Cole Hocker says USAs was "easiest race I've run all season"

And I think you are missing that in fact, by saying he had a lot left, he is coping with the reality that no matter how "easy" it was, he did was not capable (today) of catching those guys.

Remember, Jakob cut him off in the Olympic final last year with 150 to go and he still managed to run 3:27 and mow everyone down. Hocker today is not that guy.

Sure, he pays respect to his competitors. But his coping style is like a kid saying he didn't actually try. I see my kid and his friends do this every single day.

Ah, the Chairperson of the LetsRun Welcoming Committee has returned.

I guess I'd ask you have you ever run a race where you weren't flat-out. This isn't a trick question as most of us only run in races where we pretty much try to run as fast as we can from the gun and PB. But someone like Hocker can have a race feel easy, within himself and still lose. It just means that others were feeling good and kicking fast, but some had better tactics and positioning. That's what happened today, he felt good, was patient, made some mistakes, and didn't win. If he was coping it was in saying that he was OK with the loss, as long as he made the team. But even there he said he wanted to win. So it's more coming to grips with what happened. I don't think he ever said he didn't try to win, he just said he felt good, the race felt good, but he made some mistakes that cost him.

To your first point - Cole has run 3 slow GST races this year. So “not flat out” is irrelevant. He’s used to that.

I actually watched the video finally…I think the headline takes his comments a little out of context. Now I am a little less concerned with him being a sore loser and a little more convinced he’s extremely concerned with the talent level of the US 1500. He talks like a guy racing to avoid losing and not like a guy confident he’d win. VERY different than a year ago.

I thought this interview was very interesting. First, he basically says he’s still processing the result. His comments about the wind at Hayward showed how his knowledge of the track translated into his race strategy, which based on his result and Yared’s you can’t really criticize.

Feels like a coin flip for me whether he was trying to pump himself back up with all the talk about just shooting for third, or showing veteran savvy.

You’re being highly critical before even taking the time to watch the 3 minute video.

He says, quote, “In a weird way—obviously I got 3rd today, but—that was the easiest race I’ve run all season.” He said he was surprised by the time because it felt like a kicker’s race, and he did in fact run 12.54 for the last 100m.

Shortly after that, he says “I’m not going to lie, I really wanted to win…in that, it always stings a little bit not to.”

He also practically acknowledges that the level of the competition is higher than ever.

The interview shows a combination of

1) Relief that he made one of the toughest teams in the world, when guys like Nuguse and Kessler did not

2) Dissatisfaction with being beaten into 3rd

3) Encouragement from clocking 3:30 in an imperfect race where he didn’t hit top gear until late, knowing he’s capable of considerably faster

I found the interview totally reasonable and didn’t find anything unlikable in it.

I think people on the internet are so eager to tear others down.

P.S. “Blowout loss”? 0.20 seconds?

Yeah, text doesn't quite capture it. Go through and watch the interviews on the LRC youtube channeleach night after the meet ends--yes, quotes are pulled for articles, but its nice to hear a whole conversation, like JGs back and forth with Fisher about GST and payouts

Almost bothers me as much as him saying he's the best in America when he hadn't run anything close to the 3:43 from Yared, or even won a diamond league and had to sit on Yared to win the trials but I won't hate this time. I know they have to think this way to train.

Has everyone forgotten that Hocker is running the 5000m tomorrow?

Not making excuses but his situation is different than everyone else who was in contention the last 200m:

1) Has higher expectations on him (to contend for the gold), so making the team isn't enough, he has to make the team and then go on to win or it's seen as a failure compared to last year. So he's likely to be training through this meet as much as he can, while others are peaking for this meet as their stretch goal is to make the team.

2) Is running the 5000m tomorrow, so has to train for both distances (has done less 1500m specificity) and preserve energy for the 5000m which will be an equally difficult race. When he broke free into 3rd place, I believe he was kicking as hard as he could for the win. But I can also imagine there were at least some thoughts in his head about saving a little bit for the kick tomorrow.

3) He's probably getting tired of everyone treating last year like a fluke and that Yared should have won. He consistently thrashes Yared in championship races. Yared is a great runner but overrated as a championship runner. He's much better at winning/running fast in races like Pre or diamond leagues. Different skillsets. Hocker is an ace championship runner; he's really one of the greats at peaking. In order for Hocker to be able to peak like that, he's probably training through a lot of the races he loses to Yared.

It's not a perfect analogy, but Yared is like Daniel Komen and Hocker is like Haile G. They were both amazing in different ways.

I think Hocker will be remembered as one of the great "one and done" runners. I can't see him winning, or even medaling, at a major championships again

Hocker's interview, and this year's USAs 1500m more generally, is really good evidence of how lame the all in attitude towards the world championships are.

You have the defending olympic and US champion treating his national championship meet like a prelim that he only raced to qualify. He trained through this and all of his other races this season, didn't win any of them, and yet if he wins in Tokyo he and half of this sports' fans will happily say that he won the only race that matters and had the best season.

Similarly, if track had multiple equal top level meets like Tennis, then a favorite like Naguse getting upset at one of them would be really exciting. It would give some other runners time in the spotlight and him some motivation to make a comeback at other important meets later in the season. Instead, he could end up getting second in the DL final with an AR or something and still not have a chance to run in any important meets for the next two years.

I don’t think there’s much evidence he trained through this one. I do agree his mental approach was survive and advance which I agree is maybe a little lame in some ways. But you might be overdramatizing it a bit, as the stakes were still real and two guys who were considered medal favorites were unceremoniously bounced. That seems important enough to me.

Agreed. Everyone at this level wants to win. He got beat. It's ok to say that/give props to your competitors. There's nothing easy about taking the 3rd & final spot. He was in 6th for a brief moment coming around the final bend & had to pass 2 very good runners in the last 50. He has a huge kick but positioning matters. Would like to see him come across a little more humble/a little less defensive.

The stakes were high in the same way that the stakes at qualifying round 1 at the world championships are high. I want to see Hocker treating this race like a championship title he cares about defending, not like qualifying round 0 of 4 for the world's final.

Well then you need to shift the incentives in ways that people wouldn’t like. Only first place gets an auto bid. Some sort of scoring system/committee for the other 2. As long as top 3 get slots, athletes won’t be life-or-death about winning a Trials race.