Discussion: Orienteering memes top 25

As you might have seen Orienteering memes has made a list of the 25 best orienteers of all times. We tried to compare by using lots of different parameters. Every day we will post a new atlete. Who is in your top 5?

1. Simone Niggli (SWI)
2. Thierry Gueorgiou (FRA)
3. Annichen Kringstad (SWE)
4. Øyvin Thon (NOR)
5. Jörgen Mårtensson (SWE)

Can you send a link to the orienteering memes top-25 list? A really interesting thought experiment, but I like Hammer's list quite a bit.

Without thinking very much, I like Hammer's list as well.

https://www.facebook.com/OrienteeringMemes?fref=ts
You can find the first 6(we sepperated men and women) in the link i gave you.

If its done by WOC medals...

1. Simone Niggli
2. Simone Niggli-Luder
3. Thierry Gueorgiou
4. Simone Luder

I was hoping for a consensus top 25 orienteering memes. Most of the memes I see are marginally amusing.

1. Simone Niggli
2. Simone Niggli-Luder
3. Thiery Gueorgiou
4. Simone Luder

I have a feeling many of the people on your list are the same person.

That's how far clear of everyone else she is.

How can you overlook Ulla Lindquist, Age Hadler and Bertil Norman?
Oh yes, 'all times' only means during the era of watered down world championships.

Good names Gord.
From what I heard from close sources, Age H was at the top of Øyvin T's list during his day.
Difficult to compare eras, especially for the women. I know Ulla L was dominant, but I give Annichen credit for pushing the envelope the most of anybody, especially on the physical side.
Except for his name, I am ignorant about Bertil N, but willing to be educated.

Note, Hammer's 3,4,5 are not from the "watered down" era, except possibly Jörgen M's last years(?).

I wonder in what sense the Long format is watered down?

WOCs are probably watered down I guess due to specialization from multiple events? Fields are smaller? The universe of orienteers is smaller? I assume each of those are the case? But, does it make it easier to win?

"Watered down" in the sense of looking purely at medal counts. With the introduction of additional races and the switch from every two years to annual WOCs, the comparison of number of medals won by athletes from different eras becomes a poor measuring stick.

Ulla Lindquist won the D 21 E title at the O'Ringen 5 days something like eleven years in a row. She was also an outstanding bandy player.
However she gained anothrer noteriety in American military orienteering circles of the early 1970s when she was featured at the end of a Swedish promotional film on orienteering. The film was titled Spik Pa. It had Swedish titles but the dialogue was dubbed to English. The film ended with a shot of Ulla wearing the O'ringen winner's garland as the Swedish phrase for 'The End' flashed across her and the screen. (Look it up). At least the Marines thought it was very funny.

Right, there has been a lot of inflation meaning that multiple golds may be equivalent to a single gold before. But, what about the standard of competition? Is it easier to win a particular competition because the top runners are spread thinner? This all makes a certain amount of sense to me anecdotally, but what, if anything, can be said rigorously?

This has been fun to follow. They are getting into the top 6 men and women now. Since my top five above wasn't separated by gender i have added three names
to make my top 4 men and women.

1. Simone Niggli (SWI)
2. Annichen Kringstad (SWE)
3. Marita Skogum (SWE)
4. Hanne Staff (NOR)

1. Thierry Gueorgiou (FRA)
2. Øyvin Thon (NOR)
3. Jörgen Mårtensson (SWE)
4. Petter Thoresen (NOR)

Magne Lystad was the first ever international champion (@ EOC 1962, before there was a WOC), winning by several minutes near the end of his active career.

He was probably the first "serious" elite orienteer in the world, definitely so in Norway. Even on the very marginal maps they used to run on he won more or less every race he started in. I.e. even if he lost 5-10-15 min to "debatable" controls/mapping.

Since he hasn't been featured yet I hope he'll still turn up.

#6 announced today: Valstad and Lindkvist.

A comment on the FB site mentions these athletes haven't been listed yet (ie., the likely top5):

Gueorgiou, Thon, Mårtensson, Thoresen, Hubmann
Niggli, Kringstad, Staff, Skogum, Kauppi

I didn't have Hubmann and Kauppi on my list. Oops. #5 announced tomorrow.

#5 announced today: Jörgen Mårtensson and Hanne Staff

#4 peter thoreson and minna kaupi

#3 Hubmann & Skogum

#2 Thon and Kringstad

Is it too late to place a bet on who will be the # 1's?

I'll make a book. I'll take a buck to pay $0.50 for getting both right.