8) David Rudisha
Interestingly, men’s 800m World Record (WR) holder David Rudisha did not make our rankings last year, but in 2016 he has proven that he deserves a place in the list. Such is the competitiveness of these rankings.
Having made a comeback from a lengthy injury lay-off which saw him win GOLD at the 2015 World Championships in Beijing, the Kenyan athlete needed to prove at the Olympics that he had finally overcome his injury worries.
Rudisha wasn’t really in scintillating form coming to the Olympics; in fact he finished 3rd during the Kenyan Trials. Although he went on to run a then World Lead (WL) of 1:43.35 to win at the Gyulai István Memorial, there were concerns as to whether he would be able to retain his Olympic title.
However Rudisha proved that he is a man for the big occasions, successfully retaining his 800m Olympic title after racing to a WL of 1:42.15, thus engraving his name amongst the elite of the two lap race.
In fact, it was the first time an athlete was winning back to back 800m Olympic titles since Patrick Snell last did same at the Rome 1960 Olympics and four years later in Tokyo. Rudisha even wants to recreate more history as he has now set sights on making it three successive titles at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
Ranked at the top of the 800m this year, Rudisha has three of the Top 10 fastest times over that distance in 2016.
