Let's talk about the elephant in the room: Hocker drop in fitness is SUSPECT.

bro hes clean just look at him

He's the new Nesterenko

He’s no more “suspect” than the entire sport. Return your thoughts to your high scrapbook and athletic regrets.

only a brit would mention masterkova

cope and seethe josh

Cole ran:

2019: 4:07 and 15:00 on the nxn course on 30mpw

2021: 3:31 in an Olympic final @ 19

2022: spent the year injured

2023: was injured again but still ran a 3:48 mile and 3:30 in the world championship final

but let's talk about this season:

he obviously took a massive leap forward in fitness during indoor, running 8:05y for the #2 time in US history, following up with a world indoor silver in the 1500 after a convincing win at USAs altitude. Outdoors he ran 12:58, a decent PR, which he followed up with a 1:45 PR. At USAs he runs 3:30 with a 52.8 close after two rounds of making 3:34 look easy...

and you still want to tell me 3:27 FTW was a surprise? This entire leadup made that win and time about as surprising as joe fahnbulleh getting a bad start

Actually 3:27 FTW was a huge surprise. Aouita, a likely doper like Hocker, was 12:58 and 1:43, and he could only manage 3:29.

Hocker loves Jesus.

Aouita ran in the mid 80's to early 90's without the supershoes and pacing lights. 1:43 would have gotten you a medal at almost and major championship and 12:58 was the WR. I became more suspicious of what these guys were on when they split the 2nd of a 10k faster than 12:58. Not saying he would have beaten Hocker, but he would have had his hands full if he was competing now.

Hocker barely out kicked Laros, or made up any ground on a clearly sick Jakob in the home straight. Yet a month ago, he destroys them all in a 3:27 race despite getting blocked and losing momentum.

I doubt he is doping, but the guy sure knows how to peak for the big one.

Hocker had supershoes, super track, 4-5 guys in front of him in an Olympic final, and maurten bicarb

Aouita had none of those

Also, he ran his 1500 PR in 1985, his 5k PR in 87, and his 800 PR in 88, NOT in the same year as you were implying. Hocker ran 12:58 and 1:45 a month apart during the early season.

There was a thread a couple of weeks ago that asked "how does Hocker ever lose" if he has 3:27 strength and the fastest kick into he field. My reply then was that the kick won't always be there, just as it wasn't in some of those earlier season races. Things happen in a race that will limit his kick at times - bad positioning, wasted energy at the wrong moments, simple lack of motivation. He's now among the very best in the world, but none of the Big Four are strong favourites for any race now, there's just so little between them.

I'm one to entertain drops in fitness and sus athletes, but he just ran the Olympics in early August, the race he's been working towards for 3 years. Of course I wouldn't expect him to stay in peak condition this year after that. It's surprising that anyone does.

Jakob crushing that 3K recently if anything is kind of sus given he had to peak the Olympics like anyone else.

I want you to spend all year training towards one goal race... and then a month after you do that goal race, go run a couple other inconsequential races and let's see how you do. Unless you DNFed or phoned in your goal race for some reason, I'd be really surprised if you did well in those latter races.

Dropping off like Hocker and Kerr did in their races afterward is a lot more normal.

No more suspect than any of the other all night chemists in that final. Anyone in the top 6 from that race should be getting daily visits from wada for the next year.

The final was exactly a month ago not 3 weeks ago.

I’m more suspicious of someone like Jakob with his too good to believe ability to recover quickly from hard racing efforts.

So you’re basically saying that going into the Olympic trials and Olympics he was doping (where he also ran at the Pre classic and several other high profile races), but now that the Olympics are over with barely any competitions left to test him, he’s suddenly done?

I’m not sure about you, but whenever I peak for a race, I always run a couple of seconds faster than I usually do, and afterwards my fitness is cooked from dropping too much mileage.

Hocker has been training three years to peak for this race, it’s only natural that he’s going to be physically exhausted after the peak. Remember, he’s only running roughly 3 seconds slower than his PR in each of these races, that isn’t slow by any means.

Hop off Jingy’s meat ffs, just because someone isn’t as consistent as a metronome doesn’t mean they are doping.

Hocker has shown consistent improvement throughout seasons and his gold is a byproduct of that.

He looks fat and runs like sh@t. Honestly he definitely is doped up. Been saying this for years

of course Hocker is probably doping, but quickly losing peak fitness isn't evidence of that. A crop of epo blood cells for example lasts months.

The elephant in the room is the sport and not just individual runners.

easy answer to all of this:

dude just won olympic gold. that will throw a man off his game. he's probably done a million interviews, and is just getting used to the idea of being champion. quite a few gold medalists or athletes that reach the peak of their sport go through difficult transitions. would not say that his fall off in performance has been from nefarious means.

OK Father POM, get over it. Kerr lost. Period. Hocker peaked better than Duck Duck Kerr and is now going through the motions to finish the season obviously. The fact that Hocker still beat Duck Duck in Zurich says a lot. The primadonna limey had to go to NYC to race a few burnouts and no other big names to notch another “win”.