2024-08-07 20:15:02
It was a riveting, edge-of-your seat showdown at the Stade de France, under perfect racing conditions, on Tuesday night in Paris. It was arguably the greatest U.S. Olympic 1500m final, since American runners swept the medals way back when at the Olympic Games St. Louis 1904.
Nuguse – who missed competing at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, sidelined by injury – expressed his elation.
“It’s so amazing – I really wanted this race to be a really fun and exciting experience, so to have that and to share it with Cole is so huge for American distance running,” Nuguse said.
“We know how deep the 1500 is now, but we really believed in ourselves and to come away with it with Cole is so crazy. That finish was like peak, peak fun.”.
Team USA wasn’t too far off a gold, silver and bronze medals sweep as 21-year-old Hobbs Kessler surged to fifth place, in a personal best time of 3:29.45, just 1.80 seconds behind the gold medalist Hocker.
The pair of 1,500m medals by Hocker and Nuguse on the Stade de France purple track – along with Grant Fisher’s bronze medal in the men’s 10,000m – are quickly thrusting U.S. distance running into the worldwide spotlight. Perhaps they’re even giving the dominant U.S. sprinters a run for their money, on a night in which Gabby Thomas blazed to gold in the women’s 200m.
Nuguse was lightly kidded, albeit complimented by Team USA, about chasing the U.S. Track and Field team’s sprinting superstars medal count.
“I don’t think we’ll ever really overtake them, but we’re holding our own, holding our weight, “Nuguse said, with a laugh. “I think a gold medal in the 1500 is huge and I’m loving contributing to the overall medal count.”
Suffice to say, Hocker won’t ever be considered a pre-race underdog again.
“I wanted to show people what I’m capable of,” he said. “I just kept on hammering. I had another gear.”
He certainly did.
