> I've never seen anyone claim that a language like python (using the normal implementation) is generally within the same speed band as C.

Live long enough and you will. People claimed it about PyPy back in the day when it was still hype.

Pypy is not the normal implementation. I was specifically excluding special implementations that only do part of a language and do it much faster. Especially with something like pypy that has extremely good best case scenarios, people can get too excited.