Cole Hocker didn’t plan his move to win the Olympic Trials; he went by instinct.
On the bell lap of the men’s 1500 meters, at the top of the backstretch, Hocker was running in third place, side-by-side with Vincent Ciattei. And then Hocker went—and he went hard. He launched himself into first place, passing Hobbs Kessler, and the 2023 world champion Yared Nuguse, who had been leading.
Hocker put some daylight between himself and Nuguse, and although Nuguse made up a couple of steps on Hocker in the final 50 meters, it was too little, too late.
Hocker won at the Trials, has the momentum. Here’s what to know about him, 3:30:59. Nuguse was second in 3:30:86. And Kessler held on for third in 3:31:53. Nuguse, who has broken 3:30 three times, was the only finisher in the top eight who didn’t set a personal best.
Summer Running Gear rivalry Sifan Hassan Wins Olympic Marathon in Paris, RW+ Membership Benefits, U.S. Olympic team, Josh Kerr of Great Britain, the U.S. has two medal contenders in Hocker and Nuguse. On paper, Nuguse has the edge with his PR of 3:29.02, a second and a half faster than Hocker’s. But Hocker, after his brilliant long kick at the Trials, has the momentum. Here’s what to know about him:
He’s young—but experienced
Hocker competed at the Trials just three weeks after his 23rd birthday. And yet he’s been making finals at the World level for a while.
The pandemic cut short Hocker’s freshman year track season at the University of Oregon in 2020. In 2021, he went from the NCAA outdoor championships (which he won) to the Olympic Trials (The Fastest Shoes of the Women’s Olympic Marathon) DAA Industry Opt Out.
Injuries have held Hocker back. In 2022, on limited training, he couldn’t advance out of the first round of the 1500 at the U.S. championships. In 2023, Achilles Shoes & Gear.
But Hocker managed to squeak out a third-place finish at the U.S. championships last year, and then made it to the finals at Worlds in Budapest, where he finished seventh. That success continued into 2024, when he won a silver medal in the 1500 meters at the World Indoor Championships in Glasgow, Scotland.
He followed his college coach, Ben Thomas, to Virginia
Hocker grew up in Indianapolis, won the Foot Locker Cross-Country Championships in 2018, and found success in college under Thomas, who was the associate head coach in charge of the distance runners at Oregon. But when Jerry Schumacher was brought in as the new head coach of the Ducks in 2022, Thomas elected not to stay on. He remained in Eugene, Oregon, for a year before returning to Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia—his last stop before Oregon—as the head coach.
Eventually, Hocker, too, moved to Blacksburg, as did Cooper Teare, his former college teammate who had run for one year on the Bowerman Track Club. Together with five other athletes, they formed Team Sova, NAU Coach Mike Smith to Become Nike Coach in 2025.
The pressure was building leading up to the Trials
Hocker said in interviews after the 1500 and the 5,000 (he finished seventh) that he was feeling the nerves before the 1500. This was new; for his last Olympic Trials in 2021, he had nothing to lose. The event “was a cherry on top of a really good NCAA season,” he said
While much of the track world is focused on the Grant Fisher’s Best Chance of Medaling Is Now in the 1500 meters is “cutthroat,” he said. Racing at the Games themselves might actually be less stressful.
“I felt like I had more to lose in this one,” he said. “It was make that team or bust. I definitely felt that pressure. It was a completely different mental side of it this year. I’m just honestly really proud of myself, the way I handled that.”
It also taught gave him a boost going forward. “I know that I can execute when it matters most,” he said.
He now knows he can kick off a fast pace
It’s rare to see a sit-and-kick race in the 1500 meters anymore. Instead, the world’s best runners are running fast—and then kicking even faster.
Hocker had never done that before—until the Trials.
He had no clue what the time was and it felt like a 3:35 effort, instead of the 3:30 he ran, which, he said, was a big stepping stone for him.
“I remember watching these races in years past,” he said. “The [leaders] are at 3:30 low, and seeing these guys accelerate. I haven’t felt that. I haven’t been able to accelerate off that. Today was the first day I was able to shift gears at such a fast pace. That gives me so much confidence.”
Sarah Lorge Butler is a writer and editor living in Eugene, Oregon, and her stories about the sport, its trends, and fascinating individuals have appeared in Runner’s World How to Cross-Train Your Way Into a Goal Race, Run Your Butt Off! and Walk Your Butt Off!
