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.
NOT A FLUKE !
Correct. 👍 One of the most sensible things written on this thread.
One by the greatest tactician of the 21st century, Centro. Most of Centro's championship races are 3-act plays written in real time by his artistry and strategy. Poetry in motion.
The other by a young prodigy gradually expanding out his palette of color. In due time he will be creating works on par with any Old Master.
Both were the opposite of flukes. They went exactly as these two geniuses planned them from the time the gun went off.
There is a "totally out of nowhere" kind of fluke, for things that nobody could have even imagined happening. Imagine if Vincent Ciattei had pipped Kessler at the Trials, made the team, barely made the final, and then won Olympic gold. That would have been a true fluke.
On the other hand, there are "If you run the race 10 times, it is unlikely to happen again, but it could," kind of fluke. That is what we are talking about here:
Centro was a global championship medalist from before Rio and as such had to be on your radar. He was one of the best finishers in the sport and everyone knew that. Not a "fluke."
Hocker was 6th at the last Olympics, as a 20 year old, and as such, was a "contender" by any normal definition of the word. You can't be a "fluke" if you are already in the top 5 in the world going into race.
That said, if Jakob hadn't drifted out into the outside of the lane (trying to run Kerr into lane two), Hocker would have had to go around on the outside. In that scenario, he doesn't get the gold. So seeing lane one open up with 100m to go is a bit flukey.
And in a normal world, they don't let Centro dictate the entire race and pace in Rio. That was just weird. But at that time, everyone liked the sit-and-kick style racing, so maybe that was fine for all of them. They all thought they had the best kick. That wouldn't change if you re-run the race.
Cole is the bigger fluke. (But not a fluke at all, actually.)
This post was edited 5 minutes after it was posted.
Re: NY Giants, that wasn't a fluke. They previously showed they could hang with the Patriots when they lost to them by only 3 points in the last game of the regular season. With their killer pass rush, the Giants were able to apply pressure on opposing quarterbacks (Brady's Achilles heel), and they had a strong rushing game which allowed them to win the time of possession. Sure, that David Tyree catch was miraculous, but they had played the Patriots close for nearly 8 full quarters (including that regular season game) prior to that point. They also didn't benefit from any crazy flukey advantage in number of turnovers in the Super Bowl (each team had only 1). Notably, they outgained the Patriots 338-274 in total yards. That was a legit hard-fought victory.
I believe they were 9-7 regular season they shouldn’t have even been in the playoffs. That’s why it’s a fluke
Nope, you're thinking of the other time the Giants beat the Patriots in the Super Bowl. They did win their division with 9-7, too.
Centro, 3:50 to win, and against a 3:26 former gold medal winner. It was easy to see Hocker was building toward something great and the fastest Olympics in history that everyone was building up to the greatest 1500 in Olympic history!
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