Triathlons GOAT

General
101

Fair points - and I think in terms of LC it’s pretty fair to say no-one since has matched Allen (or Scott) in terms of repeated success.

However SC has surely become way more competitive since it became an Olympic sport and all the federation funding and focus that therefore goes with it - so how comparable are Allen’s short course achievements to today’s world? It’s still moot really, because the most dominant SC athlete in the Olympic era has not really got much LC stuff to shout about, so there’s not really any crossover SC athletes we can use to beat Mark Allen around the head with :slight_smile:

Hopefully this means that when someone comes along, dominates SC in the Olympic era and similar at Kona then it should be clear cut.

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102

He’s got to beat Frodo and Alistair to be GOAT, and it looks like time is running out for that.

Good luck to him though, if they all turn up on time and fit he’s got a good shot at it.

Then there’s all the other up and comers short and long course, his reign - should he achieve it - might be short

103

What’s the odds Frodo breaks 7:30 at Roth?

I’d stick a tenner on it.

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104

I would lobve to be within 1h30m of Frodo in Roth. However, my money is on Lange… just a gut feeling that he will excel here again

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105

I reckon it’ll be a DNF - his Insta post about racing was tempered by the fact he would pull out if his Achilles wasn’t up to it. He surely is still looking at the bigger picture - so doubt he’ll be in 7:30 shape

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106

There’s a phrase I didn’t think I’d ever hear!

I think he’ll only race if he can break his record. There’s PR campaigning to do and a weak result wouldn’t just risk injury but deutsche marks too.

@Matthew_Spooner Lange is a good shout for the win.

107

That did give him the World title though

108

Understand the comments about Blu, but surely no one has achieved so much in what…. A year or two?

Simply an Olympic gold and WC Ironman win is enough to be factored into the conversation.

Oh, and he outrun Alex Yee over a short course distance and set a new IR world record.

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109

This is too easy.

MA won Nice (basically the 70.3 Worlds) for about the 6th time (of 10 consecutive wins), then won the SC Worlds in Avignon, and then went onto outrun Dave Scott and smash the Kona course record about 6 weeks later. He then won the next 4 Konas, a bunch of Nice’s; had a year off, then came back and ran down a 13 min deficit to win Kona #6.

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110

Different triathlon world though, innit?

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111

It certainly is, and we know @Jorgan has posters of MA on his pain cave, but still, the Falklands Man has a point :man_shrugging:t4:

Leeds WTS this weekend…

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112

The interview with Lessing on the IM Talk Legends of triathlon is well worth a listen IMO.

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113

Not in a “of all time” conversation. Imo.

114

I 100% agree with @Jorgan on this matter. GOAT is about depth and breadth- both need to be factored in.

For me, Mark Allen has it for the men.

FWIW Dave Scott and Jan Frodeno can share second place.
Then AB in 4th.
Blu is currently in 5th, if he retired tomorrow. But if he carries on, he may move up. I’m sure he’ll be delighted to hear that :grinning:

Craig Alexander, Simon Lessing, Macca, Gomez and possibly Scott Tinley round out my top 10

Haven’t thought so much about the women but Ryf, LCB, PNF, Natasha Badmann and Chrissie would have to duke it out.

Edit: and Michellie Jones

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115

Isn’t Macca one of the winningest triathletes ever? At least that’s what his autobio said but it was years ago when I read it. And he would say that he’s not a shy fella.

But if you have to debate it then doesn’t that mean there isn’t a real GOAT? I thought a GOAT should be so out in front so as to be indisputable?

e.g. Tiger. Ronnie O’Sullivan. Phelps.

Aside: I beat Macca in Monaco 70.3. Well I say beat, someone nicked his bike from transition overnight so he had to borrow a bike and shoes at 5am in the morning and I recall he pulled out after the bike leg. He was out cheering at the bottom of the casino hill. Still that’s 1-0 to me :slight_smile:

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116

Tiger, Phelps, O’Sullivan, Allen. :+1:

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117

Not Lochte? Or Spitz?

Tennis - Federer
Others have come close but not with his style.

F1 Lewis Hamilton

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118

Schumacher

119

Problem with F1 is the luck of which car you get as we’ve seen from Hamilton’s ‘form’ this season

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120

I’d say Schumacher too. Those early Ferrari’s he drove were dogs and he was still competitive (not 96)