So, I guess he's scratched from the 5000 now? I mean, if he's banged up and a test run in the 1500 prelims shows it's affecting his ability to race, then he'll be taking some time off to get healthy, right?
I don't get why people get so defensive on Hockers behalf. When you play the game you also have to take the pain. There was talk about medals at worlds, this wasn't it. You can't eat your cake and have it too. You can't be in the world top without people expecting world class performances.
I don't get why people get so defensive on Hockers behalf. When you play the game you also have to take the pain. There was talk about medals at worlds, this wasn't it. You can't eat your cake and have it too. You can't be in the world top without people expecting world class performances.
People are defensive as far as killing him for a performance when it emerges he wasn't healthy.
Yes, he should've talked to the media last night OR been more transparent about the injury going in if he felt comfortable with that. Now that we know that he's injured, ripping him for being soft mentally or being afraid of competition feels out of line.
I am getting tired of this. We need mandatory weekly injury reports starting 13 weeks before Olympics and World Championships for top 50 or top 100 athletes per event. Over thirty years ago we could pretend T&F was an amateur sport and we had no right to T&F participants health report but this is ridiculous. Every time you lose, you can say afterwards you lost because of an injury? Just like American football: A. Healthy. B. Probable. C. Questionable. D. Doubtful. E. Out/Injured.
Fauble has never run a damn 1500m prelim/championship in his life and acts like he knows what he’s talking about.
If you’ve a Hocker fan, you know he has used this strategy in preliminary rounds against US competition all last year. During the rounds for the Olympics, he adjusted his strategy and used the chill on the rail strategy and masterfully made his way to the Olympic final.
Hocker has plenty of experience with real racing and Fauble is delusional if he thinks otherwise.
hey, maybe the hot takes wouldn't be an issue if these guys would stand in front of a microphone like a professional, and tell their story. This is a huge issue with track and field. not a new issue. transparency is awful.
of course they shouldn't show their hand before the race, but after, tell people what's going on.
maybe the media would be more interested in track and field if they got anything out of them.
and I like hocker a lot. this is not the end of the world. Hope to see him run some huge times this summer
I am getting tired of this. We need mandatory weekly injury reports starting 13 weeks before Olympics and World Championships for top 50 or top 100 athletes per event. Over thirty years ago we could pretend T&F was an amateur sport and we had no right to T&F participants health report but this is ridiculous. Every time you lose, you can say afterwards you lost because of an injury? Just like American football: A. Healthy. B. Probable. C. Questionable. D. Doubtful. E. Out/Injured.
I don't think you give an injury report before hand. don't let the competition know you have a weakness, or they will hit you where it hurts.
I don't like the "let's pile on" nature of twitter but I can't help myself. That tweet by Fauble is disgusting if he's actually referring to Hocker.
Hocker races plenty. Last year, I recall he did the double at NCAAs. This year he ran the Millrose 3k and then doubled at USAs. Plus he raced in the world's most competitive mile this year - the Bowerman mile.
So a guy that won 2 US titles indoor and battled the best at Bowerman mile 2 weeks ago is dodging races? By that logic, we should be ripping Fauble for only having raced twice this year - Houston half and Boston.
Yes, Hocker did an American record attempt in the indoor mile but so what. Any race in America is going to be a rabbited affair anyway. Is running a time trial by Cooper miuch different than running for a time at Sound Running? The only way to get used to a tactical race like USA is to pretty much run USA indoors which he did twice as everything else is rabbitted.
Hocker is a great racer. He was hurt. Get over it people.
The Hocker “not racing enough” take is a dumb one, but it’s not “disgusting.” Pros can be critiqued and criticized by anybody. In fact, that’s your job to do this if I’m not mistaken. As for the injury, yes, this may be the explanation like Brazier last year, but Hocker should simply explain what happened. It’s not making an excuse, it’s just telling the truth. “Real” pro sports have injury reports on athletes before, during and after competitions. Why are track pros treated differently? His agent leaking this out is a stupid way to handle what should be a straightforward issue if in fact that’s the issue.
Haha when will LRC learn. Somebody has an off-performance and everybody immediately rushes to the most complex explanations. Same thing happened with DB last year, and all the armchair coaches and psychologists came out and said it was his training or his lack of mental toughness blah blah blah - turns out he was running on a broken foot!
This time it was "hocker must be off the juice" or "he doesn't race enough" (despite racing in the against the best in the world). Turns out he was injured and going from the 6th best guy in the world to not making it out of the first round isn't caused by not racing indoor worlds after all.
I am getting tired of this. We need mandatory weekly injury reports starting 13 weeks before Olympics and World Championships for top 50 or top 100 athletes per event. Over thirty years ago we could pretend T&F was an amateur sport and we had no right to T&F participants health report but this is ridiculous. Every time you lose, you can say afterwards you lost because of an injury? Just like American football: A. Healthy. B. Probable. C. Questionable. D. Doubtful. E. Out/Injured.
I don't think you give an injury report before hand. don't let the competition know you have a weakness, or they will hit you where it hurts.
They do this in all major professional sports. Brazier just did it an won his heat. Once the racing starts it doesn’t matter. I guess in pro football Lawrence Taylor used to specifically target Montana’s most recent injury, but this is T&F for Pete’s sake.
Haha when will LRC learn. Somebody has an off-performance and everybody immediately rushes to the most complex explanations. Same thing happened with DB last year, and all the armchair coaches and psychologists came out and said it was his training or his lack of mental toughness blah blah blah - turns out he was running on a broken foot!
This time it was "hocker must be off the juice" or "he doesn't race enough" (despite racing in the against the best in the world). Turns out he was injured and going from the 6th best guy in the world to not making it out of the first round isn't caused by not racing indoor worlds after all.
I think Brazier learned his lesson and this year he was just straight about what was going on. Worked out well. Just be straightforward. If not before, then after at least. On crazy people would accuse Hocker of lying if he simply said he was injured, missed training and was not as sharp as he wanted. No drama.
I don't get why people get so defensive on Hockers behalf. When you play the game you also have to take the pain. There was talk about medals at worlds, this wasn't it. You can't eat your cake and have it too. You can't be in the world top without people expecting world class performances.
People are defensive as far as killing him for a performance when it emerges he wasn't healthy.
Yes, he should've talked to the media last night OR been more transparent about the injury going in if he felt comfortable with that. Now that we know that he's injured, ripping him for being soft mentally or being afraid of competition feels out of line.
Eh, he is a professional, he should be able to take it. This was just supposed to be a formality. He dropped the ball, either by getting injured or by not handling the race. Will be interesting to hear more about the injury or whatever is wrong.
Idk man, Centro’s done it so many times. He gets hurt every year and close to championship season all the time and still comes out on top. Prior to the olympic gold isn’t that when he hurt his knee bad and got surgery
I am getting tired of this. We need mandatory weekly injury reports starting 13 weeks before Olympics and World Championships for top 50 or top 100 athletes per event. Over thirty years ago we could pretend T&F was an amateur sport and we had no right to T&F participants health report but this is ridiculous. Every time you lose, you can say afterwards you lost because of an injury? Just like American football: A. Healthy. B.cv Probable. C. Questionable. D. Doubtful. E. Out/Injured.
I don't think you give an injury report before hand. don't let the competition know you have a weakness, or they will hit you where it hurts.
Did you read my first sentence? Mandatory. I did not state there should be an optional injury report. Athletes today have the option to state if or if not injured. The right to health privacy went out the window with daily or weekly blood &/or urine tests for some elite athletes. Do you want T&F to be legit or not? When I play Pop Warner football and Little League Baseball we didn't disclose injuries. Is elite T&F like Pop Warner football and Little League Baseball or is elite T&F professional like N.B.A./N.F.L./M.L.B?
It would have been nice for Hocker to stand in front of a microphone and say something about his injury.
The problem with track and field is that we expect athletes to step in front of that microphone within a few minutes of the end of their event. Sure, it's not bad if they won or performed well. In other American sports, you get a little more time for the emotion to wear off before having to sit in front of media and chat about the performance. If track did that as well, you might get an answer directly from Hocker after the emotion of the situation wears off instead of expecting one as he walks away from the track in the immediacy of the event.
He SHOULD face the media after. But I'm sure he was emotional/pissed and in other sports they get a little buffer time to process before speaking to the media. I understand why the mixed zone exists and many athletes are capable of speaking no matter their disappointment. In time, I hope Hocker gets there. Nobody is saying he can't handle the criticism, it's just that killing someone with personal attacks (about them choking/doping/being afraid to race) after it is revealed they were injured is not something I'm in favor of.
I don't think you give an injury report before hand. don't let the competition know you have a weakness, or they will hit you where it hurts.
They do this in all major professional sports. Brazier just did it an won his heat. Once the racing starts it doesn’t matter. I guess in pro football Lawrence Taylor used to specifically target Montana’s most recent injury, but this is T&F for Pete’s sake.
if usatf wants to make it a rule, you follow it, but in an individual sport, with not a lot of gambling, it's not really necessary. if they don't make you reveal, why reveal? maybe if you know he's hurting you take the race out very hard. your fitness is going to be affected in different ways by injury. GOing hard for 3.75 full laps instead of going hard for 200 meters might be a lot worse for him.
It would have been nice for Hocker to stand in front of a microphone and say something about his injury.
The problem with track and field is that we expect athletes to step in front of that microphone within a few minutes of the end of their event. Sure, it's not bad if they won or performed well. In other American sports, you get a little more time for the emotion to wear off before having to sit in front of media and chat about the performance. If track did that as well, you might get an answer directly from Hocker after the emotion of the situation wears off instead of expecting one as he walks away from the track in the immediacy of the event.
this is reasonable. 30 minutes of processing time can do wonders.