He’s probably the most tested person in history if you confront him.
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Great question! I think my heart screams Frodo, but agreed that his Olympic medal was slightly unexpected. His long course achievements are immense, and I think we all love how he hunts out the completion to get in their heads.
Aside from the usual Scott / Allen fanfare I think Gomez is a contender (stay with me). Obviously his short course stuff is seriously impressive. Yes he didn’t reach the heights of AB but he looks a better prospect at long course… and his Xterra stuff thrown in gives him tremendous balance. The fact that he’s still doing it all shouldn’t be underestimated.
Also I think Macca should be mentioned. Perhaps not the GOAT, but his achievements and style of racing were ‘interesting’.
For the women but more straightforward. Surely Wellington?
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Chrissie was super-talented and won Kona 4 times, same as Ryf. But Badmann won 6 times and PNF won 8 times. That’s why for me PNF is The Queen, just not with a microphone.
Would have been interesting to see how many more wins Chrissie could have managed if she had not retired in her prime though?
Some good observations, especially on the ladies. But if you’re going to go for people without a broad spectrum of wins, then it has to be PNF given no-one else has dominated a single distance on the ladies side like her. But I still stand with MJ as best all round world-class athlete.
On the depths of competitive fields in the past. Again, the mists of time have eroded people’s memories of the podiums and also-rans from 20-30 years ago; but they all pushed the likes of Allen. He rarely won from the front, always chasing down like Lange.
In another 20 years, people will look back and say Frodo never had any competition; because they don’t remember anything other than his dominance/imperious performances.
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a great shame that Simon Lessing never really managed to crack LD racing although he had a lot of wins at 70.3 and just a few at IM but not Kona - with his 5x ITU world champs he might have been up there with a number of others mentioned. he set the standards for many others at Olympic distance and still has the world’s fastest time over the distance set in 1996 although on what was thought to be a short bike leg in Cleveland.
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Lessing was definitely the best Short Course racer of his generation (and the 1990s) and his battles with Smudger Smith definitely spiced it up!
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I could check but, is this non-drafting best? I’d be amazed if the current ITU crowd aren’t going quicker, but obviously they don’t race non-drafting Oly distance very much.
My memory is hazy, but I think it was still non-drafting in '96.
Anyone else remember when Simon Lessing dropped in on TT1.0 ? Some joker had already signed up with the username “simonlessing” so he joined as christoperlessing IIRC. Answered a few Qs and then never seen again…
yep - it was draft legal. his time of sub 1:40 is just under 7 mins quicker than Brownlee did at London Olympics which even with a slightly long bike course (43K) is still thought to be the quickest of accurately measured courses, although Vincent Luis knocked out a 1:43:21 at Yokohama this year which will be closer to a 40K bike so maybe the world best. like the marathon, course design will have a major role to play on times as although the swim, bike and run courses at ITU level are accurately measured, the technical challenges will differ and the distances around transition, esp swim to T1 will vary
info here - https://triathlonmagazine.ca/uncategorized/what-are-the-triathlon-world-records-for-each-distance/
Best Facial Hair of all time award?
Tinley?
Surprised Flora Duffy hasn’t been mentioned yet. She is a machine at ITU distance. I really hope she steps up to LC to see if she can mix it with Ryf/Haug/LC.
multiple xterra wins as well i believe
Too early to say for Duffy.
She won xterra/x tri/ITU worlds in the same year. I agree it may be too early but she’s already 32 and so has maybe 8 years to crack LC racing. I would put her in the same category as Ali B, unbeatable at her best and would love to see her go up against the current top women.
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Category yes, but no Olympic Gold like Sir Alistair of Brownlee.
Dave Scott did a decent line in ‘the 1970s porn star’ look for a while…
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Tim Don has had his moments in that department
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Waaaay too early to say Duffy; two world titles (one of which was in an Olympic year when it is a bit softer) but a stinker at Rio and the fields at Xterra are nowhere hear as competitive.