I just don't get it? How the heck did Hocker win? It just doesn't make sense.

You know how he won. But of course we cannot discuss it.

He was just the next guy. - Kerr, probably.

I heard from a couple people that his roommates at the Olympic Village may have dropped out or made other arrangements, so he had the room to himself. Much better rested than Kerr and Ingebrigtsen.

Because sometimes the narratives on letsrun aren't always true.

We are seeing off the charts improvements with athletes everywhere now. All for pretty much the same reasons.

hocker kind of did what Noah Ngeny did to EL G in 2000.

for years Ngeny had been right on El Gs heels letting him get all the records, glory, and medals at WC and was just bidding his time for an upset in Sydney. Same could be said for Hocker toward Kerr/ Ingbritz

Maybe the race was fixed by LRC gamblers.

He ran by all his competitors in the homestretch - seems reasonable.

For the first time ever, I agree with you here armstrong, these 1500m times are impossible at the Olympics without one thing, drugs.

It all started in 1692....

ran on PURE HATE

I don't care how he did it and I wouldn't have believed it. I'm just glad it happened. I spent the last 10 meters of that race desperately rooting for Cole Hocker.

There, I can type that sentence for the one and only time in my life.

A Josh Kerr victory would have been intolerable

He devoted 6 years to being the Next Guy

I don't know, but I think I know what Hocker would have said:

"It doesn't make any sense. Jakob had everything going for him. Power, experience, confidence. Was I better than Jakob or just luckier?"

For years? Well Noah was only 21 in that 2000 Olympic race and he had only been on the scene a couple years.

Damn, I had a small bet on Kerr.

I’m assuming this is a troll post, but there has been so much disbelief surrounding Hocker’s run that clearly some people around here truly feel this way.

I personally don’t see what’s so unbelievable about this win. Footlocker champ in HS off low mileage. Did some incredible things in college — 3:50 mile, winning mile/3k double 45 minutes apart, winning outdoor against Nuguse. Finishes that season 6th in the Olympics, less than 3 seconds off Jakob and nearly a year younger. At this point Jakob probably had 5x the lifetime mileage Cole had.

Cole’s race at the trials made it obvious he was in 3:28 shape at the bare minimum. That strength + kick combo was always going to be deadly in an Olympic final.

Narrative drives a lot of this sport. When people are injured, and miss a season, we forget about them very quickly. Just because YOU forgot about Cole Hocker doesn’t mean his talent went away.