Cole Hocker already runs in legendary circles as one of five men to win global titles at both 1500m and 5000m — along with Paavo Nurmi, Hicham El Guerrouj, Bernard Lagat and Jakob Ingebrigtsen.
This week, he can add the 3000m to that list at the World Indoor Championships in Toruń, Poland (broadcast schedule here).
The 3000m wasn’t contested in Nurmi’s era a century ago — there were no indoor or outdoor worlds then; just the Olympics. El Guerrouj, Lagat and Ingebrigtsen all won world indoor 3000m gold.
“This is the only typical global medal up for grabs this year, so I wanted to test my hand at that,” Hocker told NBC Sports’ Paul Swangard, while noting the World Ultimate Championships coming in September, which is a new competition. “This is, in my mind, one that I really want to add to my career, hopefully a gold medal in world indoors.”
Hocker is the 2024 Olympic gold medalist at 1500m and 2025 World outdoor champion at 5000m, each time using his signature kick to overtake multiple runners in the last 200 meters.
At world indoors, he headlines one of the most anticipated events. The men’s 3000m field includes all three Olympic 1500m medalists — Hocker, Brit Josh Kerr and American Yared Nuguse — plus Geordie Beamish of New Zealand, the 2025 World outdoor champion in the 3000m steeplechase and 2024 World indoor champion in the 1500m (over Hocker).
“Pretty much from that day in Paris on, I’m expected to win every race that I’m in,” Hocker said. “And anything less than that, honestly, is a disappointment to myself and probably most people watching.”
Even with those expectations, Hocker tested himself in 2025 by stating publicly that a goal was to make the U.S. team in the 5000m for the first time, in addition to winning the world title in the 1500m.
He checked off the 5000m goal by winning the U.S. title in the event. Then at outdoor worlds last September, he was disqualified after his 1500m semifinal for jostling in the last 100 meters.
Six days later, Hocker won the 5000m — “which I thought was a long shot at the beginning of last year,” he told Swangard.
“That kind of gave me that confidence, let’s keep this rolling,” he said of pairing 1500m and 5000m titles. “I’m able to do whatever I set my mind to, I guess. I felt like that before, but it’s much easier when there’s proof of it. It’s how this indoors (season) has felt.”
Already this winter, Hocker broke the American indoor mile record by running 3:45.94 on Feb. 14 (and broke the American indoor 1500m record en route).
At the USA Track and Field Indoor Championships, he won the 3000m over Nuguse and fellow Olympian Nico Young. The next day, he was fifth in the 1500m, a testament to how strong U.S. men’s distance running has become.
Hocker values medals, particularly gold ones, over records.
“Records will be broken, medals last forever,” he said. “That stays with me. But at the same time, I think, again, if I want to be where I envisioned myself to be in this sport, you’ve got to have both.”
