Surprise Olympic champion Cole Hocker revels in flying under the radar: "I'm sure that's going to change now"

The headline after the race said it all.

"USA's Cole Hocker storms to shock men's 1500m gold" was how Olympics.com alerted the world that, despite all the pre-race talk being on the rivalry between Norway's Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Great Britain's Josh Kerr, an unassuming 23-year-old American, Cole Hocker, had stolen the show at Paris 2024 in the men's 1500m final.

Ingebrigtsen and Kerr's rivalry had been building since Tokyo 2020, when the Norwegian won gold and the Briton bronze; then last year the latter surged past Ingebrigtsen to win world championships gold with the two dominating headlines in the event leading up to the final as the favourites to take gold.

Since then, almost all the coverage on this event was on those two; the main question, which of them would do it, and how quickly? Ultimately, it was to be neither of them.

"I like to be in the conversation of course," Hocker told Olympics.com in the days after he answered the second part of the question – the winning time would be a new Olympic record 3:27.65.

"But when it comes to pressure, all the media was about them two, it seemed like. And so I was okay with not kind of [taking the brunt of] that pressure that they had to, probably."

Ultimately, that allowed him to fly under the radar as Ingebrigtsen faded in the final metres of the Olympic final. With Kerr forced wide trying to cover Ingebrigtsen's threat, Hocker could sail past down the inside to the line, with fellow American Yared Nuguse finishing third behind Kerr.

The subsequent attention for his surprise victory, plus the fact that the next Olympic Games athletics meet will be on home turf at the hallowed Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in 2028, means Hocker is now very aware of what is coming his way – that media pressure Ingebrigtsen and Kerr experienced before Paris.

"I'm sure that's going to change now," he laughed.

A new 1500m star is born with eyes on a special prize at home

The hard work in track and field never ends, of course, and Hocker is already a two-time Olympian at only 23 with a whole career still ahead of him.

There is a World Championships in Tokyo to look forward to next year – a return to the stadium in which he finished sixth at the Olympic Games in 2021. Then another World Championships follow in 2027, before the next Olympics at the Coliseum at LA28 on home soil.

Hocker's first Olympic experience was in front of an empty stadium, and being in Paris – a world of difference – has him excited about entering this new Olympic cycle.

"Just hearing the French fans (cheer) for the French athletes here has been insane," he said. "So I can only imagine how the USA would react, especially with track and field where USA is so dominant in that and just being a part of that would be incredible.

"Especially in an event like the 1500 where not a lot of Americans have collected medals in that event historically. I'm 23, so I'll be 27 by the LA Games and that's the prime age of the middle-distance runner."

But four years is a long time, and Hocker is just living in the moment – his moment – for a little while longer.

"Of course every Olympics you have to take like you'll never get this opportunity again, and that's exactly what I did here.

"You know, I kind of looked at it as the opportunity to race really well and try to medal. I raced to win gold and I'm so proud of that."