PARIS, France — One day after winning a gold medal in the men's 1,500-meter final at the Paris Olympics, former University of Oregon runner Cole Hocker was still trying to find a way to describe the achievement.
"I’m definitely still searching for the words to describe that moment, but every part of me knew that this was the Olympic final ... I felt the moment, I felt the magnitude of it and it was incredible," Hocker said during a news conference Wednesday.
He beat out Olympic champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen and world champion Josh Kerr.
Hocker has a reputation for being one of the world's best finishers, and he proved that in the race. The 23-year-old was in fifth place during the last 300 meters. His American teammate, Yared Nuguse, was in fourth. Norway's Ingebrigsten and Kerr of Great Britain were in the lead. During the final lap, Hocker surged into first place and crossed the finish line with a time of 3 minutes and 27.65 seconds, setting a new Olympic record.
"At 20 meters to go, I feel like I knew I had gold and (it was) just insane," Hocker said at the news conference. "I feel like I’ve lived that scenario a lot of times in real life and racing people and trying to kick people down, and this time just happen to be the Olympic final, which I’m still trying to figure out how to comprehend that."
Kerr won silver and Nuguse won bronze, with Ingebrigsten finishing in fourth.
"Speaking personally, it can be nice to fly under the radar as much as I can in the Olympics, and so I think most people that were in the race knew that I was a competitor, and same with Yared," Hocker said at the news conference. "It was another thing not to have all that noise so I feel like I took advantage of it."
Hocker and Nuguse's medal wins marked the first time in 112 years since Team USA has had two athletes on the podium in the men's 1,500-meter. The pair spoke to TODAY'S Craig Melvin on Wednesday about making history.
"It really does feel like an historic moment just because, I think coming into the Olympics, I’ve had a lot of dreams of my own, but just to have another Team USA teammate there with me to kind of make that whole experience just so much more fun," Nuguse said in the interview with TODAY.
Hocker told Melvin that he would have been happy with a medal of any color, but that he was going to go for gold.
"I think it surprised a lot of people, but I think American track fans were not surprised to see two Americans on the podium," he told Melvin.