Cole Hocker Runs 3:27.65 to Win Epic 2024 Olympic 1500m Final

PARIS – With 130 meters left in the race of his life on Tuesday night, two men stood between Cole Hocker and the Olympic 1500-meter gold medal. Their identities were no surprise: world champion Josh Kerr and Olympic champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen, the two men around whom the event has revolved for the last 12 months. But this was no hypothetical scenario. This was the Olympic final, bell lap, 77,000 fans in the Stade de France losing their minds.

To that point, Hocker had run a tactically perfect race. He had responded to the right moves, never letting the race get away from him, and had run efficiently, never leaving the rail except to pass. Just a few seconds earlier, he had seen his window for gold open up as Ingebrigtsen drifted to the outside of lane one to fend off a charging Kerr.

But before Hocker could make the pass, Ingebrigtsen came back inside and shut the window. Hocker was right there and full of run, but physically blocked by Ingebrigtsen in front of him and Kerr to his right. Hocker has a knack for finding his way out of the tightest boxes, but now he had to hit the brakes and quickly reassess: do I bounce outside, or do I stay here and hope the rail opens back up?

Speaking to reporters in the mixed zone two hours after the race, Hocker still could not remember the choice he made. 

“Did the rail open up?” Hocker said. “I honestly did not remember. I just feel like it was instinct, evidently.”

If it was instinct, it was a good instinct. The rail did indeed open up with 80 meters to go, allowing Hocker the space to launch a kick that took him past Ingebrigtsen and Kerr and will now live alongside the likes of Billy Mills and Dave Wottle in the pantheon of American distance running. Cole Hocker is your 2024 Olympic 1500-meter champion.

(More: LRC Analysis:What happened to Jakob Ingebgrigtsen? Ingebrigtsen didn’t run a bad race tonight, he just got beat by 3 men who were better)

But he is so much more than that. Hocker is the winner of the most-anticipated Olympic 1500 final in more than four decades, which he achieved by slaying Ingebrigtsen and Kerr, two giants of the sport. Hocker is the new Olympic record holder thanks to his winning time of 3:27.65, a personal best by almost three seconds in a race where three men broke 3:28 for the first time in history. 

And Hocker is part of one of the greatest nights in the history of American distance running. Just behind him, Yared Nuguse claimed the bronze in 3:27.80 and 21-year-old Hobbs Kessler took 5th in 3:29.45, personal bests for both men, with both Hocker and Nuguse obliterating Nuguse’s previous American record* of 3:29.02. It represented the first time in 112 years that two Americans had medalled in the same Olympic 1500m race. And after waiting 108 years for a gold medal in this event before Matthew Centrowitz’s gold in Rio, the USA is now home to two of the last three Olympic champions.

“Greatest milling country in the world right now,” Kessler said.

This race was billed as Ingebrigtsen versus Kerr, and those two certainly played their roles, Ingebrigtsen setting a merciless pace from the gun and Kerr hanging right with him on the last lap as he did in last year’s World Championship final in Budapest. But this time, when it came time to settle the gold medal in the home straight, they had two Americans for company. Kerr ran brilliantly but had to settle for silver in 3:27.79 with Ingebrigtsen fading from first to fourth over the final 100, finishing in 3:28.24 – under his own Olympic record from Tokyo but not enough for a medal on this night.

“My team always say that ‘because you have a big mouth and [are] the one to beat, you have everything to lose in competitions,” Ingebrigtsen wrote on Instagram after the race. “Today, Cole Hocker, Yared Nuguse and Josh Kerr outsmarted me. They were ‘the best guys’ when it really mattered. And I want to congratulate them all on a great performance!”

Ingebrigtsen goes for it from the gun

Ingebrigtsen, as expected, was determined to set a fast pace in Tuesday’s race, and unlike the last two global finals, where he waited a lap to take the lead, this time he hit the front right from the gun. He ripped his first lap in a ridiculous 54.82 seconds – a hair under world record pace, without a pacer. This put the rest of the field to an immediate decision of whether to follow, and just before 300 meters, a breakaway pack of five was already beginning to form behind Ingebrigtsen. Hocker, back in 9th place, saw what was happening and knew he could not afford to spot the leaders any ground.

“I told myself, don’t be soft,” Hocker said. “You’ve gotta go with it. You’re going to regret this for the rest of your life if you don’t go with it.”

Ingebrigtsen would back off slightly, to 56.56 for the next 400 (1:51.38 at 800), but that was still enough to start opening a gap on second-placer Brian Komen of Kenya. Ingebrigtsen caught sight of his lead on the jumbotron and doubled down, trying to hurt his rivals by picking up the pace again to run his next 200 in 27.9. 

But the man it hurt the most was Ingebrigtsen himself. No human has ever run faster than 3:29 while leading wire-to-wire without a pacer. Ingebrigtsen was trying to run 2-3 seconds faster than that in Paris. The margins for such a feat are razor-thin, and afterwards, Ingebrigtsen admitted to a couple of tactical errors. He told Norwegian media he ran the first lap two seconds too fast and regretted his surge at 800, admitting that he got a little too excited in the moment. Both moves bankrupted him for the home straight battle.

“It was just 100 meters too much today,” Ingebrigtsen said.

Ingebrigtsen left the rail as he came off the final turn, giving Hocker the opening he needed for gold. But the American still had plenty of work to do. First, Hocker had to re-engage his kick after throwing on the brakes just a few seconds earlier; a challenge for most runners, but not for Hocker, who shifts gears like a Porsche. Even then, however, he needed catch Kerr, who had already passed Ingebrigtsen on the outside before Hocker began moving past on the inside. But while Kerr may have played things perfectly to defeat Ingebrigtsen, he did not have enough to hold off Hocker. Kerr did not slow down, and he did not break form. He was simply outraced in the final 100 by a superior athlete, and while disappointed with the silver, that knowledge is what allowed Kerr to hold his head high in defeat.

“It’s the fastest I’ve ever run, the best 1500m performance that I could ask for – a British record and a second-and-a-half pb. I told you guys we were going to put a 1500 on that will hopefully go down in generations, and we did that today.”

Kerr does not have much to worry about on that point. We’ll save the debate for exactly where this ranks among the greatest middle-distance races of all time, but an upset win, epic home straight duel, and four men under the old Olympic record in one of the most-hyped 1500s ever places this on a very, very short list.

Track fans have been blessed with a series of classic 1500 finals in recent years, with Kerr’s victory in Budapest setting the stage for the drama that would unfold over the next year. And as incredible as Kerr was in Budapest, Kerr was arguably better tonight, closing just as fast for his final 200 but in a much faster race. Yet it was only good enough for silver – and barely silver. That is how good tonight’s field was. Hocker’s 39.6 final 300 in a 3:27 race is one of the greatest closes the sport has ever seen.

Final lap splits, 2023 Worlds v 2024 Olympics

Hocker backs himself en route to gold

Hocker’s talent has been evident ever since he burst onto the scene as a redshirt freshman at the University of Oregon in 2021. During that magical year, Hocker became known for a devastating change of pace in the final 100 meters, using it to win three NCAA titles, the last of them in an epic home-straight duel with Nuguse that presaged the coming new era of American miling. At the US Olympic Trials, just three weeks after his 20th birthday, Hocker used that incredible top gear to defeat reigning Olympic champion Matthew Centrowitz in an instant classic. After leveling up all year, Hocker finally met his match at the Olympics in Tokyo, but still lowered his personal best by almost four seconds to finish 6th in the final in 3:31.40, more than three seconds behind the winner, Ingebrigtsen.

The result showed Hocker the work that still lay ahead of him, but the season as a whole cemented his belief in the man he would choose to guide his career, coach Ben Thomas. When Hocker turned pro later that year, he eschewed the major pro groups to remain in Eugene under Thomas. And when Thomas relocated to Blacksburg, Virginia, last summer to take a coaching position at Virginia Tech University, Hocker moved east along with him, even buying a house nearby. That is how much he believed.

But the last two years had proved frustrating for Hocker. In 2022, a stress reaction in his foot meant he did not even make it out of the first round at the US championships. Last year, he missed time due to an Achilles injury early in the year but made it to Worlds and finished 7th in the final in a personal best of 3:30.70. But just as in Tokyo two years earlier, Hocker did not feel he was truly in the race – not the real race, for the gold medal. Hocker had the blistering kick needed to win a global title. He still lacked the strength to put himself in position to use it.

So that is what he set about fixing in 2024. He trained more like a 5,000-meter runner. He tried training at altitude in Provo for the first time as a pro. Most importantly, he was healthy the entire year.

Hocker showed the progress he had made at the US Olympic Trials in June, where he upset reigning US champ Nuguse while running a US championship record of 3:30.59. That final kick from his Oregon days? It was there.

Would it be there in an even faster race at the Olympics? That was the question heading into Paris.

“I hadn’t proved that physically yet,” Hocker said. “I feel like I had been doing the workouts to back that up. I knew I was stronger than I’ve ever been.” 

But Hocker wasn’t looking at the clock tonight. With a gold medal on the line, he did what he has always done, from NCAAs, to the Trials, and now to the grandest stage in all of running: he reached down for his kick. It did not fail him.

“I wasn’t thinking with 150 to go that I’m going to run a fast time,” Hocker said. “I was thinking, I’m going to win.”

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Quick Takes By LetsRun.com

These quick takes were written by LetsRun.com’s Robert Johnson and LetsRun.com intern Joseph Carroll

Ingebrigtsen took the high road after this one

Fuel was thrown onto the Kerr-Ingebrigtsen rivalry last year after Worlds when Kerr thought Ingebrigtsen wasn’t magnamious in defeat. Tonight, Ingebrigtsen quickly posted a lengthy post on Instagram praising his competitors that started, “Well, I guess he did show up after all…! Hocker and Nuguse as well.”

See the full post below.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Jakob A. Ingebrigtsen (@jakobing)

Josh Kerr ran the “best 1500 m performance that he could ask for”

Kerr knew that Jakob would try and drag the field out into “deep water” early, but he stuck to his game plan and stayed a bit back of the pace. Kerr thinks that he had a lot of running left in the last 500, but that the last 100 came “a little bit slow” and says that he made a few mistakes throughout the race. With 50 to go he knew he needed a strong close to even stay in medal contention. Kerr would lose out on the gold medal race to Hocker who he called “the better man today” but would still run just strong enough the final 50 to hold off a hard-charging Yared Nuguse by .01. He said that he could feel Hocker coming the final 50, and was still happy to get the silver, as it was still a four-man race. Kerr said that he has been going after Mo Farah’s British record for some time now and that it was one of the things he was proud about in regards to today’s race. He thinks today’s Olympic record will stay for a long time. Kerr said he tried to run the best race he could without focusing on the rest of the field and gave a ton of credit to his support system for the result. Kerr also gave a ton of props to the field and said that he knew an American would medal going in and called the 1500 “the healthiest the 1500 has looked in a long time.”

The Americans are back and better than ever 

The last time an American man medaled in a mid-d or distance event at a global championship was back at the Tokyo Olympics where Paul Chelimo got third in the 5k. Now just two distance events into the Paris Games, the Americans have three medals, including a gold medal in the men’s 1500, the premier distance event in the world right now. The Americans just went 1-3-5 in one of the most anticipated and deepest Olympic finals in history. The first time in over 100 years, all the way back in 1912, that the U.S. had multiple medalists in the 1500. And in 1912 there were zero restrictions on entries per country and the U.S had 7 of the 14 finalists in the race.

The ages of the three Americans in this race? 23-25-21. It is a new era for American distance running and it’s looking extremely bright. In 2016 the American men got five medals from 800 to the marathon. Now they will have three events to match that feat. 

Hobbs Kessler stuck to his race plan and got rewarded

Kessler wanted to sit on the rail and relax and that’s exactly what he did. He beat himself up for letting a gap form between him and the front group, but he executed an amazing race. After dropping out of the race at Pre Classic, Kessler was absolutely ripped for not competing and being soft. Kessler’s tactics have drawn scrutiny in the past, but on the biggest stages in 2024, Kessler’s tactics have been pristine. Kessler said that the 5th-place finish was bittersweet as he would have been thrilled with 5th place if you told him before the Games, but it was tough seeing the medals so close to him.

Kessler commented on Jakob dragging the pace out saying ”I mean, it just goes to show like Jakob is probably the fittest athlete we’ve seen since El Guerrouj. But it just goes to show how hard it is running from the front like that. Timothy Cheruiyot was able to do in 2019. He kind of jumped everyone, no one was ready for it, that kind of specific tactic has not been successful since so I don’t know what, yeah, only Jakob knows what he could have done better but I don’t know it made for an amazing race. Very tight. One for history. So super proud to be a part of it.” Kessler wants to process his emotions about the race later, as he has a brutal turn around, round one of the 800 in just 12 hours. Kessler now wants to make the final in the 800 and put himself in the best spot to medal. 

Coach Dathan Ritzenhein discusses Nuguse’s bronze

Nuguse’s bronze was the first-ever outdoor medal for the On Athletics Club, who had not been enjoying a great meet to this point. Ritzenhein said they had discussed Nuguse taking the lead at certain points if the pace lagged, but that never became necessary.

Talk about the race on our world-famnous fan forum / messageboard:

• COLE MF HOCKER!!!!!!!
• Olympics Aug 6 Evening Session Live Thread
• Slow Race – Jakob gets outkicked; Fast Race – Jakob gets outkicked
• How does a 3.30 guy outkick a 3.26 guy in a 3.27 race?
• Jakob won’t medal in the 1500m at the Olympics What a prediction!
• Hocker is the best US 1500 runner of all time
• Hocker tries to pass Jakob, gets cut off, Jakob moves slightly outside to try to move Kerr, gives Hocker room to pass for the W!
• LetsRun Crashed!! We had to turn on a queue for about one minute to “let the server breathe.”
• Kerr only lost to Hocker because Jakob cut Kerr off in the final 100m…
• Today Cole Hocker becomes a 3:27 man
• 2 hours until the greatest race of our lifetime

(More: LRC Analysis:What happened to Jakob Ingebgrigtsen? Ingebrigtsen didn’t run a bad race tonight, he just got beat by 3 men who were better)

 *USATF recognizes Bernard Lagat’s 3:27.40 from 2004 as the American record because he was an American citizen at the time. But because Lagat was representing Kenya at the time – he did not switch his competitive allegiance to the US until 2005 – LetsRun.com recognizes Hocker’s mark tonight as the American record.