Hockers 6th place is more impressive than Centros gold

remember 84? wrote:

The bottom line here is this. What is the ultimate measure of success? The goal is to win. Period.

Anytime some runs a fast time, the immediate thought is about what this means for future racing potential. As in, "Damn I just dropped a 9:06 - I just may be able to win at at state!"

It's not the other way around. Centro's Oly gold is the pinnacle of our sport. Nothing suprasses it. Stop comparing lesser "golds" - JV races or household champions - this is the Olympics.

Hocker's 3:31 suggests he might someday be able to achieve what Centro did in Rio. Centro's result is Hocker's new goal.

Centro didn't walk off the Rio track thinking "Man, now I can go run 3:31 and get 6th somewhere!"

Instead, he dropped the mic on the running world. The dude was Oly champ, and nothing surpasses that. Sorry.

No one is arguing against that. No one is denying that the olympic gold medal is the highest achievement in the sport. The argument is that Centro did not deserve that gold bc it is fraudulent. If you run that race in the simulations a million times, Centro doesnt come out on top in all but one of those. Everyone in that field decided to run the least competitive race possible and leave the outcome up to chance. Ofc, someone had to win, but that random winner was someone who should not have won.

Though a gold medal is objectively the highest achievement in our sport, Centro's performance was not at all impressive. It just so happened to be the least unimpressive performance of that day's clown show.

People are so embarrassing here. Centro has a world championship silver and bronze and gold for indoor world championships. He was a medal contender for multiple years. The obsession people have with Centro on here lol. At the end of the day Centro will be the first American Olympic Gold medalist in over a century. He helped paved the way for American 1500m runners today. There's no one this generation that is a consistent medalist like Centro so far. Facts are facts.

None of that speculative crap matters. The only thing that matters is what actually happened. And winning the Oly 1500 Gold will always be more impressive that not medaling at all.

In my mind, the title of "impressive" gets doled out 1st to those who actually win the biggest races - not to those who sponge behind others to fast times.

I have not read a single argument that substantiates why Centro's 2016 win was "impressive" .

He won a sleepy, terrible, stupid race in a fluke. Does not matter whether it's your local race, state, NCAA or OLY, a terrible, unimpressive race is still terrible and unimpressive and always leaves a doubt as to whether or not the best runner won. A half baked gold medal, that's what it was.

Looking back, once more at the history of oly 1500m gold medalists, you will easily spot two anomalies:

1988: Peter Rono. PB at 30= 3:34.54. NO OTHER SIGNIFICANT WIN.

1992: Fermin Cacho. PB at 30= 3:28.95 (European record until 2013). Oly silver in 1996. 2 world silvers. 1 world indoor silver. Several European titles and several Golden Four victories.

1996: Morcelli. PB at 30= 3:27.37 (World record, also WR on the mile 3:44.39). 3 world golds. 1 world indoor gold. Countless Golden Four/Golden league victories.

2000: Noah Ngeny. PB at 30= 3:28.12 (mile= 3:43.30, 1000m= 2:11.96, WR). 1 silver world champ, 1 bronze world indoor. 4 golden league victories and under 3:30 more than 10 times.

2004: El G. PB at 30= 3.26.00 (WR, also WR in the mile 3:43.13, and 2000m, and former WR at indoor 1500m and mile). Also oly gold at 5000m. 4 world champ gold, 2 world indoor champ. 1 silver oly and 2 world silvers. Over THIRTY golden league/grand prix victories.

2008: Kiprop. PB at 30: 3:26.69 (800m: 1:43.15). 3 world champ golds. Over TWENTY Diamond league victories.

2012: Makhloufi. PB at 30: 3:28.75 (800m: 1:42.61, 1000m: 2:13:08). Oly silver in that dreadful 2016 1500m race. Also Oly silver in 800m. One world champ silver. One diamond league victory.

2016: Centro. PB at 30: 3:30.40. 1 world silver and 1 bronze. 1 gold world indoors. 1 diamond league and NOTHING ELSE since 2016.

2021: Jakob - career just starting. PB at 20: 3:28.32 (3000m: 7:27, 5000m: 12:48). 2 European golds, 3 diamond league victories.

Burrito Vixen wrote:

People are so embarrassing here. Centro has a world championship silver and bronze and gold for indoor world championships. He was a medal contender for multiple years. The obsession people have with Centro on here lol. At the end of the day Centro will be the first American Olympic Gold medalist in over a century. He helped paved the way for American 1500m runners today. There's no one this generation that is a consistent medalist like Centro so far. Facts are facts.

I'm so glad this thread was bumped. I had missed the hilarity. This is a time trial message board and not a real world message board. Mo Farah and Matt Centowitz laughed at the time trial guys and spit them out. It will forever be recorded that way.

Bottom line, the public doesn't even know the names of the time trial frauds. The gold medalists are forever legendary. Olympic 1500 recaps will always feature Centrowitz. None will ever care about Cole Hocker...half a lap behind and not even within the picture.

Told you guys. Destroyed centros record by 4 seconds.

Dumb thread, dumb bump.