I’m not making it up. In 8th grade at the Texas meet of champs I watched him at Texas state university run 1:56, and then a month later he ran 1:53 and won brooks PR. Then a year later cooper ran 1:49 at the university of Texas state meet where he was in 5a. This season Justin northwest moved up to 6a. Cooper has a brother Andrew who also ran 1:50.9 at meet of champions as well. So yeah, would be pretty hard to make all this up.
for me personally nothing will ever match the “wtf this is bananas lmao, what’s going on and can Webb have my babies” moment. It was sooooo impossible for me to comprehend.
that said, this 800 performance by a dude who probs just started driving is entirely another level.
the more time I’ve had to digest this, the more I can’t comprehend it 🤣
just watched it for first time on YouTube.
clearly I was watching him. He seemed not great at 400 and up until maybe 125 left he still didn’t look great.
125’ish hit and he looked like the strongest, smoothest and natural finisher I’ve seen in awhile.
I’m not making it up. In 8th grade at the Texas meet of champs I watched him at Texas state university run 1:56, and then a month later he ran 1:53 and won brooks PR. Then a year later cooper ran 1:49 at the university of Texas state meet where he was in 5a. This season Justin northwest moved up to 6a. Cooper has a brother Andrew who also ran 1:50.9 at meet of champions as well. So yeah, would be pretty hard to make all this up.
Not much room to improve and I have to say he looks like a full grown adult and not a 16 year old. Fantastic performance.
He looks like a normal athletic kid. Track athletes are just usually frail-looking and emaciated so he looks big in comparison. Track people are so weird when it comes to thinking what's big, buff, or skinny.
I always find it interesting when I see posts talking about a huge time drop for an athlete in a short amount of time. Usually it's to insinuate ped use. I almost never see people claim that about Usain Bolt. The year he set his 9.69 WR he started the year with a 10.07 100 pr. What is more unbelievable, a 16 year old who drops his 800 time like Cooper, or a 22 year old taking .38 seconds off their 100 best?
It seems to me the various middle-aged men hiding behind their keyboards and calling out Cooper for doping should be ashamed of themselves. He is a once in a generation talent and I think he is great for US Running Morale.
In terms of his performance, it is our modern-day Jim Ryun 3:55 Mile when you consider how close his time is to the world record as well as the US Record.
Instead of saying the young man is doping, I would like to say he is a person who will change the mentality of US HS running in much the same way Newbury Park did 6 years ago. Once HS runners see that kids are capable of running 1:45 or better in the 800m as well as other kids running sub 3:57 for the mile, the attitude will change.
For Cooper's sake, I hope he doesnt come on these Forums or get involved in all the details others are saying about him. He needs to just focus on himself and try his best to drown out the noise.
There are so many things that need to happen for him to even be considered to win an Olympic Medal at some point. As many of you know, some of these things can be controlled by Cooper and team and others are just plain fate and luck. My question is how does he go back to running Dual Meets in Track and XC after competing at the highest levels in the sport at such a young age. Being that he has already run 1:42, does this mean it might take him another 5 years just to get to 1:40 high because the line is now razor thin?
He needs to not let other peoples' expectations get the better of him now. Not sure if he has a Sports Psychologist he can speak to but it might be a good idea. He is only 16 years old and the expectations and accusations of others are now going to get bigger than they already are.
He seems like a good kid. I wish the best for him and I want him to enjoy the moment.
I always find it interesting when I see posts talking about a huge time drop for an athlete in a short amount of time. Usually it's to insinuate ped use.
I almost never see people claim that about Usain Bolt. The year he set his 9.69 WR he started the year with a 10.07 100 pr.
What is more unbelievable, a 16 year old who drops his 800 time like Cooper, or a 22 year old taking .38 seconds off their 100 best?
You're obviously not aware that Bolt rarely ran the 100 and was focused on 200 up until then. That's why his 100 PR going into that year wasn't that fast.
Third-place finisher Hoppel seemed so happy in the interview after the race. I also noticed he embraced Brazier at the end of the race and just seemed pretty elated to have been in such an amazing event and make the team with the insanely fast 16-year-old. I just liked Hoppel's attitude. Very cool and classy. Hope he peaks at Worlds.
It seems to me the various middle-aged men hiding behind their keyboards and calling out Cooper for doping should be ashamed of themselves. He is a once in a generation talent and I think he is great for US Running Morale.
Then I expect the same treatment for other runners who are a talent instead of calling them dopers because they are from other countries. Can't have it one way and not the other. The same for both Koechs, and Habz until proven guilty.
The bullis coach is probably talking up his parents now
And his dad is telling the bullis coach that he's a former coach himself, and the current athletic director at Northwest, where Cooper will finish out his high school career. But there may be an assistant coaching opportunity next year if he's interested in working with Cooper.
I think another route is to win the upcoming NACAC (area champs).
NACAC is an auto qualifier in terms of not needing to worry about the standard or world ranking to be eligible to go to worlds, but it doesn’t unlock a 4th spot if you’re from a country that already has 3 going to worlds
That's a fair point, but name me anyone else at that level whose time ever dropped that much in the 100. I'm not saying he doped, but to say Cooper is doped because of this performance is equally wrong. Bolt was proclaimed a generational talent so that explained his massive improvement. What's to say it isn't the same with Cooper?