Who are the greatest track and field athletes never to have won an Olympic Medal?

Pisco Sour

Was just thinking about this, and a few names come to mind:

Ingrid Kristiansen and Paula Radcliffe (how on earth has she not won an Olympic medal by now!) come to mind.

Also if you exclude relays Asafa Powell is also without an individual Olympic Medal, despite his many world records.

Any other notable contenders for this award?

Domer

Steve Prefontaine

Spiritoftheseventies

Glad you asked. for me Eamon Coghlan was desperately unlucky in two olympics not to have one at least a bronze. Finished fourth in both th 1976 and 1980 olympics

Quiet Lurker

There are several that I can think of
Henry Rono
Jim Ryun

davelerave

i think ron clarke the great aussie is another who didn't medal
oops:he won a bronze in 1964

Reaganomical

Roger Bannister

TrackFan123

bayviewclose wrote: »

Glad you asked. for me Eamon Coghlan was desperately unlucky in two olympics not to have one at least a bronze. Finished fourth in both th 1976 and 1980 olympics

This.

Asafa Powell has never won an individual medal, only a relay gold

cfitz

I'm not old enough to know much outside of the last 15 years, but I think Paula Radcliffe stands out way above anyone else. I reckon she could win gold in 2012 though.

deadlybuzz

Renaldo Nehemiah, first man to go under 13 seconds in the 110m Hurdles, and held the World record for years.

Steve Jones had a great run of marathons between '84 and '88 Olympics, breaking the World Record along the way. He still holds the British record, over 20 years later.

limericklion

The great Shaheen has never one an Olympic medal due to injury. He has won two world championships and is the record holder in the steeple and has run sub 12.50 for 5k. Also one of his infamous track sessions was 4 by sub 4 minute miles with a jog lap recovery followed in the evening with a number of 300s in 36-39 seconds an absolute beast who at his best can rival Bekele and Daniel Komen.

myflipflops

limericklion wrote: »

The great Shaheen has never one an Olympic medal due to injury. He has won two world championships and is the record holder in the steeple and has run sub 12.50 for 5k. Also one of his infamous track sessions was 4 by sub 4 minute miles with a jog lap recovery followed in the evening with a number of 300s in 36-39 seconds an absolute beast who at his best can rival Bekele and Daniel Komen.

He missed the 2004 Olympics because of his change in nationality. The Kenyans didn't agree to an smooth change of allegiance and so he had a couple of years of Olympic ineligability.

limericklion

myflipflops wrote: »

He missed the 2004 Olympics because of his change in nationality. The Kenyans didn't agree to an smooth change of allegiance and so he had a couple of years of Olympic ineligability.

The topic of the thread was about great athletes who have not won Olympic medals for whatever reasons. There is no need to go cherrypicking on why they didnt run the bottom line is he did not run. Its interesting that this point was brought up and quoted rather than running 4 sub 4 minute miles in the one session magestic stuff.

Koroibos

Daniel Komen never even made it to the Olympics never mind got a medal.

Rio 2016

Phenominal stuff and I was lucky enough to meet the man and his coach in Limerick in April 08. Totally unassuming and down to earth and is never referred to as Shaheen by those around him.

However for me Vanderlei de Lima has to be the unluckiest looser of all, despite the fact that he did win a bronze. It is an absolute disgrace that the name Neil Horan has become more famous than that of the man whom he sabotaged.

Pisco Sour

bayviewclose wrote: »

Glad you asked. for me Eamon Coghlan was desperately unlucky in two olympics not to have one at least a bronze. Finished fourth in both th 1976 and 1980 olympics

not to forget he was robbed of a chance in 1984 due to injury.

myflipflops

limericklion wrote: »

The topic of the thread was about great athletes who have not won Olympic medals for whatever reasons. There is no need to go cherrypicking on why they didnt run the bottom line is he did not run. Its interesting that this point was brought up and quoted rather than running 4 sub 4 minute miles in the one session magestic stuff.

I think it's relevant when it was effectively a self imposed ban in 2004 that cost him a very likely (near certain?) gold medal rather than an injury.

He was/is one of the most interesting athletes out there and one of my favorites so it's a great pity that he never got to an Oympics when fit and at peak.

hinault

Ron Clark was one of the greatest middle distance runners ever.

he never won an Olympic title (he did win a bronze megal)

myflipflops

It probably is Cherono/Shaheen and Radcliffe as the 2 greatest ever never to win an Olympic medal of any colour.

Wilson Kipketer maybe the greatest in my lifetime not to win gold.

Pisco Sour

myflipflops wrote: »

Wilson Kipketer maybe the greatest in my lifetime not to win gold.

Grete Waitz has to rank as one of the greatest never to win Gold.

myflipflops

04072511 wrote: »

Grete Waitz has to rank as one of the greatest never to win Gold.

No arguements. Her Olympic silver was the year i was born though not quite 'in my lifetime'. Someone I would have loved to see run though.

Kiptanui

Thankfully Sonia got off this list in Sydney!!

There have been greats in every generation not to get medals. Shaheen is an obvious one - an incredible athlete. Forget the politics, he oozed class. Daniel Komen is another. His 3000m WR of 7 mins 20 was unreal and will continue to stand the test of time.

Billy Konchellah could also feature. Eamon Coghlan would make any list like this. Hopefully Paula Radcliffe will erase her name from it in 2012. Dave Bedford was another worthy of an olympic medal. Likewise the ill fated Pre. We were robbed of a legend. Mary Decker. Ronaldo Nehemiah, Henry Rono. The list goes on .......... The Chairman is top of mine!!

Pisco Sour

myflipflops wrote: »

No arguements. Her Olympic silver was the year i was born though not quite 'in my lifetime'. Someone I would have loved to see run though.

I think Grete Waitz, Sonia O'Sullivan and Gete Wami are probably the greatest female long distance runners never to take Olympic Gold.

theflash800

powell hasn't won an olympic individual medal right? He is just class and he hasn't won a medal. Likewise with steve prefontaine... he should have won a medal too.

Pisco Sour

Kiptanui wrote: »

Billy Konchellah could also feature. Eamon Coghlan would make any list like this. Hopefully Paula Radcliffe will erase her name from it in 2012. Dave Bedford was another worthy of an olympic medal. Likewise the ill fated Pre. We were robbed of a legend. Mary Decker. Ronaldo Nehemiah, Henry Rono. The list goes on .......... The Chairman is top of mine!!

Nehemiah was unfortunate with the US Boycott in 1980, but only has himself to blame for not competing in 1984 as he was playing NFL at this time. Amazing how little the 110m Hurdles has moved on from his 12:93 in 1981.

I'd be hesitant to include Decker as she was suspended for drug use in 1997.

theflash800

myflipflops wrote: »

Wilson Kipketer maybe the greatest in my lifetime not to win gold.

Agreed... Definitely should have won a gold!...

myflipflops

theflash800 wrote: »

powell hasn't won an olympic individual medal right? He is just class and he hasn't won a medal. Likewise with steve prefontaine... he should have won a medal too.

Olympic gold in the relay which is why i didn't mention him.

Pisco Sour

myflipflops wrote: »

Olympic gold in the relay which is why i didn't mention him.

I think for this debate relay medals should be excluded as it is easier for a US, GB, Jamaican athlete to win an Olympic Medal than say David Gillick or Paul Hession, or somebody else from a smaller country.

Kiptanui

04072511 wrote: »

Nehemiah was unfortunate with the US Boycott in 1980, but only has himself to blame for not competing in 1984 as he was playing NFL at this time. Amazing how little the 110m Hurdles has moved on from his 12:93 in 1981.

I'd be hesitant to include Decker as she was suspended for drug use in 1997.

Nehemiah was still the first guy under 13 seconds - a class act. Its the same with the 800m, Coe's 1 min 41.73 is still the 3rd fastest 800m time ever. Only bettered by Kipketer. Coe, Cram and Ovett would still be world class over 1500m today as well.

Pisco Sour

Kiptanui wrote: »

Nehemiah was still the first guy under 13 seconds - a class act. Its the same with the 800m, Coe's 1 min 41.73 is still the 3rd fastest 800m time ever. Only bettered by Kipketer. Coe, Cram and Ovett would still be world class over 1500m today as well.

If Coe, Cram and Ovett were around today they would be running even faster than they did back them, with the advancements in training etc. If Coe could run 1.41.73 back in 1981 then I see no reason to believe that he couldnt run sub 1.41 if he was running in the present day.

Kiptanui

Yeah I'd agree. He may have been able to prevent some of the injuries too. He was a consumate pro and Peter was a visionary.

deadlybuzz

Kiptanui wrote: »

Nehemiah was still the first guy under 13 seconds - a class act. Its the same with the 800m, Coe's 1 min 41.73 is still the 3rd fastest 800m time ever. Only bettered by Kipketer. Coe, Cram and Ovett would still be world class over 1500m today as well.

Tellingly, Nehemiah improved the World record by 0.28 secs in only 3 years. In the 29 years since then, it has been lowered by just 0.06 secs.
If ever there was a dead cert for gold, never mind just to medal, it was him,

mrak

Domer wrote: »

Steve Prefontaine

Nah. Don't get me wrong Prefontaine was a savage and all that but I think a big part of it was that he was "iconic" and basically cool. Not sure if he did enough in his short career to end up on a list like this. He went to the olympics once, ran well for him at the time and finished 4th fair and square(-ish.. okay maybe one or two of the lads ahead of him were taking more than chicken nuggets). He set a few US records at the time but to be on this list I think you'd need to have a world record or at least a world championships to your name and Pre had neither afaik.

For me Powell and a perhaps biased vote for Coughlan.

myflipflops

mrak wrote: »

but to be on this list I think you'd need to have a world record or at least a world championships to your name and Pre had neither afaik.

For me Powell and a perhaps biased vote for Coughlan.

This reasoning would leave Powell off the list. It's actually a decent debate. He is obviously one of the great sprinters in terms of times but his championship record is genuinely poor for somebody that good. 2 WC bronzes and 2 5th place in Olympics when he went to all in great shape may show a guy who just doesn't have it upstairs to be a 'great'.

ss43

04072511 wrote: »

If Coe, Cram and Ovett were around today they would be running even faster than they did back them, with the advancements in training etc. If Coe could run 1.41.73 back in 1981 then I see no reason to believe that he couldnt run sub 1.41 if he was running in the present day.

What training advancements. What system is better than Coe's?

My best would be Komen, Shaheen and Radcliffe. Shaheen and Radcliffe possibly could get medals in 2012 but I reckon they won't.

Rio 2016

ss43 wrote: »

What training advancements. What system is better than Coe's?

IMO there is no better system but with hindsight you could alter it slightly: altitude, nutrition?

Pisco Sour

ss43 wrote: »

What training advancements. What system is better than Coe's?

What I mean is natural progression (due to improvements in training techniques, nutrition etc). A 1:41.7 in 1981 is more impressive than a 1:41.7 in 2010. For this reason I think Coe would run even faster if he was around now.

Pherekydes

Quiet Lurker wrote: »

There are several that I can think of
Henry Rono
Jim Ryun

Ryun won silver in ´68.

My vote goes to Nehemiah. Simple really, he is one of the all time greats and he doesn´t have a medal.

Rono is another; and our Eamonn is the closest to home without any Olympic hardware, but the medal he won in ´83 is untarnished by any boycott, as his putative ´76 or ´80 medals would have been.

shels4ever

Pherekydes wrote: »

Ryun won silver in ´68.
´83 is untarnished by any boycott, as his putative ´76 or ´80 medals would have been.

Yep but I bet he'd give up that world gold for a tarnished olympic gold anyday

I didn't post on this one at all, as there are a few that come to mind , i think Sonia would have been in there for sure but she managed to get a medal, still think she was worth a gold.

ss43

Rio 2016 wrote: »

IMO there is no better system but with hindsight you could alter it slightly: altitude, nutrition?

I think he did use altitude but not as much as others. What's better about nutrition now than 30 years ago. I'd say the quality of food is much worse with the majority of food available being processed and fruit and veg being covered in pesticides

04072511 wrote: »

What I mean is natural progression (due to improvements in training techniques, nutrition etc). A 1:41.7 in 1981 is more impressive than a 1:41.7 in 2010. For this reason I think Coe would run even faster if he was around now.

In what way have training techniques improved? That's what I'm missing. With regard to 800m running, what progression has there been from Coe's system?

Trekkie Monster

I have to agree with ss43's post about Coe's training - the system he and his dad had was years ahead of its time (and slightly mad). Training at altitude would have little effect on 800 m times, and let's not forget that many Kenyan and Ethiopian athletes' diets are very basic (compared to the processed food we have in Ireland, for example) and yet they seem to manage all right.

My favourite pictures in Coe and Martin's book (Training Distance Runners, I think it's called?) are the ones of Seb and his teammates doing piggy-back races and leapfrog in the snow; it goes to show even the world's best can have some fun in training.

Rio 2016

Trekkie Monster wrote: »

I have to agree with ss43's post about Coe's training - the system he and his dad had was years ahead of its time (and slightly mad). Training at altitude would have little effect on 800 m times, and let's not forget that many Kenyan and Ethiopian athletes' diets are very basic (compared to the processed food we have in Ireland, for example) and yet they seem to manage all right.

My favourite pictures in Coe and Martin's book (Training Distance Runners, I think it's called?) are the ones of Seb and his teammates doing piggy-back races and leapfrog in the snow; it goes to show even the world's best can have some fun in training.

I would have to say that it would have made no difference to his 800m time but I would have to say that it might have taken a second or two off of his 1500m time, due to the fact of the extra endurance gained from altitude training.

There has been no improvement in 800m training since the late seventies. The only man to have gone faster than Coe was Kipketer and he adopted the Horwill five pace training system, which was also adopted by the Coe's.

The diets of the East Africans would be fairly basic until they break onto the international scene but from then on they have the best of everything at their disposal.

robinph

At what distance is it that the new tracks would be actually detrimental the distance runners seeing as they tend to be designed to make the sprinters go faster?

Rio 2016

Apologies for not thinking of him beforehand ...... Jim Cregan

Trekkie Monster

Going off topic but responding to the question about tracks and their hardness being detrimental to distance runners, the IAAF rule is that "the force reduction of the synthetic surface, compared to an inflexible substrate (concrete), shall be BETWEEN 35% AND 50%". This is from http://www2.iaaf.org/TheSport/Technical/Tracks/PerfSpecifications.html if anyone is madly interested.

It's important to note that this amount of force reduction is much more than you'd get on roads. Tracks towards the harder end (Atlanta '96 only reduced force by 36%) are faster for all athletes, not just sprinters. The problem the distance runners had was that they only wore thin-soled spikes on the track and the cushioning was minimal. They wouldn't have experienced the same problems with road racing shoes.

Racing Flat

ss43 wrote: »

In what way have training techniques improved? That's what I'm missing. With regard to 800m running, what progression has there been from Coe's system?

Can anyone give a brief synopsis of the Coe system. I did read the book a while ago but can't quite recall the system in any great detail. Thanks.

shels4ever

Racing Flat wrote: »

Can anyone give a brief synopsis of the Coe system. I did read the book a while ago but can't quite recall the system in any great detail. Thanks.

Didnt read any books but came across this like about a year ago

http://members.iinet.net.au/~peterg1/run/aths.html

robinph

Trekkie Monster wrote: »

Going off topic but responding to the question about tracks and their hardness being detrimental to distance runners, the IAAF rule is that "the force reduction of the synthetic surface, compared to an inflexible substrate (concrete), shall be BETWEEN 35% AND 50%". This is from http://www2.iaaf.org/TheSport/Technical/Tracks/PerfSpecifications.html if anyone is madly interested.

It's important to note that this amount of force reduction is much more than you'd get on roads. Tracks towards the harder end (Atlanta '96 only reduced force by 36%) are faster for all athletes, not just sprinters. The problem the distance runners had was that they only wore thin-soled spikes on the track and the cushioning was minimal. They wouldn't have experienced the same problems with road racing shoes.

So if nothing else then those changes to tracks and shoes would give a Coe from the '80's a few more seconds off his times if running today, even if nobody can figure out a better way he could have actually trained.