Paula set her big WR in 2003. Her first marathon (only the second-fastest in history at the time) was in 2002, and this came after ten years on the world scene as a cross country and track runner (she won world junior cross in 1992, and broke into the 14:40's on the track in 1994). Her range is under-recognized. She's actually the third fastest female non-Chinese-in-1993 3000 runner. The current fast Africans have not yet beaten her time.
Overall, that's 16 years of top-notch running, with a few breaks. She's now 35. Unfortunately, without any Olympic medals, she probably cannot be granted the title of world's greatest female distance runner. That would have to go now to Dibaba.
Questions:
- Are you inspired by her longevity, in addition to amazing performances?
- How about by the fact that Paula has overcome numerous injuries, setbacks, and pregnancies to continue her career, when she could easily have retired?
- Is it sad that she always got outkicked in championship track races, or is that the nature of the sport and exactly as it should be?
- Would you do her?
- Given her outspoken criticism of doping and her championing of programs that monitor athletes' bodies for any sign of drugs, she's one of the best candidates out there for a clean elite. Does this change your perception of her as an athlete? Why or why not?
5 comments:
I wonder if she breast-fed her baby. That takes a TON of calories per day and it seems like that would totally drain you if you were training as well. We'll have to ask Susan about this in a couple of months.
I'm glad you posted about her previous track-life. I didn't realize that about her 3k time. Wow!
I am impressed by how much she must love the sport, given how she always comes back from her setbacks with such fierceness.
Defar's run 8:18.69+ compared to Paula's 8:22.20. Dibaba's last 3k in her 14:11 5k WR was ~8:27. Sonia O'Sullivan 8:21.64 in 1994! Paula is awesome, but Defar and Dibaba are faster over 3k. It was cool how she was getting outkicked over and over again, then just got so fit that nobody could hang with her.
And, she just notched one more
G.O.A.T.?
in the marathon, i think so. the only reason i could think not to acknowledge paula as GOAT in the marathon is her lack of olympic gold (or olympic anything). but on the other hand, it's pretty cruel to judge a marathoner by their olympic medal haul, since the most prestigious marathons are not always at the olympics, and lots of things can go wrong for a once-in-four years race.
off the top of my head her chief competition for GOAT would be grete waitz or maybe ndereba. waitz only got one shot at the olympics (i think) and lost to joanie. ndereba has two silvers and no golds.
but when you look at paula's overall marathon record, it's damn impressive.
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