Jakob “next guy” thing is overblown

I agree with your take. But I also see how Kerr could react with, “You don’t care who the ‘next guy’ is? Okay, how about I beat you again. Maybe you’ll remember then. And if you don’t care who the gold medalist is, why should anyone give af who finished behind him?”

And that is understandable for Kerr to feel that way, if he feels disrespected (whether actually true or not), if it helps fuel his inner fire.

Jakob was just being honest, in that he thinks he is the best, and is vulnerable to getting beat when not at his best, whether the victor then be Kerr, Wightman, Katir, etc.

But Kerr may think he is now the best of the rest, at least when it comes to peaking for the big race. He is for now.

One big takeaway from Jakob’s post-race interview, was how much value he places upon a World Championship, even above the Olympics. World Athletics probably loves him for that take. But for Jakob to be so open and matter-of-fact about that point makes him even more vulnerable to failure, in the eye of the public critics, if he never gets a 1500m World Championship gold.

He didn't have 'revenge' for Kerr in his heart, eh? Maybe he had lust for Kerr in his heart?

That was the one segment of the interview where he was just talking more than making sense. Jakob seemed intent on digging at the Olympics as a spectacle and celebration more than track specific. Lots of young athletes do that. Rory McIlroy called out some Olympic sports as not mattering. He wouldn't do that today.

And there's no chance Jakob would trade that Olympic gold for either Eugene or Budapest. Not if it were an actual option instead of a blabbering moment.

If he wins an Olympic 5000 he won't celebrate with a shrug.

When I watch that Olympic final Jakob looks thinner and lighter on his feet than today

I think what Jakob means is that his goal is to be the best, which means he has to beat everyone, which means that Kerr is just one of many people he needs to beat.

Jakob doesn't do it because it's fun, he does it because he wants to be the best. There's nothing more fun than winning. So come on, drink up, I'll have one with you!

Kerr was world class when ge was chubby, I don't think anyone underestimates himself.

There's language and cultural differences which may cause our perceptions of faux pas.

Jakob is compelling, what a great asset for the sport.

He has said that he "hates" training.

Maybe “the next guy” was a conscious or even sub-conscious self-affirmation that “I’m the best, and then there are all the rest.” But then again, maybe it was a petty shot, in order to try and keep Kerr from taking away any well-deserved confidence from that race.

I say the latter because I rewatched the race again, and Jakob had probably already rewatched the video by the time of the interview. It was the definitive way Kerr took-the-bull-by-the-horns, unloading his canisters, running all the way on Jakob’s outside shoulder on the final turn, and then continuing to definitely separate down the home straight.

He soundly trounced Jakob in that race, going away, and Jakob knows it.

Jakob is confident, not arrogant. There's a difference.

But consider the possibility that the way that race played out changed something in his mind: Jakob was confident, but now he actually does realize that Kerr was more than “just the next guy”, but rather one of the very few faster anaerobic guys that can take him down if he is forced to be the pacesetter without pace lights.

I think the way Kerr won was a greater display of strength than Wightman’s WC race. Wightman jumped quick enough at the opportune time, to get just a bit of separation at the beginning of the turn, so that he could then run on the rail and control the race from there. This time, Jakob was quite anticipating that, and unloaded when Kerr came around, so that Kerr has to run outside the whole turn. It was mano-mano, chips-all-in, and Kerr crushed him.

For sure, Kerr looked lighter.

Of course it is.

The number one reason? In our beautiful "everyone should speak perfect nuanced English arrogance" little world, there is a complete lack of awareness that sometimes the ways things are spoken and meant in other languages doesn't directly translate to our language.

I worked in Germany for 5 years and used to double take all the time as Germans (even really good English speakers) would make direct translations or interpretations to English that sounded too blunt or even crude - but then I realized it's a definite lost in translation situation.

Yes for a native English speaker what Jakob says sounds disrespectful. For him, always coming from Norwegian and running through an "on-the-fly" translation, I highly doubt that's intentional. Basically we need to remember that the English language isn't the only language on the planet and it's also not the base language that all other languages are based/translated from.

So right now, Josh Kerr getting all butt-hurt and resulting to his little social media jabs just look ridiculous on two levels - 1) because it's childish anyway and 2) shows a lack of awareness of the above.

This is why many ESL athletes in sports like baseball will often use a translator even if they speak perfectly good English. It's so easy to make a minor error of nuance and have that blown way out of proportion.

It usually looks lighter and easier when the person wins.

Amazes me how fast Kincaid is with his form. Grant might have the most efficient looking stride out there. So smooth.