Oh yeah, that was such a lucky win, it was so lucky and devoid of skill, fitness, and execution that he only won gold with a new Olympic Record... yep, just takes luck to get that. I swear, some of the takes on here...
Sitting on someone is not skill. In fact, Centro was more impressive in that regard. Both were still lucky and just like centro, hocker will never win again.
I don't know if Hocker will win again, but he is similar to Centro in that he already has a record of overperforming in championship finals. Finishing 6th in 2021 was huge, and to follow it up with 1st in 2024 is nearly as good as Centro's 4th place in 2012 before his victory in 2016.
Centro obviously has the edge in WC finals, but Hocker could definitely get a couple WC medals if he stays healthy. And Hocker should have a real chance at some sort of medal in 2028, although I expect it will be a historically deep field considering how many of the current guys are young enough to be contenders then.
And yet even with that same amount of luck, you wouldn’t even be able to win your local Turkey Trot. I’ll take an accidental Olympic Gold Medal over that any day.
Even if he never wins a medal again, I will forever remember him as the guy who beat 1 3:26 guy, 2 3:27 guys and broke the OR in the process in a race of the century.
This post was edited 28 seconds after it was posted.
And yet even with that same amount of luck, you wouldn’t even be able to win your local Turkey Trot. I’ll take an accidental Olympic Gold Medal over that any day.
I will win my local turkey trot. I will report back in a month’s time on my results.
Yeah, so lucky to break the American and Olympic record while also beating the two guys that had a pre race beef montage aired on international television