Yeah, and had Tim not been so overconfident and naively believed Jakob would take turns of leading with him in Tokyo, the outcome would've been completely different.
- if you look at Centro's winning time, you might say 'yes it was a fluke.' But, as soon as you look at Centro's championship record, you realize his victory wasn't a fluke; his olympic gold was just the ultimate expression of the athlete, namely a championship runner and not a time trialer.
- Hocker is not a fluke either. As someone else stated, if you win the gold in an olympic record time, that is simply not a fluke. Yes, many circumstances led to Hocker's win (the events of the rounds, the presence of Kerr, JI's pre-planned strategy), but 3:27 is not a fluke.
I'll never understand how anyone who has ever run competitively can think you can run a 3:27 as a fluke.
I'll never understand, either, how someone winning Olympic gold who had previously won World bronze and silver (losing to Kiprop, a known drug cheat, both times) is dismissed as a fluke.
- if you look at Centro's winning time, you might say 'yes it was a fluke.' But, as soon as you look at Centro's championship record, you realize his victory wasn't a fluke; his olympic gold was just the ultimate expression of the athlete, namely a championship runner and not a time trialer.
Yeah people underestimate the hell out of Centro b/c his 2016 win was slow.
He was the best championship 1500m runner in the world for half a decade. There's literally only two other guys from 2011 - 2016 who have better medal records -- one of them's a confirmed doper and the other's Makhloufi.
I think since Peter Rono in 1988, only two Olympic 1500m gold medalists have gone on to lose their next two races - Centro in 2016, and Hocker in 2024.
Whose gold do you consider the flukiest?
Cut those guys some slack. They peaked when it counted the most
I think since Peter Rono in 1988, only two Olympic 1500m gold medalists have gone on to lose their next two races - Centro in 2016, and Hocker in 2024.
Whose gold do you consider the flukiest?
Centro by a large amount. Slowest winning time in almost 100 years. The race could have played out a thousand different ways. The only way Centro was gonna win was if it played out just like that. In contrast, the way 2024 played out, I think Hocker had a solid shot at the win no matter how the race played out. The way it went was arguably less favorable to Hocker than many other scenarios in which his chances would have been even better. None of this is to say Hocker was the favorite—he wasn’t—but there wasn’t really any scenario where he wouldn’t have had a chance, whereas the field served up Centro literally the only scenario where he had any chance.
- if you look at Centro's winning time, you might say 'yes it was a fluke.' But, as soon as you look at Centro's championship record, you realize his victory wasn't a fluke; his olympic gold was just the ultimate expression of the athlete, namely a championship runner and not a time trialer.
Yeah people underestimate the hell out of Centro b/c his 2016 win was slow.
He was the best championship 1500m runner in the world for half a decade. There's literally only two other guys from 2011 - 2016 who have better medal records -- one of them's a confirmed doper and the other's Makhloufi.
All true, but in a race like 2024 with people attacking the race like Jakob did, Centro would have been off the back. Granted he would have had a chance to win even if the race went a bit faster than 3:50, but I don’t like his chances to have won a 3:28 race or a 3:30 race or even say a 3:33 race. The field basically conceded the top 2 spots to Centro and Makhdaddy in whichever order.
Go back and plot each of Hocker's competion results for the calendar year 2024 on a graph. You will see that his Olympic result fits right in, it is a logical progression. In fact, go back to 2012 when he was a 6th grader at Fall Creek Middle School running in his Conference meet (a race I watched), and plot all his races going forward and you will see the slow, steady improvement of a determined, talented, well-coached individual. There is no "flukiness" anywhere. He is very good at peaking when it counts.
This post was edited 4 minutes after it was posted.
I think since Peter Rono in 1988, only two Olympic 1500m gold medalists have gone on to lose their next two races - Centro in 2016, and Hocker in 2024.
Whose gold do you consider the flukiest?
NY Giants over undefeated Patriots is the biggest fluke of all time. Centro is less than Cole because the entire field couldn’t get past him in a very slow race. That tells you he was the class of the field that day
Go back and plot each of Hocker's competion results for the calendar year 2024 on a graph. You will see that his Olympic result fits right in, it is a logical progression. In fact, go back to 2012 when he was a 6th grader at Fall Creek Middle School running in his Conference meet (a race I watched), and plot all his races going forward and you will see the slow, steady improvement of a determined, talented, well-coached individual. There is no "flukiness" anywhere. He is very good at peaking when it counts.
The gall to claim the person who ran the fastest 1500 at an Olympics ever was a fluke winner. Both wins involved a tactical error or two among their competitors but whose fault is that?
Hocker made the Olymic final and placed 6th in the fastest 1500 championship ever in his first races out of the NCAA. Then 7th in a WC final, then 2nd at indoor WC. He dominated the US trials, ran 8:06 2mi indoors, 12:58 outdoors.
If he was with the leaders with 150 to go, he was a serious contender for Gold. He was there, kicked, had to reset, kicked again, and still dominated.
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