Cole Hocker — Gold medals and golden streets

The Paris Olympics

Middle distance runner Cole Hocker became the surprise 1500 metres gold medallist at the 2024 Paris Olympics, winning the race in a new Olympic record time of 3:27:65.

Although Cole is one of the top 1500m runners in the world, he is a relative newcomer who was not expected to gain the world’s most coveted trophy in Paris amongst stiff competition. 

The men’s 1500m final was expected to be a battle between two well known and highly experienced athletes, Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Great Britain’s Josh Kerr. The 1500m race is highly tactical, with the runners jockeying for position before a fast final lap. The one who can sprint the fastest in the last few metres wins the race.  

However, surprisingly, Ingebrigtsen took off at world-record pace to lead from the front, challenging the field to keep up with him. An athlete of great stamina, Ingebrigtsen planned to run hard to spread out the competitors so that he could sprint for the gold in the home straight. He held the lead for most of the 3.75 laps and commentators thought that he had run the legs off the other competitors. Then, suddenly, in the last 100 meters, the twenty three year-old American drew alongside Ingebrigsten and Kerr. It was an all-out sprint for the last few meters, but Hocker nudged ahead to win by just 0.14 of a second. His time of 3:27.65 (3 minutes 27.65 seconds) was a new Olympic record and exceeded his previous personal best time by nearly three seconds. Britain’s Josh Kerr took the silver medal in a time of 3:27.79 and American Yard Nuguse took the bronze medal in a time of 3:27.80. Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigsten (3:28.24) came fourth and sadly failed to get a medal after doing all the hard work. 

Hocker spoke to NBC after the race,

I just saw Kerr and Ingebrigtsen just battling, kind of having their own battle. And I knew… that they were so focussed on each other. 

Initially Hocker’s line was blocked, but he found a space inside Ingebrigtsen, saying,

It just opened up. And I just let God carry me through the finish line!” 

Media Pressure

Cole added, “When it comes to pressure, all the media was about them [Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Josh Kerr] …and so I was okay with not taking the brunt of [that] pressure. 

But he is now aware of how that pressure can affect top athletes as they prepare for important events. Looking towards the 2028 Olympics, which will be on ‘home ground’ for him in Los Angeles, he laughed, 

I’m sure that’s going to change now! 

Background

Cole Hocker was born in June 2001 in Indianapolis, USA. He showed exceptional athletic talent in his teenage years and won several high-level competitions including the Foot Locker Cross Country Championships in 2018, and four NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) titles in 2019. In 2021 he chose to forgo his remaining NCAA eligibility in order to run professionally. He was to be sponsored by Nike.

He specialises in middle distance distances and runs the 800m, 1500m, Mile, 3000m and 5,000m events. All athletes train to reach peak performance for the major events, and Cole trained perfectly in 2024 to reach peak form for the Paris Olympic Games. Five months earlier he won a silver medal in the 1500m event at the 2024 World Athletics Indoor Championships in Glasgow, Scotland. 

Hocker also qualified for the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. At just nineteen, he was not quite at the peak of his career and was placed sixth in the 1500m. He also reached the final at the 2023 World Championships in Budapest, Hungary finishing in seventh place. 

Just before the Paris Olympic Games, Cole quoted a Bible passage from James Chapter 1 on his Instagram profile,

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” (James 1:1-4)

Anti-Christian Controversy

The 2024 Paris games were filled with controversy, mostly due to the four-hour opening ceremony, but also when French police arrested a team of Christian missionaries at gunpoint! The bus was emblazoned with a cross and a poster which read, “Stop attacks on Christians!” The bus was sponsored by the lobbying group CitizenGo. The seven occupants were held by police and treated in a ‘humiliating manner’. Following considerable pressure, the authorities let the team go without pressing charges. It turned out to be the most controversial Olympic Games since the 1936 games in Berlin at the height of the Nazi Third Reich where black American athlete Jesse Owens humiliated the Nazis by winning four gold medals. Owens was also well known for his devout Christian faith, kneeling in prayer before every race. 

The most controversial scene in the Paris opening ceremony was described by The Daily Mail as a “woke Last Supper parody”. It was based on Leonardo Da Vinci’s 1498 painting ‘The Last Supper’. The scene used transexual and drag-queen actors and dancers to depict the final time Jesus took communion with his disciples before he was crucified. It was obviously going to offend church-going Christians in particular, but it resulted in outrage from many who would not even consider themselves to be Christian. The organising committee was forced to apologise to Christians in general and specifically to the French Catholic Church. Although they claimed the similarity was accidental, it was obvious to critics that it was deliberate and the committee received considerable condemnation from the media. The French Catholic Church was appalled at what they described as the “derision and mockery of Christianity.

“I’m not ashamed” 

The mockery of Christianity backfired on organisers and actors alike. The Paris Olympics contained a large number of openly Christian competitors who were emboldened by the derision of their faith in the opening ceremony. 28 athletes across 13 events openly declared their Christian beliefs and gave thanks to God for the opportunity of competing. 

Cole Hocker was one of them. Hocker said, 

I’m not ashamed of the gospel — that’s what my Bible tells me. I’m going to proclaim my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ wherever I want to, 

Talking of his magnificent win at the Olympics he said,

I just let God carry me through the finish line.

Gold medals and golden streets

Cole Hocker joins a plethora of Olympic champions like Eric Liddell and Jesse Owens who will have something far better than their medals when they walk the streets of gold in heaven. 

In the book of Revelation, chapter 21, the Bible describes the heavenly city of the New Jerusalem as being made of precious stones and precious metals;

“The wall was made of jasper, and the city of pure gold, as pure as glass. (verse 18)

“The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl. The great street of the city was of gold, as pure as transparent glass.” (Verse 21)

 

Story by Ralph Burden

 

Photo: Cole Hocker winning the 1500m at the 2024 USA Indoor Track and Field Championships

Photo attribution: Public Domain

Pin It

Related Posts

Comments are closed.

« »

Scroll to top