23-year-old American Cole Hocker won his first Olympic medal, shocking a stacked men’s 1500m field to win gold in Paris.
Hocker was in fourth place entering the bell lap. But he took the inside lane and blazed down the home stretch to sprint by Tokyo Olympic champion and presumptive favorite Jakob Ingebrigsten, reigning world champion Josh Kerr and U.S. teammate Yared Nuguse to claim the Olympic title. With a time of 3:27.65, Hocker set an Olympic record in the process.
Kerr took silver, his second Olympic medal. Nuguse, running in his first Olympic Games, claimed bronze. Nuguse’s time of 3:27.80 was just one hundredth of a second behind the silver medal. This final marks the first time in 112 years that two Americans have landed on the Olympic podium in the men’s 1500m.
In 2016, Matthew Centrowitz snapped a 108-year American drought in the event. Now, U.S. reigns supreme in the men’s 1500m for the second time in just eight years.
The trash talk-fueled rivalry between Ingebrigsten and Kerr served as the main draw in this event, but instead it’s the two American medalists headlining the event on the other side of the finish. In the end, none of the trash talk between the Brit and the Norwegian mattered. Ingebrigsten led for 90% of the race but faded in the home stretch to finish fourth and is stunningly off the podium.
The story instead focuses on Hocker, who is now an Olympic champion. The Indianapolis native was ahead of his counterparts from an early age, recording a 4-minute, 36-second mile in eighth grade. He won an Indiana state title in high school, an NCAA Championship as an Oregon Duck, qualified for his first Olympics in 2021 and now tops a medal podium.
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