Who would you place on the “Mount Rushmore of Distance Running?”
It is a question that begs a lot more questions about criteria. Is this the ‘best long distance runners by time? World medals? Most well known by the average person? Is it the most accomplished by some other standard? How about middle distance?’
This is the beauty of the Mount Rushmore concept. To get your face on a mountain, you have to have made a significant contribution to the sport – enough that would warrant such an honor. “Contribution,” I suppose, is left to your discretion. Here is who I have:
Tier 1
Bill Bowerman
Paavo Nurmi
Kip Keino
Roger Bannister
Tier Two
Emil Zatopek
Arthur Lydiard
Steve Prefontaine
Haile Gebrselassie
American Only
Bill Bowerman
Steve Prefontaine
Jim Ryun
Frank Shorter
Women Only:
Joan Benoit Samuelson
Mary Decker
Deena Kastor
Molly Huddle
If I could actually choose, it would be these four faces:
Jane Remark – keep the maiden name
Myself – obviously
Glen Ellingson – in the pose of him falling over on the track in the state 3200
Zatopek – …put the legend’s face right by mine, if possible.
Seder-Skier.com 
2 responses to “Cross Country Collections: Mount Rushmore of Distance Running”
What about Ryan or Sarah Hall?!
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What about Daniel Komen. 7:20 3k besides Hicham El Guerrouj no one else is within 5 seconds of that world record. He did nothing else for the sport that I’m aware of, but he ran super fast. Kiphoge seems like he should be mentioned somewhere…he might be the GOAT and he’s been front and center promoting the sport with his sub-2 attempts. Also, he just seems like a really cool guy – very down to earth and well liked. Maybe have a section for the tarahumara – just throwing it out there haha.
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