All Time Greats

ecoli

okay so this could prob cause a bit of interest but i lookin to see who ppl think is irelands greatest all time athletics star

hard one to decide especially wen names like ronnie delaney eamon coughlan, john tracy sonia o sullivan come to mind

or u mite be of the opinion that the best is in the present wi possibly cragg o rourke hession gilllick nolan?

like to hear ur top male and female of who ever comes to mind

Rineanna

Female: Sonia stands out as the obvious choice; She was a major force in Women's Long distance running throughout the nineties. Her double at the '98 Euro's and her World 5000m Gold were outstanding...especially in today's context. I think that famous scene (shown on reeling in the years every two weeks!!) of her sprint to the finish line in Budapest is probably the most inspiring Sporting moment I've ever seen. Let's not forget, however, that Derval is a World Champ in her own right, and, no, she doesn't have the same quantity of medals as Sonia, but she's still achieved alot IMO.

Male: Don't forget Pat O' Callaghan!! Olympic Gold twice in a row has yet to be matched.

Clum

Greatest all time I'd say Sonia.

I think the following is correct...

1 Olympic Silver (5000m)
1 World Championship Gold (5000m)
2 World Cross Country Championship Gold (8000m and 4000m 1998)
1 World Championship Silver (1500m)
1 World indoor Championship Silver (3000m 1997)
3 European Championship Gold (3000m in 1994, 10000 and 5000 in 1998)
2 European Championship Silver (10000m and 5000m 2002)
1 World record (2000m)

TheRoadRunner

Sonia is in my opinion our all time best. Forget (the minor) cock ups. If it comes down to "put your medals on the table" then there is no one else who can come close

ecoli

but remember it not all jus bout medals for example steve prefontaine neva won a major championship medal yet many would regard him as one of americas all time greats

however in this case i agree

High&Low

Bob Tisdall - when he won in 1932 he beat the 1924, 1928 and the eventual 1936 olympic 400m H champions, he also set a world record (disallowed at the time cause he hit a hurdle) that would have remained for many years.

Pat O'Callaghan won two hammer gold's and would have won a third in 1936 if it wasn't for some political interference.

With the women, there is only Sonia, have we ever had any other female athlete win an olympic medal?

High&Low

ecoli wrote: »

but remember it not all jus bout medals for example steve prefontaine neva won a major championship medal yet many would regard him as one of americas all time greats

however in this case i agree

Prefontaine was only 21 when he was 4th in the Olympics and it was after that Olympics that he went on to set every american record from 2,000m to 10,000m, He died when he was only 24 and was at the peek of his career, he probably would have won an olympic medal had he not died so young.

ecoli

i know yea which emphasizes tat medals aint everythin

High&Low

ecoli, the text speak, lack of punctuation and capital letters where required are hurting my eyes...

But yes, medals aren't everything, they are just one moment in time and don't always accurately reflect the brilliance of an athlete. Huge amount of luck required, especially when there was only the Olympics.

TheRoadRunner

I agree medals aren't everything. However records can be broken or taken away, championship medals can't.

An all time great can in my opinion turn up to a major champs and consistently perform and win medals. Sonia has done this. Times are important but aren't everything. Alan Webb may go on to break many US records but until he performs at a major champs I would consider him an all time great.

Common Sense

My all time greats are Sonia (female) and Eamonn Coghlan (male). I agree with all that has been said about Sonia, but Coghlan had a magnificent career during which he won (and is the only non african) to win the World 5000 metres championship; had two fourths in the olympics, held the world indoor mile record for about 15 years (give or take), was the first and only person over 40 to run sub 4 minutes for the mile; a world record, incidentally he still holds and which he set at 42. His career span therefore which took place at the highest level almost approaches 20 years.

Pherekydes

Common Sense wrote: »

Eamonn Coghlan...held the world indoor mile record for about 15 years (give or take)...

18 years, would you believe! It's Coghlan and O'Sullivan for me, too, though I'd have to place O'Callaghan, Tisdall and Delany high up any list. Especially Tisdall.

Also of note are Marcus O'Sullivan's 3 world indoor 1500m titles and the late Noel Carroll's 3 European indoor 800m titles. Treacy, O'Mara and McKiernan have their merits, also.

Rineanna

High&Low wrote: »

Pat O'Callaghan won two hammer gold's and would have won a third in 1936 if it wasn't for some political interference.

What happened there?

geld

All the replies to this thread so far have refered to the highly talented *******ns etc Ireland have been lucky to have had.

My all time greats are the men & women who keep runnning well into their twlight years. I am thinking of the following evergreens; Nick Corish - aged 80 +, Paddy Craddock - 70 +, Seamus Kilcullen late sixties and has completed all Dublin Marathons. There are others that I am sure we could add onto the list.

For me these are the ones that inspire me and their achievements in my opinion are equal to the other greats mentioned in the thread so far.

thirtyfoot

geld wrote: »

For me these are the ones that inspire me and their achievements in my opinion are equal to the other greats mentioned in the thread so far.

Great men alright but please don't say they are equal to O' Sullivan, Coghlan, Tisdall, Delany, O' Callaghan. I see lads that age up the mountains hiking out and passing young fellas quarter their age every other week but I wouldn't regard them as great as Tensing or Hillary or Herzog. Maybe start a separate thread on all-time great vets.

We are talking about Olympic champions and medallists here not people who keep going strong into their 80's. I could throw my granny into the mix as she used to cycle to the shop for the paper each day well into her 80's, but she was no Sean Kelly. Tisdall kept going well into his latter years and while not running marathons he was a very fit man in his final years and he had the ace of spades of an Olympic gold medal sitting in his back pocket. I remember being very young seeing Tisdall do a bit of messing around and sprinting and putting young lads to shame in Nenagh once, he must have been in his 60's. He could even had hurdled but that may have just been my imagination, I was very young.

O' Sullivan for top female and Coghlan for top male, his unbelievable indoor mile record swinging it in his favour.

High&Low

Rineanna wrote: »

What happened there?

I think what happend was that in 1936 the IAAF refused to recognise the Irish Athletic association. Not sure if it was just athletics.

runningbean

Ireland greatest ever athlete female-sonia male -Mark Carroll.
my personal fav is mark.3.50 miler and Irish record in the Marathon.
think Pre Fontaine the most over rated athlete,an athlete that would have been better than Pre was Ivo Van Damme,if u don't know about him just google his name..........

TheRoadRunner

Yeah Carroll was/is a class act.

Apparently he is entered in an upcoming marathon and who would bet against him getting the Olympic qualifying time.

I think Pre was class but I also think he is slightly over rated. I think this kind of thing happens when a talented person dies young!

Pherekydes

runningbean wrote: »

Ireland greatest ever athlete female-sonia male -Mark Carroll.
my personal fav is mark.3.50 miler and Irish record in the Marathon.
think Pre Fontaine the most over rated athlete,an athlete that would have been better than Pre was Ivo Van Damme,if u don't know about him just google his name..........

John Treacy holds the Irish record for the Marathon at 2:09:15. Carroll does have a great range, but his best distance is the 5k, and he should have stuck at that.

Agree with Van Damme; what a huge talent and a huge loss.