The Indianapolis wrote:
If you're going to try to quantify "great" in track and field, I think holding or having held a world record and/or winning an Olympic or World medal are fair qualifications, making Mu and Jacob great, but not Hocker...yet.
I'd hold the bar higher than that if we're talking about an athlete being a "great." Globally dominant is the qualification for being a "great", not just winning a medal. You wouldn't call Emily Infeld or Leo Manzano greats even though they have global medals. Faith Kipyegon, Bekele, Farah, Geb, Rudisha, Tirunesh Dibaba, Hassan, people like that set the standard for being a "great." Athing Mu is so very close to that already. Two Olympic gold medals at age 19, both won in utterly dominant fashion.
Maybe Hocker can get there. I don't think he can if he continues to run as he does right now. Using that lethal kick to go from 11th to 6th might impress a few kids on the LRC boards but it's unlikely to be enough to global win titles.