SAINT-DENIS, France – Now I know what it means to go viral.

Because I was so nervous before Tuesday night’s 1,500-meter final at the Paris Olympics — the single biggest event I have covered in a 53-year journalism career — I walked a lap around Stade de France. Then I had a better idea.

I realized the crowd would be so loud that if I called play-by-play into my cellphone voice memos, it would not bother colleagues in the press tribune. They couldn’t hear me anyway.

SHOCKER! How Cole Hocker, a 21-to-1 longshot, pulled off biggest upset at Paris Olympics

Cole Hocker runs to his own beat. So it's no surprise he finds balance with music.

Also, doing so would soothe my nerves and enable me to concentrate. I have done this a few times, and though no sportscaster, it is a lark.

After Cole Hocker’s historic upset, I told my IndyStar editor, Matt Glenesk, about the audio file. He listened to it and asked to post it. Terre Haute’s Mike King, former radio voice of the Indianapolis 500, emailed to say I was ready for a broadcast team.

As of late Wednesday afternoon in Paris, the YouTube audio was closing in on 25,000 views. Wut?

Within a minute after the race ended, I had 36 text messages on my cellphone.

As long as three years ago, I speculated Hocker could become the most important sports figure I ever wrote about. He was 20, improving rapidly, running one of the most high-profile events in track and field, the centerpiece of the Olympics. And maybe he could become an Olympic champion, as fanciful as the notion was.

He made it happen — as a 21-to-1 longshot. Heading into the race, his career record was 0-7 vs. Jakob Ingebrigtsen of Norway and 0-7 vs. Josh Kerr of Great Britain.

I was not prophetic. I was prepared.

Before the race, I wrote 500 or so words as if Hocker had won the gold medal, to be topped by the result so the story could be posted quickly on indystar.com.

As an independent journalist, I have been all over the world over the past 12 months, covering Hocker’s races and interviewing him afterward: Budapest, Hungary; New York; Albuquerque, N.M.; Glasgow, Scotland; Eugene, Ore.; Paris.

What always struck me was Hocker’s unwavering resolve to become the best miler in the world. He never deviated from that stance.

I FaceTimed my wife, Jan, and she pointed the phone to WTHR-13 so I could watch primetime host Mike Tirico of NBC interview Hocker and bronze medalist Yared Nuguse.

This was not the greatest upset in an Olympic stadium — that remains Billy Mills in the 10,000 meters at Tokyo 1964 — but the outcome belongs in the next category.

It was unquestionably one of the greatest 1,500-meter races ever, featuring four men under the Olympic record and 10 under 3:31 (a 3:48 mile).

“Maybe the greatest,” said Ray Flynn, the former Irish miler who is the agent for medalists Hocker, Kerr and Nuguse. It was a Team Flynn sweep.

English journalist Oliver Holt, writing for the Daily Mail, wrote Kerr and Ingebrigtsen “were burned on a bonfire of their own vanities.”

With 20-year-old Hobbs Kessler in fifth, the 1-3-5 by the United States was the best three-man finish by any nation in the 1,500 since Sweden went 1-2-5 in 1948.

Flynn was waiting Wednesday outside an Olympics studio for arrival of Hocker and Nuguse, who were on NBC’s “Today Show.”  Hocker had said he knew his life was about to change.

Nike was ready. Hocker was on a Times Square marquee Tuesday night next to these words in giant letters: “SO FAST THEY NEVER SAW ME COMING.”

Hocker’s time of 3:27.65 should be recognized as the Amerian record. The record formally belongs to Bernard Lagat, whose time was 3:27.40 in 2004. Lagat represented Kenya that year, so it is nonsensical to credit him with an American record.

Hocker is 23, just five years removed from Cathedral High School. In 2019, he fought off a couple of Lowell runners to win the 800 meters in the state meet at Bloomington. On this night, he fought off the world’s fastest milers.

“Did the rail open up? I honestly did not remember,” Hocker said.

Most amazing thing about the victory, Flynn said, was Hocker had momentum stopped by Ingebrigtsen but was able to restart it. Each of Hocker’s last five 100 meters was faster or as fast as the previous: 13.9, 13.7, 13.3, 13.3, 13.0.

“He could have won by more if he had a clean run at it,” Flynn said.

When I interviewed Hocker for 70 minutes at an Airbnb in Eugene after the Olympic Trials, I asked about world records. He said he did not want to limit himself. Nor should he.

The record of 3:26.00, set by Morocco’s Hicham El Guerrouj, has stood since 1998. Could Hocker break it? If not in 2024, maybe in 2025.

There was widespread reaction to Hocker’s upset on “X,” formerly Twitter.

Noah Lyles, the 100-meter gold medalist, tweeted: “Cole Hocker you Got me screaming my head off!”

“Big wheels, big stones,” tweeted Tim Layden, whose track and field stories are instant literature.

The Hoosier also got shout-outs from Fred Kerley, 100-meter bronze medalist; Leo Manzano, 1,500 silver medalist in 2012; Nick Willis, two-time Olympic 1,500 medalist; former quarterback Robert Griffin III; author John Green; performance coach Steve Magness, and the Indiana High School Athletic Association.

I didn’t go to bed until 5 a.m. Wednesday (Paris time) and awoke less than four hours later. As his rivals discovered, you don’t sleep on Cole Hocker.

Contact IndyStar correspondent  David Woods at dwoods1411@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter: @DavidWoods007.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Cole Hocker gold medal upset at Paris Olympics all part of his plan