Grete Waitz

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• Top 6 Marathon Runners of All Time

  Currently #5 · score 0

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• Eliud Kipchoge

  Eliud Kipchoge became the first person to run a marathon distance in under two hours, completing the specially organized INEOS 1:59 Challenge in Vienna in 2019, though the run's use of rotating pacers and other conditions meant it wasn't recognized as an official world record. His official marathon world record, set at the Berlin Marathon, along with his Olympic gold medals in the marathon at both the 2016 Rio and 2020 Tokyo Olympics, established Kipchoge as the most statistically dominant marathon runner of his generation across both record-setting time trials and championship racing. His famously disciplined, monk-like training philosophy and personal motto "no human is limited" reflected a broader mental approach that Kipchoge has credited as central to his sustained excellence across more than a decade at the sport's highest level. His combination of the historic sub-two-hour marathon run and his sustained dominance across official world records and Olympic competition has made Kipchoge the runner most universally regarded as the greatest marathoner in the sport's history.

• Paula Radcliffe

  Paula Radcliffe set the women's marathon world record at the 2003 London Marathon with a time that stood as the fastest ever recorded by a woman for 16 years, a mark widely considered one of the most enduring individual records in modern distance running history. Her aggressive, front-running racing style, often building large leads early in a race rather than conserving energy for a late tactical surge, distinguished Radcliffe's approach from more cautious championship racing tactics, and it reflected her confidence in her own sustained pace over the marathon's full distance. Despite her dominant world record and sustained marathon success, Radcliffe never won an Olympic marathon medal, a notable gap in her résumé given her otherwise overwhelming statistical dominance in the event throughout the 2000s. Her combination of a world record that stood for 16 years and her sustained dominance across major marathons including multiple London and New York City Marathon victories has made Radcliffe one of the most statistically significant marathon runners in the sport's history.

• Haile Gebrselassie

  Haile Gebrselassie set world records in the marathon multiple times during the mid-to-late 2000s, primarily at the Berlin Marathon, and his transition from track running, where he'd already won multiple Olympic gold medals at 10,000 meters, to marathon dominance reflected an unusually successful late-career distance shift. His combination of Olympic gold medals on the track and his subsequent marathon world records gave Gebrselassie one of the most complete distance-running résumés in history, spanning both track and road racing at the sport's highest level across nearly two decades. Gebrselassie's rivalry with fellow Ethiopian distance runner Kenenisa Bekele, both on the track and later in marathon competition, reflected Ethiopia's sustained dominance of world distance running across successive generations of elite competitors. His combination of Olympic track gold medals and multiple marathon world records has made Gebrselassie one of the most complete and statistically dominant distance runners in the history of the sport, spanning both track and road racing disciplines.

• Kenenisa Bekele

  Kenenisa Bekele won Olympic gold medals at both 5,000 and 10,000 meters on the track before later transitioning to marathon running, where he ran the second-fastest marathon time in history at the Berlin Marathon, coming within seconds of Eliud Kipchoge's official world record. His combination of track Olympic dominance and his subsequent marathon excellence, achieved well into his late thirties, reflected remarkable career longevity and adaptability across the different physiological demands of track and road distance racing. Bekele's rivalry with fellow Ethiopian Haile Gebrselassie helped define an era of sustained Ethiopian dominance across both track and marathon distance running, with the two runners repeatedly trading world records and championship titles across their overlapping careers. His combination of Olympic track gold medals and his near-world-record marathon performance achieved late in his career has made Bekele one of the most statistically dominant and enduringly competitive distance runners in modern athletics history.

• Abebe Bikila

  Abebe Bikila won the marathon at the 1960 Rome Olympics running entirely barefoot, having been unable to find running shoes that fit comfortably before the race, and his victory made him the first Black African athlete to win an Olympic gold medal, a historically significant breakthrough for African Olympic representation. His winning route passed directly beneath the Arch of Constantine, an ancient Roman monument, giving his historic barefoot victory a striking visual backdrop that became one of the most iconic images in Olympic marathon history. Bikila successfully defended his Olympic marathon title at the 1964 Tokyo Games, becoming the first runner in Olympic history to win the marathon twice, this time wearing shoes and remarkably competing just weeks after an appendectomy. His combination of a historic barefoot Olympic victory and his subsequent successful title defense has made Bikila one of the most historically significant marathon runners ever, and his breakthrough helped establish Ethiopia's now-sustained tradition of distance-running excellence.