The lips don’t lie, even if you can’t hear his words above the din of the Stade de France.
Cole Hocker’s dad, Kyle, was as stunned as everyone else at the Paris athletics stadium when his son stormed to victory for Team USA in the Olympic 1500m.
“What the f---!” he screamed, the family celebrations captured in a viral video clip.
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And who can blame him? Tuesday’s big final wasn’t meant to end like this—it was meant to be a two-horse race, between the Norwegian phenom Jakob Ingebrigtsen, Olympic champion in Tokyo three years ago, and his great British rival, Josh Kerr.
The two men have been trash-talking each other for ages—especially after Kerr kicked past Ingebrigtsen to take the world title last year—and everyone else bought into the hype. Sebastian Coe, the World Athletics chief who was double Olympic champion over the distance, predicted a “race for the ages.”
He was right, although for the wrong reasons.
Determined not to fall foul of Kerr’s last-lap kick, Ingebrigtsen went out as hard as he dared and maintained a fearsome pace. Kerr kept up but didn’t try to take him on until the final lap.
Hocker, 23, was running smoothly in fifth, at the bell, in contention for bronze.
But the young Indianan is the epitome of “fast-improving runner” and sped up to join the leaders in the final 1oo meters. As they powered up the straight, it was becoming clear to the crowd that there were now three people in this race, although Ingebritsen was still focusing on Kerr, veering to the right to block him off.
That gave Hocker his chance. He sprinted through on the inside for what must rank as the biggest upset on the Paris Olympic track. Ingebrigtsen faded away for fourth, while Kerr just hung on for silver over fast-finishing American Yared Nuguse.
Hocker had run the final 300m in an improbable 39.3 seconds, the final 100 in 13.0. His finishing time, a new Olympic record of 3:27.65, was almost three seconds faster than his pre-Olympic personal best.
“The headlines were about them and rightfully so. It’s the Olympic champion and world champion, and everyone knows the caliber of athletes they are,” Hocker said after the race.
“The headlines made sense and speaking personally, it can be nice to fly under the radar as much as I can in the Olympics. Most people in the race knew I was a competitor, but it was another thing not to have all that noise, so I feel like I took advantage of it.”
“Winning gold was my goal this entire year,” he added. “I wrote that down and I repeated it to myself, even if I didn’t believe it.”
His dad clearly didn’t believe it either.
