The men’s 1500 meters at the Paris Olympics was billed as a highly anticipated head-to-head between reigning Olympic champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen of Norway and world champion Josh Kerr of Great Britain. Their rivalry has developed into something more bitter than your typical track rivalry, and they were the two favorites for gold in one of the deepest fields ever assembled.
Not only did neither one of them win the gold, Ingebrigtsen didn’t even make the podium.
In one of the biggest upsets of the competition, Team USA’s Cole Hocker ran an Olympic record 3:27.65 to edge past Kerr to win the 1500m title. The 23-year-old Hocker was outside of the medals with one lap to go, and with less than 100 meters to run he was in a bronze medal position. After initially being shut off by Ingebrigtsen, Hocker found the daylight on the inside rail to move past the Norwegian. With Kerr in the lead on the outside, Hocker outsprinted Kerr in a furious finish for a famous gold medal.
American Yared Nuguse’s own remarkable late charge on the outside saw him push Ingebrigtsen out of the medals and grab bronze in his first Olympics appearance.
Ingebrigtsen made the tactical decision to front run and stretch the field out as soon as possible. At 800 meters, they were threatening world record pace at a torrid 1:51. It was a pace that Ingebrigtsen ultimately could not maintain heading into the homestretch.
Cole Hocker was a college star
Hocker ran at the University of Oregon for three seasons, winning NCAA titles in the indoor mile and 3000 meters, as well as the outdoor 1500 meters. Instead of coming back for a senior season, he turned professional and signed a contract with Nike.
His first Olympics appearance in Tokyo ended in a personal best 3:31.40 for a 6th place finish. At last year’s World Outdoor Championships in Budapest he again reached the final and was 7th. Hocker captured his first global medal at the World Indoor Championships in Scotland this past March, earning a silver behind New Zealand’s Geordie Beamish.
Hocker entered the Paris Olympics as a medal contender, but not to win the gold.
Historic night for American middle distance running
This has traditionally been a race where the Americans have struggled for medals. This year marks the first time since 1912 the US has put at least two on the 1500m podium. The 21-year-old Hobbs Kessler ran a personal best 3.29:45 for a very respectable 5th place finish, establishing himself as one to watch as a medal contender for years to come.
Hocker, who won the American trials over Nuguse, is only the fourth American (man or woman) to win Olympic gold in the 1500m. The last American champion was Matthew Centrowitz in 2016, and preceding him was Mel Shepherd way back in 1908. Hocker is now the second-fastest American in history and the seventh-fastest all-time. Nuguse was the previous second-fastest American, but his personal best moves him into the all-time global top 10.
More disappointment for Jakob Ingebrigtsen
For the third year in a row, Ingebrigtsen has suffered a bitter defeat as the gold medal favorite. He lost to Great Britain’s Jake Wightman in the 2022 World Championships in Oregon, followed by Josh Kerr at last year’s Worlds in Hungary, but in those losses he still picked up a silver. This is the first time Ingebrigtsen has not medaled in a major championship race since he was 4th in the 2019 World Championships at 1500m and 5th in the 5000m, when he was just 19 years old.
Ingebrigtsen was a precocious talent at just 16 years old, when he was the youngest in history to run a sub-4-minute mile. He captured Olympic gold over Kenya’s Timothy Cheriuyot and Josh Kerr in Tokyo, but it remains his only gold in either the Olympics or Worlds in this event. Ingebrigtsen still has another shot a gold in the 5,000 meters, where he’s the two-time world champion and considerable favorite.
But the night belongs to Cole Hocker, who tore up the Ingebrigtsen vs. Kerr script and pulled off one of the greatest results in American track and field history.
