What is the difference between Josh Hoey and Georgia Bell?

American here. Have you not seen all of the posts accusing Hoey of being dirty? I think he is suspicious as hell.

Lol, hardly any Americans who follow the sport think he's clean.

1. This is a strawman argument. I don't think Americans think Hoey = clean and Bell = dirty. I'm sure there are plenty on this board who are suspicious of both and plenty who believe in both.

2. That said, there certainly is a difference between the two. Hoey has been a professional runner since 2018. During that entire period, his entire life was centered around trying to get faster and he barely improved until last year when he made a massive jump.

Bell, meanwhile, took a 5-year break from age 23 to 28. For her, a sudden improvement actually makes more sense (even though it came at an older age) because she went from zero running training to dedicated running training under one of the best coaches in the world. Though obviously the heights she has reached (3:52, Olympic bronze) are higher than one would have expected.

I think both are clean. Huge talents.

Hocker and Bell look similar

Both are suspicious af. Both did nothing for years and then run some of the fastest times in history in their distance out of nowhere. Absolutely no.

+1 to this from an American

Yeah everyone is just running faster now a days too with super shoes and bicarbonate. 1:43 indoors is amazing but it’s not as other worldly in 2025 as it would have been in 2015

I think you just see the posts you want to see and disregard the rest. Even among Americans the majority are skeptical of Hoey’s recent progress.

this. dude has been professional for a while now. what exactly is he doing differene now that accounts for the HUGE improvement? it certainly isn't mechanics

Brilliant assessment. It is true that women do seem to be more resilient to time off from the sport (a number of instances of this, in the women's marathon, in recent memory), whereas men have to be pretty constantly engaged at a high level, which Hoey has always been.

However, Bell is a bit more of an anomaly in the sense that I can't think of almost any high level middle distance athletes who didn't train much for almost half of their 20s and then return at an Olympic medal level.

Hoey's trajectory is pretty ordinary...it's parallel with someone like Elise Cranny. Bell's trajectory is not really comparable with anyone else's, although I could be missing someone.

Hoey went pro after high school. I didn't realize that. I think almost all runners should run in the NCAA for at least a year or two. If he had won a title or two, maybe some people would feel differently about him.

they're both sus af

I’m still confused with Hull. Where did this sudden breakthrough come from? Move back to Oz? New coach? Direct attention to her and not an entire team? She just doesn’t look the same physically as she did with NOP- I can’t explain it- it’s something with her face. Maybe just older?

Both are suspicious.

But Bell is more suspicious.

Imagine if some 14:00 5k retired after college at 23. And then came out of retirement 5 years later and ran 12:40.

And I don’t think Bell was the equivalent of a 14:00 5k runner to start.

For context Josh Hoey is running world class right now because he is fast.

At 17 he had 800PRs of 1:47/1:48 In/Outdoors. His Mile by comparison was relatively slow @4:07/4:11 in/outdoors. In terms of V02 he's definitely been geared with fast twitch.

The controversy is he was stagnant for 6 years, rightfully so if his training was stagnant: no coaching direction, periodization, strength, cross training, blood work-optimization/anemias No altitude. none of this was apparent and so the Pros beat him up.

At 17 Before superspikes he ran 1:47. He's a responder to owning the professional little things, and now superspikes and bi carb

You lost me at Trump supporter. I’m a Mitt Romney kind of guy.

Bell was doing a lot of bike training between 2015 and 2022 - she won a duathlon world title.

That's not to say its not still...

1. insanely suspicious

2. frustrating seeing the British press constantly push this "working in IT, did a few parkruns, now in the Olympic final" storyline

Would love it if you were able to get a clear answer from her WHAT exactly she was doing between 2015 - 2022. It clearly helps her wider reach if there's ambiguity and the mainstream narrative can be pushed, especially at present when there's little mainstream suspicion.

I suspect she was doing a whole lot more training than has been let on - still doesn't make the jumps in performance any less doubtful, but at least we'd have some more clarity!

I would date one, but not the other.