Daniel Komen is overlooked by so many because he only competed in a small time-frame 1996 - 1998 but he got world records in that time that are still held today. This man was a rare human specimen in the sport of distance running. I dont believe we will ever see a distance running talent/monster like Komen ever again he ran for his family and not for fame and glory like most in the sport. This man deserves nothing but respect from the distance running world and a hall of famer for sure with the IAAF. Keep these vids coming you are my one stop shop when it comes to the sport of running.

This is great but it is obvious that this 'rating system' favors runners who are better over 5k and 3k than 1500. If events had been weighed down to the same length or assigned a score in terms of a percentage of the world record, the rankings would be fairer and wouldn't favor 5k legends over 1500 legends. Again, great stuff. Love the videos.

Komen was interviewed recently in a Kenyan radio station and the guys interviewing him were honestly Abit disrespectful, it was like they didn't really know how good he was.

Bekele and Gebrselassie are the goats, but it's without question that Komen was the most talented runner ever.

This was absolutely great Legends of the Distance Running World and I hope to reach up there one day as well

Wouldn't using points make more sense for this because this makes it so that your 5k time is more important than your 1500m time as saving 1 second in the 5k is the same as saving 1/3 of a second in the 1500m.

Komen's 3000m record is the most untouchable record of all track & field events on the men's side, with the possible exception of Bolt's 100m

Geb achieved those times training for 10,000. The fact that he actually ran a 3:31 1500m indoors shows that he could have surely gone sub-3:30 outdoors if he'd chosen to specialize there.

After his world record 5000m, Joshua Cheptegei would land at number 6! 1500m: 3:37.82 3000m: 7:33.26 5000m: 12:35.36 Total: 23:46.44 And there’s no reason to think he couldn’t take a few seconds off the 3000m, especially when ran a 7:35.1 3000m split during his 5000m record run!

Wow, East African dominance...Ethiopia and Kenya are something else. Shout out to the Algerian and Moroccan as well. A truly impressive time throughout.

before I watched this video I thought it would be Daniel Komen. Let's be real....he still holds 3 world records 20 plus years after he set them. The 3,000m WR indoors, the 3,000m WR outdoors and the 2 mile WR of 7:58.61..... he is the only man to run under 8 min for 2 miles (and he's done it twice!)

Love it! Would also love another vid with a focus on long distance taking times from 10km, half and full. And ranking on a relative scale. Thanks!

It's not often mentioned that Daniel Komen also won both 5000m and 10000m in World junior championships in -94 in Lisbon.

Hey Andrew,it's obvious YOU make the very best running focused videos,barring no one(attention TO detail is why I never miss an upload)...keep them coming!!

Daniel Komen is the first and so far only man to run two miles in under eight minutes with a world record 7:58.61.

Fantastic video, TRP. Many thanks. Cheers.

Komen was one of the first pros that I ever met. He left such a great impression on me as a young athlete. What a legend.

Superb analysis and presentation. Cheers

Amazing Daniel Komen. I love how you manage to actually "prove" that he is indeed the fastest distance runner to ever grace this earth.

Daniel Komen’s story which you had highlighted in another video shows what a lightening bolt he was...an extremely powerful four short flash of unmatched brilliance!

Thank you Total Running Productions. Komen was my No.1 pick. Great to see his short lived running days honoured and recognised in this way. To put some perspective on Daniel Komen's epic achievements he is the only runner who ever ran sub 4 minute mile back to back (i.e. 2 miles under 8 minutes). He did this twice and was on target a third time to smash his record when he ran the record breaking 7:20.67 3000 metres. I believe he broke the 2000 metre record during that same run. Thank you,

From the sound of this young man's voice my reason calling him that and would like to commend his efforts in putting the videos together I only can imagine the time spent researching the material that seemed to be on point of accuracy. I was to see a Kenyan top dog ,#1 greatest and being old school from way back doing the Kip Kano era I give credit to Kip Kano for now seeing Kenyans among the top 10 sharing of course with the Etiopians I think they been at it years before the Kenyans.

Jakob Ingebrigtsen has a total time of approx 23:44 which would put him at 5th place 5000m 12:48 3000m 07:27 1500m 03:28

By distance running he means track so the way to make Bekele first is add the 10k as well

Definitely a great video but would also like another video weighting the 3 events differently. Again LOVE what you do though. Always super engaging.

thanks for reminding us of the great Daniel Komen.

Great video!

Can't anyone agree more when it's come in middle distance running to Daniel Komon. Definitely he is superior in this. Please do on long distance running 5000-10,000-21km. Hope to see kipchogi, haile, , poll target, zersenay and of course kenenisa .

very well organized and very nice video!

Great channel keep it coming.you know your running

After his world record Joshua Cheptegei has... 1500m - 3:37.82 3000m - 7:33.26 5000m - 12:35.36 Total of 23:46.44 that puts him at #6

Check your stats, Haile ran 3:31 1500 "indoors"!

I'm at number two and I think Daniel Komen is #1 Yes I was right! What separates Komen from others is that 3000m record. I think still it's the hardest distance record in history. Even the great Hicham was 3 seconds behind.

WOW crazy content. Super lovely

Great vid! Love it

So no love for the 10,000m :(

Just what I needed before going on my long run 🏃‍♂️

Great movie mate 🙌😁

Well we are now obviously gonna have to see a 10K, half and full marathon total time list :)

I saw Komen run a sub 8 minute 2 miles in Sydney in 1999 (or was it 2001?). He was an awesome metronome that night. One of the few times I saw my Dad jump up out of his seat in excitement, pumping the air on the last lap cheering Komen with about 10000 other people on to the record. He was generally pretty reserved except for when he was watching world records get broken. Come to think of it I remember him getting hyped when watching Koch break the 400m record too in my 5 year old mind.

Legends. I grew up watching them through KZfaq. They're a real inspiration ❤️ Love them till i grow old

Very interesting analysis

One of his best videos, love the stats

Hey man I love your videos 😍🙂. It's the best runnin feed I can get. Although you take a day to upload they are so fuckin worth it 😍. Whenever I get up the first thing I search is total runnin productions :). Thankyou ❤️

“The REAL Fastest MIDDLE Distance Runner...” There, fixed it! ;)

Komen's times are amazing and I was really surprised to hear about him, having heard much more about the other runners on this list in recent years. For example, as I'm from the UK I tried comparing his times against Mo Farah, double Olympic gold medallist in 2012 for 5k and 10k. His 5000m beats Sir Mo Farah's PB by nearly 14 seconds, and his 3000m by around 12 seconds, while his 1500m is about the same (just slightly slower than Mo's).

@Total Running Productions-- I would love to see your data tables and how you keep track of all performances of all the greats. Pretty impressive with the shear number of videos you produce.

I had Komen at number 1 from the beginning. But I'm trying to break your list and so far I've failed, so good job on this one!

This video should be called Fastest Middle distance runners of all time. Now you should do a video Fastest Long Distance Runners ranging from 10k, Half Marathon, and Marathon.

That ending music though...🥴 (Daniel Komen) Also, I approve of this video!

Love the idea, agree with the list

Top 10 most versatile runners

Me trying to figure out who is faster than Bekele: 👁👄👁 Me when I realize it’s Daniel Komen: 🤦🏻

Right when I refresh youtube I see this gold. ::)

Hey i love your vids man keep it up!! I think u should start doing more videos on women runners gotta give these incredible athletes there spotlight

Bekele and Haile were fast over 1500m, but not world class. El Guerrouj definitely has a world class 5000m PB, but is still far way from 12:37. Komen has it all!

Wonderful to watch the composition and analysis! Jakob Ingebrigtsen is poised to enter the list after his next 5000. When the same comparison is made in 5 years, with the distances weighted differently as discussed by others, Ingebrigtsen will be number 1.... and we can throw in the 800 and 10000 for good measure.

Very well done! One note I had is that the list benefits runners who are stronger in the 5000m and partially the 3000m. Because these are inherently longer events, the percent difference is 2-3x that of a favored 1500m runner. Ex: someone who runs 3:28 compared to a 3:34 has a six second advantage has a 2.9% edge over the other. Whereas a 12:50 5000m runner compared to a 12:56 runner has a 0.8% advantage, while still only being 6 seconds of difference. I think if you were to make each category weighted the same that would make the scoring system fairer.

Love the video man. Would you ever be interested in doing a video about performance enhancing drugs, and maybe dive into stories such as Christian Coleman or Alex Korio?

Haile Gebrselassie ran 3:31 indoors by the way. But great compilation man

Yep,komen was my guess before i watched,epic ability that didnt register anywhere near what it should have within athletics..bravo daniel!

Great vid but What you could do to be more accurate is you should have multiplied the time for the shorter distance to equal simple times of that of the longest race the 5k because the 5k time has the most impact on the results. Doing this el guerriuj and laggat would be higher in the list because there best event is the 1500 wich impact the overal times the least. This is the same reason why a 10 second improvement in the 1500 is harder than the to do it in the 5k.

Love your videos dude. This one have no discussion. Taking in count 10k, half marathon and full thing could change?

Awesome video, these athletes are unreal fast! I'm curious, do you plan to cover professional trail runners in the future?

I love how no one understands how insane fast this is, it's pretty much super human. Simply put Komen will whip yo ass!

Great video as well...thank's from an ex 1500m runner.

Komen ran with abandon and was a fierce competitor. Yes all of these guys were, but he was next level. You hear his story and it makes sense, but maybe it was a little too much. It would have been nice to see what he could do if he didn't run himself into the ground, but when he was at the top, he was amazing.

Please do that for 10k + Half Marathon + Marathon! Also would love to see a video about ultra runners one day! Keep up the good work

i think your math is flawed. the way your doing it makes the longer distances more important. if you want to make them all equal you should just do their avg lap pace for each distance and add them together. pretty sure daniel would still be the best but im betting el G or some of the people with under 330 1500m times would probably move up the list a little.

Deserves more subs

great content as usual. However - I would weight the times according to the distance. ie multiply the 1500 time by 10/3 and multiply the 3000m time by 5/3 and add these times to the 5000m time

Amazing

neat least and like the objectivity but why didnt you add up the iaaf conversion numbers like they do with the 100 200 and 400 so the event times possibly scaled better, im too lazy to do it right now but i wonder if it would be very different if at all

One can certainly talk about the "right" metric for rating, but what really surprises me is that on this very simple metric (sum of 3 times) there is a winner by such a large margin!!

He has been super smart about choosing the distances that he did because distance running includes middle distances as well and middle distance runners have a clear disadvantage to long distance runners when it comes to shaving total aggregate time from a race. For example, it is much harder to shave 5 seconds off of your 5000 meters than 1500 meters. By choosing 1500 and 3000 meters, he is trying to compensate for mid distance runners from the loss of time that they gain over 5k.

Do another video adding the 10k and marathon! Those are more of a distance event than the 1500 is!

How could everyone who was trying to figure out #1 not realize it's Komen?? He's the thumbnail of the video! haha I'm not sure if this is a true distance running ranking, though. 1500 and 3000 are hardly distance events. It would be interesting to see the 5k, 10k, half, and full marathon ranking list. Regardless, great video and it was fun to see the PRs of these legends!

Very entertaining and enlightening comparison of these athletes to see just how fast they were on the track! An exclusivity here is inherently flawed, but could more accurately be defined were it to include all distances beyond the 5k. And to that end, the “Sub 24 Club” list dwindles in recognition of a marathon range, which for many, would have meant risking career detriment were they to dare achieve. To put Bekele 2nd only works if distance running comes to an abrupt halt at the 5k distance, which isn’t the case. For a nonsubjective rating, inclusion of all the long distances with all the fastest times incurred, will be rather essential. The structuring of a completely new database could utilize formulas for algorithms, in order to create a point system, within an IAAF rating format. This would likely prove a more robust and accurate method, eliminating many issues, such as the disparities in classification or disciplines and the consequential tendency for over simplification when categorizing “distance running” in general. All relevant data could then be input, purely objectively, and in terms of its factorable value. “The question almost impossible to answer” may well be answered once we finally decide to set records straight. So, while sub 24:00 is very elegant, we could see it fall flat on its face. Reducing these middle and long distance times to mere aggregations is incongruous and nearly antithetical. Naming “the fastest” seems biased, if one is fixated on 3 selected events to make the elusive determination. Rhetoric rife in audacious spin, throws us hard hitting jabs, like: “Today’s video is not an opinion, it’s simply a fact.”; then, at the end: “...and this clearly makes Daniel Komen the fastest distance runner ever to compete.” “Uncharted territory” aptly describes this “speed breakdown”, as approaching the problem needs refinement. Perhaps we’ll see “full range” distance runners, such as Gebrselassie and Bekele, recognized similarly with a combined time totaled from each event they competed in. Who has the fastest total? All steeplechasers too. Many sincere thanks to Andrew and TRP for putting these creatively informative discussion videos out there.

Daniel Komen... calling it before I even watch the video 😂

Every single person on this group is African, so, what I am hearing is that Africans, especially east Africans are the greatest long distance runners of all time. It truly is amazing how much faster they are compared to any other people groups in the world!

Daniel Komen is a monster with a big heart who is not recognized.

It's about time that they should make a video game 'The Legends of Distance Running'. I would buy it. It would be a good educational game for newbies to running as well. :)

We just had one poster in our locker room - and it was GOAT Daniel komen. We were also a school for science and tech so I take it one of us had also done the math on that one

Ur videos are Always so Crisp

Given improvements in track surfaces, shoes, training and diet, etc., the accomplishments of runners from 20 years ago are more impressive than those of more recent track stars.

Haha, *YES* I agree with this list of decorated distance runners, Komen and Bekele are close but Komen was better even though he never got the gold...*BUT are yall gonna sit here and ignore that my man behind TRP be analyzing, dissecting each elite distance runners and track race like its a National Treasure hunting series!!! *LMAO* AND he be putting out the best KZfaq videos on running... TOP DISTANCE track coverage YT channel.... 1. _Total Running Productions_ Flotrack, Milesplit, EsPN Universal sports, BBC athletics and all others have become mere men among this kkind of content. Im sure the /gods/ legends will be proud! God bless you man! I wanna see more videos of you running!

Could you look at these events compared to the World Athletics scoring table to see how they measure up

Daniel Komen and Noah Ng'eny,, these are once in a lifetime talents.

I hope he does this same type of video but with the 5000, 10000, and Marathon as the events instead.

Another great video, although I have a slight question mark over your assessment of the 3000m. The 1500m and 5000m are recognised championship events, but the 3000m is really only a championship event for female and age group athletes. Perhaps you should consider the 1500m, 5000m and 10000m or just the 1500m and 5000m. Otherwise, very impressive research.

What's the song at 5:13? Someone help me out

I love how you kinda tricked us with the first thumbnail of geb and bekele.

As of 24-10-2021, Jakub Ingebrigtsen has a total of 23:43.82, placing him 5th! Amazing, since he is still only 21!

Does komen hold just the 3k record or any others also? Woulda likes to see more on him but that was an awesome video Thanks!

The 3000m record is ridiculous. This will never be beaten.

Derek Davis is. The dudes something else...Check out his MileSplit and it’ll speak wonders 😳

Komen, Bekele, Gebrselassie, El Guerrouj, Kipchoge - nobody today is anywhere close to their level, except of course that Kenenisa Bekele is still running marathons, as is Kipchoge. Left off of this list was Paul Tergat, probably because he did not run the 1500. Tergat was very close to the level of Gebreselassie during their career.

ZATOPEKS 1952 OLYMOICS WAS BEYOND BELIEF AND IS TRAINING ROUTINE WS INSANE

absolutely, with this 3 distances. komen was no.1. as a proof, his 3,000m record indoor/outdoor was one of the oldest event in athletics that still standing.... haile is the GOAT of distance running.

Honestly wasnt even aware of Komen until this vid. Outside of his short career I think another disadvantage is the record he currently still holds in the 3000m event is not done at the Olympics by men.