I'm skeptical at this excuse. I know athletes don't share what's going on with them before championships, but why not just say what the injury is? It seems convenient to say after losing, oh I was injured.
If CH was forthcoming (before OR after the fact) Fauble and others would have no reason to criticize. Infact, people would be sympathetic instead of jeering.
Running isn't hockey where you need to hide injuries. DB is not hiding his foot problems.
If you're going to be Mr. Secretive and then lay an egg, then don't talk to media... Expect criticism.
Additionally, if there were any actual journalists in T&F, this would not have been a secret.
Watch Cooper’s post race interview. You see when he learns that Coke didn’t make it. He swears and seems totally shocked. I know it’s not his place to try to say “well he was injured” but he clearly would have known if there was an injury and his immediate response was utter shock and not anything that would suggest that he was injured or had anything else going on. Agents represent the athlete’s interest and maintaining their brand/increase their value. I’m skeptical of this explanation. Also, people all the time talk about injuries in mix zones after bad performances. Tara Davis just did it yesterday. I’m not buying it.
DB hid his injury last year. I remember him actually saying nothing was wrong before the OTs. I like both Hocker and DB, but let’s not pretend all runners aren’t secretive about injuries.
If I had a dollar for every time after a poor performance a track athlete says "But I have this nagging injury."
What happened is that you tried to front run (not your game) and lost your legs in the last 50.
Next Race go back to sit and kick.
Disagree with the last part. Hocker is way better than everyone, he's run 3:31. Should've run 3:37 and lost some of the dorks. Similar to his NCAA indoor mile win.
100% get your point and when he went out in front I thought the same thing; "He is five seconds faster than everyone else so he is just going to run a 3:36 out front".
I'm skeptical at this excuse. I know athletes don't share what's going on with them before championships, but why not just say what the injury is? It seems convenient to say after losing, oh I was injured.
Watch Cooper’s post race interview. You see when he learns that Coke didn’t make it. He swears and seems totally shocked. I know it’s not his place to try to say “well he was injured” but he clearly would have known if there was an injury and his immediate response was utter shock and not anything that would suggest that he was injured or had anything else going on. Agents represent the athlete’s interest and maintaining their brand/increase their value. I’m skeptical of this explanation. Also, people all the time talk about injuries in mix zones after bad performances. Tara Davis just did it yesterday. I’m not buying it.
Sometimes, often, athletes don’t want to make excuses. Saying you’re injured might be a valid reason for many of us, but to these athletes, it’s an excuse. They don’t want to make a excuses.
Everyone already knows Fauble's true colors....and they are ugly.
Any pro that celebrates in someone's else's failures (regardless of injury related or just a bad race) is evil. NFL players have more class than Fauble.
If I had a dollar for every time after a poor performance a track athlete says "But I have this nagging injury."
What happened is that you tried to front run (not your game) and lost your legs in the last 50.
Next Race go back to sit and kick.
His agent says he hasn't run in 12 days. If so, it is context for a mystifying performance. When Hocker's "bad" races since 2021 have all been early season tests and he's delivered in every NCAAs, USAs or Olympics race it's dumb to pretend like the injury wasn't a key cause of it. He front-ran yes, but so what. It's what he did in the NCAA with great success. This was a prelim heat and if he's healthy he can close in 40 seconds the last 300...please. This wasn't about tactics. It was about Hocker being unable to run 13-mid or 13-low in the last 100 of a slow 1500. That's easy for him when he's right.
Watch Cooper’s post race interview. You see when he learns that Coke didn’t make it. He swears and seems totally shocked. I know it’s not his place to try to say “well he was injured” but he clearly would have known if there was an injury and his immediate response was utter shock and not anything that would suggest that he was injured or had anything else going on. Agents represent the athlete’s interest and maintaining their brand/increase their value. I’m skeptical of this explanation. Also, people all the time talk about injuries in mix zones after bad performances. Tara Davis just did it yesterday. I’m not buying it.
Sometimes, often, athletes don’t want to make excuses. Saying you’re injured might be a valid reason for many of us, but to these athletes, it’s an excuse. They don’t want to make a excuses.
Exactly. From a sport's psychology perspective that's the worst thing you can do.
If Hocker doesn't make the 5,000m team, he might be able to break 3:30 in some rabbited races this summer.
I don't like the "let's pile on" nature of twitter but I can't help myself. That tweet by Fauble is disgusting if he's actually referring to Hocker.
Hocker races plenty. Last year, I recall he did the double at NCAAs. This year he ran the Millrose 3k and then doubled at USAs. Plus he raced in the world's most competitive mile this year - the Bowerman mile.
So a guy that won 2 US titles indoor and battled the best at Bowerman mile 2 weeks ago is dodging races? By that logic, we should be ripping Fauble for only having raced twice this year - Houston half and Boston.
Yes, Hocker did an American record attempt in the indoor mile but so what. Any race in America is going to be a rabbited affair anyway. Is running a time trial by Cooper miuch different than running for a time at Sound Running? The only way to get used to a tactical race like USA is to pretty much run USA indoors which he did twice as everything else is rabbitted.
Hocker is a great racer. He was hurt. Get over it people.
I don't like the "let's pile on" nature of twitter but I can't help myself. That tweet by Fauble is disgusting if he's actually referring to Hocker.
Hocker races plenty. Last year, I recall he did the double at NCAAs. This year he ran the Millrose 3k and then doubled at USAs. Plus he raced in the world's most competitive mile this year - the Bowerman mile.
So a guy that won 2 US titles indoor and battled the best at Bowerman mile 2 weeks ago is dodging races? By that logic, we should be ripping Fauble for only having raced twice this year - Houston half and Boston.
Yes, Hocker did an American record attempt in the indoor mile but so what. Any race in America is going to be a rabbited affair anyway. Is running a time trial by Cooper miuch different than running for a time at Sound Running? The only way to get used to a tactical race like USA is to pretty much run USA indoors which he did twice as everything else is rabbitted.
Hocker is a great racer. He was hurt. Get over it people.
Moreover, it seems the questionable gap in racing is explained by him not being healthy. I assume he was going to race an 800 at Portland Track Festival (or a comparable meet) and this injury is likely why he scratched. Sure it would be nice to see him get his 5,000 mark at the race with Jakob/Mohamud/Klecker, but he ran 6 weeks before with Teare and that Sound Running field didn't come together until late.
In general, this is a problem of our sport that nothing is really coordinated. Hopefully the Continental Tour Gold structure in the USA increases and there'll be an obvious second or third race getting elevated (Mt. Sac? Portland? Nashville?) that the best US 1500+ runners do (like the sprint-heavy NYC meet). Then we'd get better matchups. But as it stands, Hocker's racing this season was not egregious.
We'd be more "over it" if the dude was upfront and answered a few questions. This also could have been avoided by someone like you being even slightly diligent.