Naturally, Cole Hocker wants to follow his 2024 Olympic gold medal by taking the world title this September, but that’s not his only goal this summer.
Hocker, who last Aug. 6 became the second American in the last 116 years to win an Olympic 1500m, was asked what would make 2025 a success.
“World champion,” he said without hesitation. “That’s, without a doubt, the goal. To go back to back in what I think is one of the most competitive eras that the 1500m has ever seen, that would make it a success without a doubt. Obviously, fast times are always in the cards, and I want to run fast, but most importantly, I want to win.”
Beyond winning, the 23-year-old has sights set on another event.
“Also making the U.S. team in the 5k alongside the 1500m, I think that would be a huge step in the right direction for my career,” said Hocker, who was seventh in the Olympic Trials 5000m in his fifth total race of that meet.
No American man or woman has competed in both the 1500m and 5000m at an Olympics or World Championships since Bernard Lagat, who won both events at the 2007 Worlds (the only U.S. man to win a world 1500m title) and took silver and bronze in 2009. Others since made the team in both events but opted to focus on one.
To make his double happen, Hocker will most likely have to place in the top three in both events at the USA Track and Field Outdoor Championships from July 31-Aug. 3 at his old college home in Eugene, Oregon. Unlike Olympic Trials, he would only have to race three times at nationals.
In the 1500m, the U.S. has developed depth over the last few years, just as the world has. At nationals, Hocker must deal with Olympic bronze medalist Yared Nuguse, Hobbs Kessler (fifth in Paris) and possibly emerging talents like Jonah Koech, who won a Diamond League race last week. Koech, though, could focus on the 800m.
In the 5000m, Olympic bronze medalist Grant Fisher was the lone American to finish in the top eight at either the 2023 Worlds or the Paris Games.
Hocker, who trains under Virginia Tech coach Ben Thomas, will be race tested like never before thanks to the new Grand Slam Track series.
He has faced both Nuguse and Olympic silver medalist Josh Kerr of Great Britain at three meets already this season.
Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen, the Tokyo Olympic champion, hasn’t raced since March 23 while recovering from an Achilles injury.
In six total 1500m races since Paris, Hocker has finished second, third, third, third, third and second.
Hocker’s gold medal — won with a kick from third place in the last 100 meters — sits on a dresser in his room. No fancy display case.
“From what I’ve experienced and what I’ve gotten, you put feelings and emotions onto this object,” he said of the medal. “I try to detach myself from that and just let it be a mark of what a beautiful season I put together. Look at the full season as almost like a work of art. That was a perfect season for me. So I feel like the gold medal for me is just that all encapsulated into an object, but I hate to give any object too much value.”
