she retires.

When the rumours surfaced at the end of 1995 that she was thinking about a return to the sport and looking at the 400m for Atlanta, I knew deep down she wouldnt but I did nearly wet myself. Torrance had toyed with the 400m; Privalova had as well, Drechsler was consideirng a move to the 400m...my mind drifted to a 400m in Atlanta with Perec v Freeman v Flo Jo v Torrance v Privalova v Drechsler...

Back to reality. I am like mump in that I did feel robbed and disappointed in her. I don't care what anyone says in her defence, you do not do that at the abosloute top of your game, when there are athletic and commercial opportunities galore.

She did receive some harsh criticism from the press and other athletes, such as those awful words from Cruz, as well as the allegations from Darrell Robinson. Whatever our thoughts on her, she did generally deal with them fairly gracefully (well, apart from accusing Robinson of being mentally ill) .

[mump boy]

I'm down to 5 left: my Nos. 2, 3, 10, 19, 20 (but I'm having trouble believing my No. 10 isn't long gone)

She's long gone Gaz

[mump boy]

How about a new dimension to this event? We've all named our favorites (at least as of a few months ago). Now how about guessing who will be the eventual winner? Instead of naming personal favorites, this will involve having a sense of the psyche of the forum participants as a whole.

Now that we're down to the heavy-hitters, this could be fun. Again, it would mean submitting a name (one and only one) to Mump Boy by PM, so as not to cue each other in by our guesses.

I already know who my guess would be. Anyone else up for this? Mump?

I'm fine with that BUT i'm off to Istanbul on tuesday and i'm planning on getting to No1 before then

[mump boy]

i always loved her as a kid and when she turned up in Rome 87 wearing this

Then came 1988 i remember getting Athletics Weekly and running round school telling everyone she had run 10.49 and nobody having a clue what i was on about. Although throughout the rest of the season i was right on in there with her, i'm afraid by 89 she's completely lost me. For reasons that are best not discussed here she has become one of my least favourite athletes.

The following week AW had another spread on Florence, entitled "How Flo Jo Fashioned A Record" and had pics of her from each round in a different one-legged suit. She just looked so amazing. I wanted a one-legged catsuit myself

they certainly did http://desmond.yfrog.com/Himg877/scaled ... &ysize=640

and so did i

(funny what you find when moving house )

[Gabriella]

they certainly did http://desmond.yfrog.com/Himg877/scaled ... &ysize=640

and so did i

(funny what you find when moving house )

Ha! That's the one!
Ah, those were the days, waiting for your weekly mag to come out! I'd quickly turn to the international results section and search for anything significant; there was always some tiny meet in Sofia or Neubrandenberg with crazy results! It's not the same now we have the internet!

@ gh, so have you removed part of that post or not? I can't see why you would remove the bit about Cruz and Robinson, I was quoting events that happened - she did get criticised by Cruz and Robinson did make those allegations. That's fact, not conjecture.

[oldvaulter]

deleted

[gh]

He had the Maximum Wooooo Factor at Franklin and that's saying a WHOLE lot.

Here is some stuff from Walt Murphy, re: Penn heroics.
http://www.waltmurphystrackworld.com/penn/nehemiah.html

And Jon's interview with Pat Connolly is pretty interesting too.
http://atoboldon.sc49.info/letsrap/inde ... pic=5522.0

If you want vintage interviews of quite a few of the people among the faces here, check out our Q&A archive, which has a couple of hundred up and running (although it's not quite complete yet).

http://www.trackandfieldnews.com/index. ... rviews/586

[Pego]

How about a new dimension to this event? We've all named our favorites (at least as of a few months ago). Now how about guessing who will be the eventual winner? Instead of naming personal favorites, this will involve having a sense of the psyche of the forum participants as a whole.

Now that we're down to the heavy-hitters, this could be fun. Again, it would mean submitting a name (one and only one) to Mump Boy by PM, so as not to cue each other in by our guesses.

I already know who my guess would be. Anyone else up for this? Mump?

I'm fine with that BUT i'm off to Istanbul on tuesday and i'm planning on getting to No1 before then

I just sent mump boy my guess for the winner by PM, and I hope others will do so also very quickly.

At least I tried to send the PM. It's sitting in the "outbox" but does not appear in the "sent messages" folder. I don't see any button to "send message". Is there something else I need to do to get the message out of the "outbox" and into the "sent messages" folder?

It will sit in the Outbox until the recipient opens it.

[mump boy]

Spot the odd one out

26th (7 votes 82 points)

Kelly Holmes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelly_Holmes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aV6LfdD97fY

Paavo Nurmi
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paavo_Nurmi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnbYn6LB ... re=related

25th (7 votes 98 points)

Jesse Owens
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_Owens
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quQopJmQry4


23rd (7 votes 108 points)

Steve Prefontaine
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Prefontaine

Frank Shorter
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Shorter
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THUKgZX9pw8

22nd (7 votes 110 points)

Valeriy Brummel
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valeriy_Brumel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9r0hdHV95sU

[oldvaulter]

deleted

[LopenUupunut]

There goes my last remaining athlete... (one guess who )

[gh]

Spot the odd one out

26th (7 votes 82 points)

Kelly Holmes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelly_Holmes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aV6LfdD97fY
...

ahhh..... suspicions confirmed: the voting demographic has a lot of young Brits.

[DrJay]

I don't think Lord Coe has appeared yet. Surprised he's ahead of Pre and Shorter. Come to think of it, haven't seen Lord Jesus Christ yet....hard to imagine Pre getting fewer votes than him.....

[gh]

And there goes my 2 and 19 (and I"m growing convinced that my No. 10 somehow got overlooked in the results)

[DrJay]

Spot the odd one out

26th (7 votes 82 points)

Kelly Holmes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelly_Holmes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aV6LfdD97fY
...

ahhh..... suspicions confirmed: the voting demographic has a lot of young Brits.

Also by the Coe over Shorter/Pre, IMHO.

[LopenUupunut]

And there goes my 2 and 19 (and I"m growing convinced that my No. 10 somehow got overlooked in the results)

Mump did say she's already gone

[oldvaulter]

deleted

[gh]

And there goes my 2 and 19 (and I"m growing convinced that my No. 10 somehow got overlooked in the results)

OK, found her. Mump's dyslexia somehow transmuted Kate Schmidt into Kath Smith! (I don't think pissing off large women who carry spears is a good idea. )

[mump boy]

And there goes my 2 and 19 (and I"m growing convinced that my No. 10 somehow got overlooked in the results)

your number 10 is on the first page 1 vote 11 points !!

[DrJay]

I think I have three left. Could someone with nothing to do today....maybe someone in the Midwest who's cowering in their basement with their laptop.....put together an alphabetized list of who's been named, with their ranking after their name? That'd be a handy little additon.

[mump boy]

And there goes my 2 and 19 (and I"m growing convinced that my No. 10 somehow got overlooked in the results)

OK, found her. Mump's dyslexia somehow transmuted Kate Schmidt into Kath Smith! (I don't think pissing off large women who carry spears is a good idea. )

Oh come on we worked out ages ago that i can't read, spell or add up !! You have to use a bit of imagination, who else is Kate Smith going to be ? a Charlies Angel ??