Takeaways from the Olympic 1500
The post below was written in the days following the 2024 Men’s Olympic 1500 meter final. I am sharing it here on as I launch this website. I hope to include more essays like this one, moving forward.
WOW. What a race. The most exciting 1500 meters I’ve ever watched in my 30+ years as a fan of this sport. That fan in me was pulling for Cole Hocker, not only because I picked him to win, but because the coach in me loved how he and Ben Thomas prepared to be ready for that one race...on that one day. To be fair though, I have that same thought about all of the top five finishers. It’s one of my major takeaways from the race; to perform at your best, at the very highest level, on the very biggest stage, takes an incredibly calculated approach.
All of those calculations were set it in motion three years ago when one of the most prodigious talents in distance running history, Jakob Ingebrigsten, took the lead with just under 400 meters to go, ratcheted down the pace, and eventually won the gold medal in Tokyo. It was a jaw-dropping performance. Third in that race? A 23-year old Josh Kerr. Sixth in that race? A 20-year-old Cole Hocker. Watching from the sidelines was an injured Yared Nuguse (22), and watching from home was 18-year-old Hobbs Kessler.
It was that moment in Tokyo that confirmed what many already knew—that Ingebrigsten and his “crazy” training methods were working. And so...the preparation began. Over the next three years, runners and coaches all over the world began experimenting with “double thresholds” and lactate testing and athletes like Hocker and Kerr began working on what it was going to take, for them, to close off a fast pace and take down the Norwegian.
“All roads lead to Rome.” In the end, it wasn’t exactly imitating Ingebrigsten, and his training, and his race choices, that put those that eventually got the job done in the best position to do so. Hocker, Kerr, and Nuguse all took different paths...their paths. Hocker stuck with Thomas—the coach who had guided him to an NCAA title as a freshman, eventually following him to Blacksburg, Virginia when Thomas took the job at Virginia Tech. Kerr and his coach, Danny Mackey, continued tweaking the formula that had produced a bronze medal. Nuguse, after graduating from Notre Dame, joined the On Athletics Club in Boulder, Colorado under the tutelage of Dathan Ritzenhein. And Kessler stayed with legendary coach Rob Warhurst, the man Kessler and his parents had chosen to guide him after he went pro straight out of high school.
So there were plenty of differences in how they prepared. Different cities. Different altitudes. Different coaches and no doubt different workouts. But the commonality was the singular focus...on being as strong as possible, and as fast as possible, on August 5, 2024. And the belief that they would be. That’s what it takes to produce the performances that these five athletes gave us on Monday night. And I can tell you that sort of focus is not easy. It’s not easy to believe in every workout. It’s not easy to understand why you have to be so selective with your races (they all sound fun). And it’s not easy to go to bed on time every night, and eat well, and get all of your lifts in. The list goes on and on. But when you do all those things, day after day, week after week, year after year a belief becomes instilled in you...deep inside of you. And that belief is what allows you to make split-second decisions with conviction. In this case, it was what allowed Ingebrigsten to set a world-record pace and what allowed Kerr, Hocker, Nuguse and Kessler to follow him. And then ultimately, it was what allowed Hocker—with his entire body no doubt screaming in pain—to kick past Ingebrigsten and into the annals of Olympic history.
Find your path. Take a calculated approach. Believe.
WATCH THE RACE HERE