Two years ago at the Maurie Plant Meet, Olli Hoare was upstaged by a kid.
Hoare won the mile race, but that was incidental. The real story was a then 16-year-old Cam Myers, who became the second-youngest person in the world to break the four-minute mile. Myers has only got better since, and now jointly holds the national mile record (3:47.48) with Hoare.
Olli Hoare at Lakeside Oval ahead of the Maurie Plant Meet.Credit: Penny Stephens
A week ago, a 15-year-old kid from New Zealand, Sam Ruthe, beat even Myers’ then record when he became the youngest person ever to break the four-minute mark.
Both will take on Hoare on Saturday night in the 1500 metres.
“He [Myers] is definitely a driver for me now,” Hoare said.
“It’s always a good motivation to have him there, and to make sure that he knows that I’m still the Australian record holder, and I also won Comm Games, and he knows that.
“He’s going to be competitive because he’s got goals to attain, and he missed out on making the Paris Olympics, and that’s going to be a massive motivation for him moving forward, particularly going to Tokyo [world championships later this year].
“So he’s going to be a big, dangerous threat, and it’s going to be fun racing him.”
Not really ready to relinquish top spot yet?
“No, not yet,” Hoare said with a smile.
He can relate to Myers’ drive, but his own attitude has changed.
“There is only a finite amount of time in the sport and my mentality now has shifted from not proving myself, but more just being able to say I can execute these races and do what I know I can do and hopefully win them.
Olli Hoare could barely walk at the start of last year and struggled at the Paris Olympics. Now he is fit and eager to not waste a minute Credit: Eddie Jim
“I train with the best in the world, and that mentality for me is about learning that if I can train with them, I can beat them, and I can race with them.”
In an Instagram post after a race earlier this year, Hoare offered an unsparing description of his performance, saying he had been too cowardly to win.
Cowardly. It’s a word that jumps off the screen. Everyone has fear, but cowardice? Ironically, this sort of publicly self-analysis was anything but cowardly.
He explained that his performance was a result of a lack of courage – of not wanting to put himself at risk of injury in training, or to make himself hurt at length in order to be his best.
Ollie Hoare celebrates after his 1500m win in Birmingham in 2022, beating two medallists from the world championships, in one of the great Commonwealth Games performances.Credit: Getty
“I’ve spent four or five years of my career grinding and trying to prove myself and put myself in the best possible position and financially push, myself and getting incentives and running well, because if you run well, you are financially compensated for that,” Hoare said.
“Now I’m in a position where everything in that part of my life has been rewarded, and it’s a harder game to play when you can become soft and complacent.
“The mentality needs to shift in the way in which I compete and train, and that’s just by being hungry again, and after the injuries and setbacks I’ve had sometimes you just need to realise that you’re not the same athlete you once were, and to be able to perform, there’s got to be an incentive-based thing.
“I need to start racing a bit more tough and be a bit more mentally sound with how I can perform on the track.”
Instagram and other social media have been vexed platforms for Hoare. After a disappointing Paris Olympics (depending on how you view it; he could barely walk in February) he was the recipient of abuse online from non-athletics fans. He publicly called out the abuse and shut down his social media feed for a while.
He now figures some of the trolls might have been those who lost money betting on him, but he has resolved to disengage from social media around the time of major champs in future.
The experience might have made him wary of opening up on social media but he chose to be honest in his statements and in his goals.
So enough with the caution. He was going to force himself to hurt for longer in training knowing that to beat the best in the world, which he knows he can do, he has to be prepared to hurt for longer.
And enough with the idea of hiding behind niceties. If you think you can win, say so. If you think you can be the best in the world then say it, train for it and do it.
“For the last four or five years I’ve wasted a few opportunities. Eugene world champs [in 2022] was a waste of an opportunity. Paris was an unfortunate situation with injury, but I’ve been able to perform in the top three and top five of the world in a very, very harsh, competitive event with some of the best the event has ever had.
“The mentality for me is I need to be able to say ‘Hey, I’ve got much more to give. I’ve got more things to do’. And not to be afraid of saying ‘I want to go and medal. I want to go and win more races, and I want to beat some of the best’ and have the capability of that. You have got to want it, and you got to be in that mindset.”
News, results and expert analysis from the weekend of sport are sent every Monday. Sign up for our Sport newsletter.
