Kickin' it: Final push sends Cole Hocker, Yared Nuguse to Olympic ...

When Nuguse crossed the line — just 0.15 seconds behind Hocker — the 25-year-old from Louisville, Kentucky, felt sweet relief, especially after a quad injury kept him out of the Tokyo Games.

“It’s a real pinnacle of our sport, being able to come to the world stage where everyone is performing at their absolute best,” Nuguse said. "And to share it with a fellow American makes it even better.”

Hocker and Nuguse became the first Americans to share a medal podium in the men’s 1500m since Abel Kiviat and Norman Taber at the 1912 Stockholm Games.

Hours after their triumph, someone showed the duo a bit of grainy, black-and-white video from that 1912 race.

“If we needed any more understanding of how long ago that was, it was just a dirt track with no lanes,” Hocker said.

In practice for the 1500m at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics with (left to right) Arnold Jackson, Craig Moore and R D Clarke of Great Britain. Jackson went on to win the gold medal in the final, with Americans earning silver and bronze.

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On that dirt track 112 years ago, Great Britain’s Arnold Jackson set a then-Olympic record with a gold medal-winning time of 3:56.8. Hocker was nearly 30 full seconds faster than that on Tuesday — running on 200,000-plus square feet of purple vulcanized rubber.

“We delivered,” Hocker said. “The only thing better than getting a medal is having another Team USA person on the podium.”