---

Full Video Transcript

Introduction: The Most Mind-Blowing Performance

We’re going to talk about the most mind-blowing performance I have ever witnessed in my career in any sport ever. That is Cooper Lutkinous’s 800 at USA’s where he placed second running 142.27 as a 16-year-old who just finished his sophomore year of high school. Mind blown. We’re going to break down the race.

I’m going to put it into perspective for you on what do we compare this to. So, let’s get started

Setting the Stage: Cooper Lukin’s Record-Breaking Year

here. So, what happened? So, Luckenhouse has had a incredible year. He’s broke Michael Granful’s high school 800 meter record, which had stood since I think 1998.

No one had broken it. And he didn’t just break it, now he has smashed it by over four seconds. Mindblowing. 142.27.

27 until one year ago would have been the American record. That’s how good it is. Now it’s the fourth fastest American ever behind some guys he beat and competed against. So Bryce Hoppel American record 1416.

Then we have Josh Hoey who he beat. We had Donovan Brazier who just barely beat him by a tenth. Now think about this. This race, okay, let’s

Race Breakdown: Analyzing the 800 Meters

let’s break it down. This race was one of the hardest teams to make at the US Championships. You had Hoey who has been one of the most transcendent and dominating 800 runners of this year. Came kind of out of nowhere in the last two years to just win the World Indoor Championships.

Hppel just missed out on an 800 medal last year at the Olympic Championships or the Olympics. Was fourth place running that American record in the craziest 800 we’ve ever seen. maybe also 2024 world indoor champion. And you had Brazier who was the 2019 world champion, former American record holder who was on the comeback doing crazy stuff, one of the most talented 800 runners we’ve ever seen.

And oh yeah, we had Brandon Miller, a 2024 Olympian who has had a great year as well. Everyone thought it was going to be the big four. those guys. Lutkin House snuck into the final barely squeaking in in the last 10 meters to get into the final.

High school phenom, we’re all thinking this is amazing. He made it. No one is really thinking he has a shot cuz this is a world class team to make. We’re talking you make this team, you have a legitimate shot at not only meddling but potentially winning.

That’s how good the these guys are. race goes out. Hoey takes it out. 492 first 400.

Now I want to break this down for you. So for 800, it’s like this this tightroppe. You don’t run even splits. You don’t run negative splits.

You run positive splits. But it’s a very thin line. If you’re too positive, meaning you go out too fast, it’s a hard die. If you look at the best 800s, generally the difference between the first and second lap is about a second and a half to two seconds.

generally what we’re looking at. Sometimes a little shorter, but that’s what it looks at. Now, Hoey, who has been leading a lot of races, who likes to go from the front, who has run 142.0 this year, second fastest in the world this year, he just took it out and he probably thought, “Hey, even if they catch me, three guys aren’t going by me, okay? I’m going to make this team.” That’s his thought process where he messed up.

The second 100 m. First 100 12.37. That’s fast but not crazy. Second 100 11.79 to get to 241 at 200.

It’s a little quick. Slows it down a little bit. 124 then 127 to come by at 492. That is fast.

Especially with that acceleration down that backstretch. Often you see that to get good positioning, but that 1179 is a big price to pay. Meanwhile, our boy Cooper

The Final Lap: Cooper’s Unbelievable Finish

was 1 second behind, over a second behind. He was 50.6 because what he did is he accelerated to that second 200. It was basically a 121 12.07 which is acceleration. But then he slowed off the gas and this put him a little over a second, 1.4 seconds down at 400, which is a huge gap in the 800.

But what it allowed Cooper to do is ride that line where it was still going to be close enough in the race and to use his kick. And I think the real story is this. If we look at the next splits, the big four are battling it out. They’re battling for position.

They’re seeing, hey, how can we get ready for that last 150 coming off that turn to kick? Cooper, meanwhile, is hanging out in like seventh place for a while, just running almost dead even once he gets to 300. So 300, it was 130 to 400, 129 for that 100, then 131, then 131, then 129. That gets us to 700 m.

He is dead even in a freaking rhythm. Meanwhile, the other guys are starting to feel the effect of going out in 492 with 117 second 100. You can see it from 400 to 500. Hoey goes 13-1, then 1316, then 133.

He’s starting to decelerate. It is a battle of holding it together. And even the other guys, the brazers, the Hopples, the Millers, what you see is they’re decelerating too until that final 100. Brazier puts in a little bit of a reverse, a little bit of a kick going from 134 to 13-1.

But that opens the door for Lutin House to finish like a freight train and run 12.48 for that final 100. Crazy. Now, how in the world did this happen? Well, I think if Luckin House goes out faster, he’s screwed.

He’s done. He doesn’t have that capability yet. He’s a 16-year-old. But what it allowed him to do is stay close enough in the race.

He’s in seventh place all the way to 600, but he has guys right in front of him who are going to run 144. So, they’re still running faster than Lutinous’s PR. He has Alvarado and Harris and some other guys who are right there who he can follow and then get the momentum building of saying, “Okay, I’m going to pass this guy. I’m going to pass that guy.” And once he got past Harris and he’s coming in off that final hundred, all you got is hope and some momentum.

And when you see guys like Miller and Hoey going backwards because they’re running 14 point, you know, zero and 14.1, which after running 13 flats and 12 points is slowing down big time, that opens the door for hope. And when you’re a high school kid and you don’t know any better, all you know is the instincts of racing because you’re like, I’m not supposed to be here. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do, but I’m gaining on, guys. I’m getting some momentum.

Let’s race. Not comparing myself to Cooper cuz I’m not in his league and never was. But when I ran a professional track meet, the pre-classic as a high schooler and I ran my PR 401, I remember the last lap sitting there getting there and saying, “Oh my gosh, I feel okay.” And some guys are coming back to me. I was in last place or second to last most of the race.

And I said, “Ah, guys are coming back to me.” I remember seeing cynical lacader and saying, “I’m about to go past him.” And I went past him. And then I saw Alan Webb and I said, “I can go past Alan Webb.” And I did down the backstretch. Now, I kicked a little too early and they ran out of gas the last hundred because I wasn’t as disciplined as Lucken House. But when you’re a high school kid, that hope and that momentum of saying, I’m just instinctually racing and I don’t know any better, that can power you a whole hell of a lot.

And this is why we saw that breakthrough, that severe drop is he had it in him obviously physically training wise, physiologically, but psychologically that building of the momentum and seeing that oh my gosh, I can reach this goal and I’m just going to ride it while everyone else is coming back. That allows for that 1248 last 100, which is just nuts. But you have to think of it as this kid has always had a crazy last hund. You watch his high school races.

You watch him race the mile in high school and he comes from far back. Doesn’t quite catch them and win, but comes from a far back way. He’s got that ingrained. He knows he can do that.

His body is just responding how it’s supposed to. It’s insane. So, let’s put

Putting It in Perspective: Historical Comparisons

it in perspective here. What in the world just happened? 14227 as a high school sophomore. Do we have a comparison?

Well, let’s break this down a little bit. Before this year, the high school record, as I mentioned, Michael Granful, legendary record 146.45 had stood since before I was in high school. That’s how old it is. I’m old as Okay, finally broken.

And now Cooper has run 4 seconds faster. Insanity. Insanity. Now, what is this time equivalent to?

If we said, hey, what is a 142.27 equivalent to? I think it’s something like 17th or 18th best time in history. As I said, would have been the American record until a year ago. Now, it’s the fourth fastest time ever by an American in a stout event.

It’s equivalent to a 1975 200, a 4388400, a 345 mile, a 1246 5K. If you think of the guys who are the best in the world, you know, Nagus, although he didn’t make the team, what did he run? A 345 mile. Okay, Nico Young, what did he run for 5K?

1240 something. That is the kind of performance that we just saw out of a 16-year-old kid. It’s mindblowing. There is no other great comparison.

If we look through the phenoms in track and field and then in other sports, it’s hard to measure up to anything else. We have people like Sydney McGlaughlin who yes, made the Olympic team at 16. Okay. But her best time as a sophomore was, I think, 1.8 seconds behind the world record in a event that is half as long as Coopers, who is only 1.3 seconds behind.

Mind-blowing. Again, mind-blowing. Can’t comprehend it. Okay, we look at Aryan Nighton, who ran 1949 in high school, did that as a 18-year-old.

What does he run as a sophomore? 20.3. again, phenomenal phenom, didn’t quite measure up as a sophomore. We could go through others.

Bob Matias won a gold medal as a 17-year-old. It was in 1948. Not discounting things, excellent athletes, but in 1948, the depth of talent wasn’t quite as great. Okay, it’s mindblowing.

If we go compare to other sports, what do we compare them to? Katie Leiddki, I mean, she, I

Comparing Across Sports: Phenoms and Prodigies

believe, set a world record when she was 15, won Olympic gold when she was 16. Phenomenal. But in swimming, unlike running, maturity tends to happen a little bit earlier, especially on the women’s side. So, we’ve had other women who have won Olympic gold medals when they just barely turned 14 at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.

So although not discounting insane performances by Leiddki, there is precedent for it. Same if we go over to Michael Phelps who I believe set a world record at 15th. Insane. But again, Phelps is like the the goat of sport.

So if we want to compare him to him, great. But as a phenom, that’s about the best comparison we might have. And even then, swimming tends to develop earlier. We see more teenagers set world records and there’s been other 16, 17 year olds who have set world records.

Even on the men’s side, we don’t see that in track and field because it takes time to develop. We see people peak in their early to mid20s generally in these events, not when they’re 16 years old. The if we branch out to other sports, we might think Tiger Woods, LeBron James. I tweeted about this that kind of went viral.

I said, “You know what? Cooper’s performance way better than LeBron in high as a sophomore in high school.” And people are like, “What are you talking about? LeBron was the chosen one. The chosen one.

I lived through that era. I’m about the same age as LeBron. He was the chosen one in in uh in basketball. I was just trying to survive in in track as a somewhat phenom.” He was on Sports Illustrated.

If you look at the coverage back then, and I remember this, ESPN ranked all the best high school athletes ever. They had LeBron as number three. They had Tiger Woods as number two. And they had a man named Jim Ryan as the best high schooler ever.

Jim Ryan might have heard of him. In fact, his signed SI from when he Sports Illustrated, from when he broke the world record is right behind you. Thanks, Jim, for signing it. He made the Olympics at 17, ran a 355 mile, defeating the previous year’s Olympic champ, Peter Snell.

When he ran that 355, 353 was the world record. He is the goat of all phenoms. But I think at 16, Cooper Luckenous’s performance is better. Why?

Let’s break it down here. When Ryan was a sophomore, he ran a 406 mile. It was a sophomore record at the time. Astonishing.

Lutin House ran a 406 mile and arguably his third best event, only attempting it once. No doubt about it, he could run a sub4minute mile. Now, after being a 142 guy, he’s also run a 463 400. Again, crazy fast.

probably could go faster now that we know he can go faster than the 800, but Ryan was the prodigy of all prodigies. And most of the damage he did, 359 mile as a junior, 355 as a senior came later in high school. And we have someone who’s a sophomore doing or just finished his sophomore year doing insane things, running a time that is literally one of the best ever in history and would compete for a medal, if not winning at most world championships and Olympic games. He is Ryonesesque.

I would argue his performance is better than Ryan because he has two years to improve on that. Maybe he does, maybe he doesn’t. But essentially, if Jim Ryan ran a 355 mile as a sophomore in high school back then, that’s the comparison to make. Ryan went on to set a world record when he was 19 and fulfill some of this promise, dropping the mile world record and the 800 record down.

But the point is, if ESPN is saying Jim Ryan is better than LeBron at peak LeBron high school hype, then I think we have nothing else to say except that in the same sport, I would say Lutin House is better than Ryan and he still has two more years to go. Who knows how it ends up? But that tells me by transitive properties that I think Letinous’s 142.27 is better than LeBron’s high school performance. And we’re not even done with Cooper’s career.

Is that hyperbole? Maybe. But it’s really hard to express how mindblowing this performance is because before this, there’s not a single 16-year-old who has made Team USA’s world championship team individually. Not a single one.

Quincy Wilson made the Olympics as a essentially relay alternate. It’s mind-blowing. But even he didn’t run the equivalent of 438 as a sophomore. and his performances blew my mind.

So, there you have it. What more can I say? It’s a crazy performance. He seems

Conclusion: The Future for Cooper Lutkenhaus’s 800m

like a good kid, high school kid, doing great things from the wonderful state of Texas. I think the sky’s is the limit. Who knows how he’ll develop? My hope is he’s got a good team around him.

My hope is he gets good support around him. and they look at the long-term development not only from a training standpoint, but also from a physical and mental health standpoint. I’m going to tell you as a former prodigy who is nowhere near that level, but get a sports psychologist, have some help on that side because it’s tough once the weight of the world or at least you create those expectations in your head of what you’re going to perform at because right now everything is bonus. You’re a high school kid.

You don’t know what’s going on. No one expects you to run 142, make the team. Now you have Now you have expectations. You’ve got to learn how to manage those expectations.

And also, as a teenager, diversify your identity so you’re not just stuck on everybody’s going to know you as a track guy. That’s great. Live it up. Have a good time.

But you’ve got to realize you’re more than that or else it will feel like life or death at moments, especially when you go through hard times and struggle. And everyone will go through hard times and struggle. So, my best of luck to Cooper. Literally the most mind-blowing performance I’ve ever seen.

And I’ve seen a lot of crazy performances. It’s hard to put in perspective. I think it’s the best high school performance of all time. So, if you think differently, come at me.

Let’s have that argument. Till next time, we’ll break down more mental and physical performance on this channel. I appreciate all of you. Thanks for watching.

Take care everybody.