OLYMPIC TRIALS CHAMPIONS PURRIER ST. PIERRE, HOCKER TO HEADLINE WHOOP WANAMKER MILE AT 2022 MILLROSE GAMES
By David Monti, @d9monti
(c) 2021 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved - Used with permission.

NEW YORK (19-Nov) -- Elinor Purrier St. Pierre and Cole Hocker, the 2021 USA Olympic Trials champions at 1500m, are the first athletes to be announced for the WHOOP Wanamaker Mile at the 2022 Millrose Games scheduled for Saturday, January 29, at the New Balance Track & Field Center at The Armory.  Purrier St. Pierre is both the event's defending champion and record holder, while Hocker will be making his Wanamaker and Millrose Games debut.

Purrier St. Pierre, who represents New Balance, had a stunning performance in the Wanamaker in February, 2020, when the race was last held.  In an exciting last-lap battle with Germany's Konstanze Klosterhalfen and Scotland's Jemma Reekie, Purrier St. Pierre clocked 4:16.85, the second-fastest indoor mile time in history and the fastest ever on U.S. soil.

"I knew it was going to be a fast pace and then just kick as hard as I could," Purrier St. Pierre told Race Results Weekly after the 2020 race.  "The second to last lap I started getting a little more confident, and thought, 'OK, I don't feel totally out of it, I'm going to try to make a move.'"

Hocker, who turned pro with Nike just after the Tokyo Olympic Games, has never competed at the Armory.  Nonetheless, he is a gifted indoor runner and has an indoor mile personal best of 3:50.55 making him the fourth-fastest American of all time indoors.  Like Purrier St. Pierre, Hocker was an Olympic finalist and he finished in sixth position in Tokyo in 3:31.40, the fastest 1500m ever run by an American at an Olympics.

"What started as a dream has now become reality," Hocker wrote on Instagram after winning the USA Olympic Trials.  "Honored to represent Team USA in the Tokyo Olympics."

With New York Road Runners bowing out as both the meet's title sponsor and the sponsor of the Wanamaker Mile, WHOOP has stepped in to support the event.  WHOOP is a personalized 24/7 digital fitness and health coach.  The company says their body sensor and connected app "helps people unlock their inner potential and make meaningful lifestyle changes via actionable feedback on sleep, recovery, and strain."

Both during and after the race, WHOOP will collect and display relevant data about the athletes running in the Wanamaker.  Some of the data will be displayed in real time.

"The Millrose Games is an ideal place to showcase the different ways WHOOP can help some of the world's most elite athletes optimize their performance," said WHOOP senior vice-president of marketing John Sullivan. "Fans will also get to experience this historic event like never before with new competitor insights featured in broadcast via WHOOP Live."

The 2022 Millrose Games, which is part of the World Athletics Indoor Tour, will be held for the 114th time in 2022.  The event was cancelled in 2021 due to the pandemic when The Armory was turned into a mass-vaccination facility.

"With the great success and athlete performances during the Olympic Games in Tokyo, we hope to stage the greatest Millrose Games yet at The Armory," said meet director Ray Flynn whose firm Flynn Sports Management also represents Purrier St. Pierre and Hocker.


PHOTO: Both Elle Purrier St. Pierre and Cole Hocker will compete at the 2022 Millrose Games in the WHOOP Wanamaker Mile (photo courtesy of The Armory Foundation)