Most versatile athletes?

[nevetsllim]

I'll start

Haile Gebrselassie
1999 1500m-WIC
2002 Marathon-3rd London

3:31i 1500m
7:25 3000m
12:39 5000m
26:22 10000m
58:55-HM
2:06:20-MAR

Said Aouita
Olympic 5000m champion-1984
Olympic 800m bronze-1988

sub 1:44 800m
sub 3:30 1500m
sub 7:30 3000m
sub 13:00 5000m
10000m?

Nikolina Shtereva
Bulgarian 400m champion-1974
Bulgarian 10000m champion-1986
Bulgarian national 10km and 800m record holder

Gail Devers
60m-6.95
100m-10.82
100mH-12.33
200m-22.71
400m-52.66
800m-2:11 (in 1982)

Irina Privalova
Former world 60m, 200m and 400m champion
Former Olympic 400mH champion

Sub 11/22/49 100m/200m/400m runner

Others, Sandra Myers, Felix Sanchez, Maria Mutola, Paula Radcliffe, Heike Dreschler, Kutre Dulecha,

[Daisy]

Re: Most versatile athletes?

"It's at the borders of pain and suffering that the men are separated from the boys." Emil Zatopek

5000, 10,000 and marathon in one competition. I see it in more perspective after watching Geb run some marathons.

[gh]

Think one needs to make the distinction between being "versatile" and "having range." The distance guys have lots of range but aren't particularly versatile. Decathletes/heptathletes are versatile. Bill Watson scoring in the NCAA in the long jump, shot and discus is versatile.

[SQUACKEE]

Before Mojo posts it


JJK!

[bekeselassie]

As much as I want to say Geb I have to agree with gh that it depends on how you define versatile. It's kind of like swimming in the Olympics. The best ones are often the best ones in multiple distances. That's because swimming is swimming no matter how far you go. Oh, my bad, they have different strokes. :roll:

Back to track. The decathletes are the most versatile, bar none. They throw, jump, vault, hurdle, sprint, and do a 1500. Hello!

[Andrea_T]

Think one needs to make the distinction between being "versatile" and "having range." ... Decathletes/heptathletes are versatile.

I agree, the obvious choice are the multi-eventers as being the most versatile, especially the decathletes. However until the women move to the decathlon, the heptathlon will still generally be dominated by sprint/jump based women as there isnt such a need to be an all rounder. Sotherton came 28th out of 29 women in the JT in Athens and could only scrape over 37m (and 15th in the JT),...yet she won bronze. On the other end of the scale, Skujyte did mediocre in all disciplines apart from the throws, where she won the SP and came 3rd in the JT.

Heike Drechsler did her first heptathlon for 13yrs in 1994 and seta WB for that season, better than JJK, Braun and the specialists. Does that say something about HD or the specialists? I think sometimes the best all rounders are not always those competing in the multievents, and do chose other events that may be more prestigious (as Privalova sated herself, that is why she did the 100m)
So, great all rounders to me, other than the obvious multieventers like JJK and Kluft, are HD, Privalova, Szewenska...

[piaba]

micheline ostermeyer, who won the shot put and high jump. of course, today that'd be impossible...

[Pego]

micheline ostermeyer, who won the shot put and high jump. of course, today that'd be impossible...

Ostermeyer was also a world class 80m hurdler.

My most versatile female athlete though is Alexandra Chudina, who was a champion/medalist/finalist as well as the world/european record holder in high jump, long jump, javelin, penthatlon besides being a star of the Soviet volleyball team that was just about unbeatable for years.

[dukehjsteve]

2 oldies:

Joel Shankle (Duke), 55NCAA champ in LJ and 56OG bronze medal in 110HH

Don Meyers ( Colorado), NCAA champ in PV and LJ, in different years. Not 100 % on this one but pretty sure.

[Per Andersen]

More oldies.
Sydney Wooderson. W/rec holder in the 800. Best miler in the world in 1946-47.
Euro champ in the 5000 in '46. Third best time in the 5000 after Hågg and Zatopek in the late 40's (I think)

Yvette Williams NZ. Gold in the LJ in '52 (beat the great Chudina) also 6th in the SP in '52.
How about Fanny Blankers-Koen?

[nevetsllim]

Zhang Shujing. She has competed in 27 marathons and after marathon 25 at the National games in Nanjing, she competed in the 4x400m heats, three days later :shock:

Luciana Mendes-she competed in the 1996 and 2004 Olympics over 800m and the triple jump in the 2000 Olympics.

[Powell]

Grazyna Syrek has been Polish champion in both marathon (she's got a PB of 2:26:22 set in CHicago in 2003) and 4x400 relay.