Cole Hocker, of the United States, celebrates after winning the men’s 1500-meter final at the 2024 Summer Olympics on Tuesday in Saint-Denis, France. Petr Davis Josek/Associated Press

SAINT-DENIS, France — American Cole Hocker pulled the upset of the Olympics on Tuesday night, beating his personal-best time by more than 3 seconds to outrace favorites Jakob Ingebrigsten and Josh Kerr for the title at 1,500 meters.

Hocker won the race in an Olympic record 3 minutes 27.65 seconds, pulling from fifth to first over the final 300 meters to take down the two runners whose rivalry dominated the buildup to the much-anticipated race.

Hocker, a 23-year-old product of University of Oregon, was listed as much as a 30-1 long shot for this race. He beat Kerr by .14 seconds, while Ingebrigsten, who set the pace through the first 1,250 meters, ended up in fourth behind American Yared Nuguse.

“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.

All eyes for this one were trained on Ingebrigtsen, the defending champion out of Norway who came in with a point to prove.

He’d been beaten in the last two world championships, including last year by Kerr, the Scotsman who poked at Ingebrigtsen, saying Ingebrigsten only won races with pacers, the likes of which are not allowed at major races like this.

Ingebrigtsen darted to the front quickly in this and ran there for the first 3 1/2 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-9 1/2 and more than 3 1/2 inches shorter than the top two contenders, almost looked like he was trying to photo bomb the end of this race.

He snuck up on the inside once, only to have Ingebrigtsen block that move, then tried again, passed them both and crossed the line first, his arms outstretched and with a look of disbelief on his face.

Gabrielle Thomas, of the United States, celebrates after winning the women’s 200-meters final at the 2024 Summer Olympics on Tuesday in Saint-Denis, France. Petr David Josek/Associated Press

Also Tuesday, American Gabby Thomas sped to the victory in the women’s 200, finishing in 21.83 seconds – finishing by a wide margin in a sprint – to add a gold to the bronze she took home in the event from Tokyo three years ago.

The 27-year-old Harvard graduate, who has a Masters in public health, took the lead for good at the curve and was never challenged in the final stretch. She let out a shout and grabbed her head with both hands after crossing the line.

Thomas beat 100-meter champion Julien Alfred of St. Lucia by 0.25 seconds, while Brittany Brown of the U.S. got the bronze.

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone of the U.S. and Femke Bol of the Netherlands will go head-to-head at the 2024 Olympics in just the third matchup between this generation’s two top female hurdlers.

Their showdown in the 400-meter hurdles final on Thursday night is a big one. McLaughlin-Levrone is the reigning Summer Games champion and keeps breaking the world record, over and over; Bol is the reigning world champ — it probably helped that the American was injured and not there — and already picked up a gold in Paris with a terrific last leg for the Dutch in the 1,600-meter mixed relay on Saturday.

So far, McLaughlin-Levrone is 2-0 against Bol, beating her at the Tokyo Olympics three years ago, then again at 2022 world championships.

“Iron sharpens iron,” McLaughlin-Levrone said Tuesday night at Stade de France after each woman won her semifinal heat to qualify for the medal race. “It’s always fun racing the best, and I know we’re going to push each other.”

There certainly was no pushing going on during the semifinals.

McLaughin-Levrone eased up quite a bit down the stretch and still finished 1.7 seconds in front of the running-up, clocking 52.13. How swift is that? That would have broken the world record of 52.16 that was held by another U.S. runner, Dalilah Muhammad, before the New Jersey-born McLaughlin-Levrone began lowering the mark regularly.

Bol was first across the line in her semifinal in a time of 52.57.

VOLLEYBALL: The reigning Olympic champion U.S. women’s volleyball team posted a straight-set victory against Poland.

The Americans led throughout while taking the first two sets, 25-22 and 25-14. They fell behind 5-0 and 7-1 in the third set before rallying to close it out, 25-20.

Next up is a semifinal date Thursday with powerhouse Brazil, which swept the Dominican Republic earlier in the day. It’s a rematch of the Tokyo Games final.

NOTES

TRACK AND FIELD: The American coach of Olympic champions Andre De Grasse and Marcell Jacobs has been kicked out of the Paris Games.

Rana Reider was investigated for alleged sexual misconduct by the U.S. Center for SafeSport and placed on a one-year probation that ended in May. He was accredited for the Summer Games through the Canadian Olympic Committee for his personal work with De Grasse, the defending 200-meter champion. He’s also the personal coach of Jacobs, the Italian who won the 100 meters in Tokyo three years ago, and several other sprinters.

SWIMMING: A test run meant to allow Olympic athletes to familiarize themselves with the marathon swimming course in the Seine River was canceled Tuesday over concerns about water quality in the Paris waterway.

World Aquatics made the decision to cancel the exercise at an early morning meeting, the organization said in a statement. Fluctuating bacteria levels in the long-polluted waterway have been a constant concern throughout the Games with the swimming portion of the triathlon and the marathon swimming events both planned in the river.

Another marathon swimming test event is scheduled for Wednesday, and organizers will decide early that morning whether it will go forward, the statement said. The women’s marathon swim competition is set for Thursday, while the men are scheduled to race Friday.