Gabby Thomas signs with GST but not to an event category?

Hocker hasn't missed 3 drug tests, though.

The real answer is who has the biggest marketing value. Gabby by a mile.

Even by Letsrun standards, this is a shockingly bad take.

Quite a bit ahead? 3 spots? Cole Hocker is the 7th fastest man ever over the 1500m and you would have to be a fool to suggest the depth in the womens 200m is anywhere close to the depth in the mens 1500m at any point through history.

The gravity of the mens Olympic 1500m title ends the discussion. Two further individual medals (a bronze in the weird Tokyo olympics and a silver in the worlds) in a far weaker event does not sway it in her favor. She would need a lot more volume of medals than just two (more) in this event.

The one thing I agree with - yeah she is FAR more marketable than he is.

Your bias is showing.

I’m a former miler and even I disagree with you.

The women’s 200m depth is NOT weaker than the men’s 1500m. It is one of the strongest events in track and field, aside from the men’s 100m and 200m.

The distance bias on this is actually hilarious to read at times.

GT has 5 Olympic medals, three of them Gold. She has medaled in her signature event at two successive Olympics and would have won a Silver in Tokyo if the DSD regulations in shorter sprints were in place then. In addition, she has a Gold and Silver from Worlds.

The truth is nobody outside this forum knows who Cole Hocker is. Where is his Netflix documentary

Where is the 4x800 or 4x1500 for Cole?

Even without relays, GT has three individual outdoor global medals. Hocker has one.

The idea that he’s more accomplished than GT is absolutely asinine, and everybody knows it.

Thomas is 27. hocker is 23. Thomas is more established and has had more time to have the more success she has had. Hocker is just happy to be here. Gst is ecstatic to land Thomas.

for sure, both hocker and Thomas are hugely important signings for gst, but Thomas will be one of the faces of the league. they almost needed her for a claim at legitimacy. they don’t yet have any other Olympic gold medal sprinters. lyles won’t sign until there’s a tv deal. I don’t know what’s up with Alfred or tebogo. And Richardson is another glaring omission.

You want to talk about depth? How about the depth of Hocker's performances? Your entire argument for Hocker is based on one race.

Are you serious? She missed 3 drug tests! Are people just going to ignore this?

I wanted to let this go, but seeing an Olympic champion get disrespected is a huge pet peeve of mine. The women’s 200m is not “far weaker” than the men’s 1500m. To win her individual medals, Gabby has defeated the likes of Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Shaunae Miller-Uibo, Julien Alfred, Dina Asher-Smith, and Sha’Carri Richardson. The field was so deep at the Tokyo Olympics that Shericka Jackson didn’t make it out of the first round (like you, she underestimated her competition; she mistakenly thought she could ease up before crossing the line and still qualify for the semifinals).

Another important point is Gabby faces much tougher competition than Cole just to make a global championship team because Americans are far stronger globally in the women’s 200m than the men’s 1500m. This year, Americans had 5 of the top 6 and 15 of the top 19 spots on the 2024 top list in the women’s 200m. That’s an extraordinarily difficult gauntlet to have to go through to make a U.S. team.

please stay on topic. more pics?