Ultimate Event Rankings

5K Ultimate Rankings

Who are the top 5,000m runners of all-time, regardless of gender? 

How does Meseret Defar's 5k career compare to Mo Farah’s? Kenenisa Bekele's to Tirunesh Dibaba’s? 

These were just some of the questions we set out to answer by calculating FloTrack’s 5,000m Ultimate Rankings, a points-based system that factors in three elements of an athlete’s résumé to determine greatness in track and field: 

- Medals 

- PR ranking all-time (scored through top 20 all-time)

- Total number of top 20 all-time performances 

Using this formula, the goal was to form a baseline where men and women could be compared on an equal playing field. The result was the definitive list of the top 20 5k runners in world history.