SAINT-DENIS, France -- One race ended with a shocker; the other was pure dominance.
American Cole Hocker pulled the upset of the Olympic track meet Tuesday night, outracing favorites Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Josh Kerr to the finish line for the gold medal in the 1,500 meters.
A short while later, American Gabby Thomas dominated the women's 200 meters, finishing in 21.83 seconds to add a gold to the bronze she took home in the event from Tokyo three years ago.
Hocker won the 1,500 meters in an Olympic-record 3 minutes, 27.65 seconds, pulling from fifth to first over the final 300 meters to beat his personal best by more than 3 seconds.
He beat Kerr by .14 seconds, while Ingebrigtsen, who set the pace through the first 1,200 meters, ended up in fourth in a time faster than his Olympic record set in Tokyo.
American Yared Nuguse also set a personal best to win the bronze.
"This may be an upset to a lot of people, but if you've been following my season, you knew I was capable of it," Hocker said. "But still, things had to go my way today."
It was the first U.S. win in the metric mile since Matt Centrowitz took gold in 2016. This is the first time Americans put two men on the 1,500-meter podium since the Stockholm Games in 1912.
The race had been billed as a showdown between Ingebrigtsen and Kerr, with the Norwegian setting a hot pace as he led coming into the last 200.
Ingebrigtsen darted to the front quickly in this and ran there for the first 3½ laps, while Kerr traded between second and third, getting ready for his typical windup and a potential slingshot past Ingebrigtsen over the closing stretch, much the way he did last year.
While that was playing out, Hocker, at 5-foot-9½ and more than 3½ inches shorter than the top two contenders, almost looked as if he was trying to photobomb the end of this race.
He snuck up on the inside once, only to have Ingebrigtsen block that move. He then tried again with about 50 meters left, passed them both and crossed the line with his arms outstretched and a look of disbelief on his face before thumping his chest twice to celebrate a win hardly anyone saw coming.
"I kind of figured it would be fast," Hocker said. "I figured Ingebrigtsen would want to take it out of guys like me. But I knew I hadn't been tested at this level yet, and I knew I was capable of being as strong as any of those guys out there."
Hocker, a 23-year-old out of the University of Oregon, was listed at as much as a 30-1 long shot for this race.
In the women's 200, Thomas got off to a quick start, took the lead for good at the curve and was never challenged in the final stretch.
The 27-year-old Harvard graduate, who has a master's in public health, grabbed her head with both hands after winning.
Thomas beat 100-meter champion Julien Alfred by 0.25 seconds, and Brittany Brown of the U.S. got the bronze.
Thomas entered as the favorite, especially after reigning world champion Shericka Jackson of Jamaica dropped out with an apparent injury.
Out of three sprints so far on the purple track at Stade de France, the Americans have picked up two golds: Thomas followed Noah Lyles in the men's 100 to the top step of the podium.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
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