Coming off a difficult double at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Track & Field, where he became the first American man to qualify for the Games in the 800 and 1500 at a single Olympics since Rick Wohlhuter in 1976, 21-year-old Hobbs Kessler is a man to watch in Paris and in years to come. Kessler first burst onto the track and field national scene when he set an American U20 record of 3:34.36 in the 1500 in 2021 at Portland. He won the inaugural World Athletics Road Mile title in 2022 and has PBs of 1:43.64 in the 800 and 3:31.53 in the 1500. A precocious athletic talent, Kessler is one of the few elite track athletes who can also claim international quality in a different sport. While his track career is focused specifically on moving horizontally as fast as he possibly can, his first love was a sport where the emphasis is on vertical speed – rock climbing. Kessler was a nationally ranked climber growing up and competed at the International Federation of Sport Climbing Youth World Championships in Italy in 2019. Here, in his own words, is the story of his unusual path to elite middle distance running. Q: You went from being a five-minute miler as a freshman in high school to setting the national indoor record a few years later. How did you get there, and what was the key to your rapid development? HK: Puberty, haha. And inconsistency. My junior year I started training way more consistently and with higher volume, so that did it. But no matter how hard I trained as a freshman, I was only going to run so fast. When you have a little kid’s body you can only run so fast basically. Once I started to get stronger and bigger and could handle more training…it was crazy. It definitely was weird because I think a lot of very good runners go into high school already thinking of themselves as a good runner and already one of the best runners on the team. And my development was just on a different curve, but it was pretty fun that way because it feels like you keep getting better and better. Q: When did you start running and thinking about track? HK: I joined the cross country team as a freshman in high school, so that’s really when I started. But I was still focused on rock climbing. It was probably my junior year, during Covid, when I really started applying myself fully to running. And obviously once you really get after it you’re going to get better. So that started feeding the cycle. It was just a really fun 18 months where it felt like every week I was fitter than the last. Q: When did it hit you that you were good enough to be an elite runner? HK: I don’t know. I just kept getting better and better. At some point, my mom was like, “Hobbs, you’re probably going able to be a pro runner one day.” And turns out, that was only like six months later. But I would say just once I set my sights on breaking four minutes, my senior year of high school, and that really became a focus, was really when it set in. Like, this is what I’m doing. Q: When you broke the American U20 record in the 1500 with that 3:34 at Portland, how did that change the trajectory of your career? HK: It opened the door to go pro. So that changed everything, otherwise I’d be at Northern Arizona (NAU) right now. It’s a great program. It’s hard not to succeed there. Yeah, just going pro early changed everything to a completely different path and without that race, it wouldn’t have happened. So, who knows? Luckily, I think consistency and talent will shine through no matter what situation you’re in, it’s just a matter of being in a situation where you can let your talent do its thing and really train consistently. NAU would have been a great opportunity to do that as well so…two good choices. But without that race, my life would be really different. Q: Did you know, going into that race, that you had something special in you that day? HK: Yeah I thought I was in 3:36-3:37 shape and funnily enough I felt absolutely terrible the week leading into it. I thought I trained hard, and it wasn’t going to work, so I had to cut all my runs short. I felt really good on the day, the perfect race, everything lined up perfectly. That was the fastest I could’ve run. So, I knew I had something but seeing 3:34 was certainly a shock. That took a few days to process…a few weeks even. Q: How did your professional contract come to be after that race? What was the process? HK: I spoke with my coach and training partners. I had an agent lined up and he came to my house, and we talked over the possibilities with him. Like, are the doors open, are the doors closed, just trying to weight the pros and cons. Then a few days later, Coach Smith from NAU came to my house and I talked about it with him. All credit to him, I mean he wasn’t really pushing for me to be on his team, he just wanted me to “Do what’s best for you”. Once we got all the details settled he recommended I go pro as well. It went from like a no-way do I go pro to signing the paper within 4-5 days. It happened that fast where I was going no matter what. It made sense to go pro. It was hard, a really hard decision, but luckily I had a lot of good people helping me make it, including Coach Smith, who was like, “Hey, I think this is the right decision…I’ll help you in any way I can. I’ll make you a part of the team in any way I can.” That also put me at ease a little bit. All credit to him for being selfless because I don’t think all coaches would’ve done that for me. But it was a crazy week and once the decision was made, it was made. I haven’t regretted it at all, it was a lot of fun. It would’ve been really cool to run at NAU but I’m really happy with the path I’ve taken. Q: You have said before that the emergence of NIL money wouldn't have really affected your decision to turn pro. What value do you see track athletes having right now in college? HK: To be honest, I don’t really understand the dynamics of college recruiting and all that very well, so I don’t really know how it affects everything on a bigger scale. On an athlete level, I think it’s great. Athletes are providing value to the brands and it’s great they’re being compensated for it. I think it’s only fair. I think it’s opened a lot of doors for people so it’s exciting. I have a bunch of friends with them (NIL deals), and it’s just made their lives easier and simpler so they can really focus on their running and their school without having a job or any sort of financial strain. I’m just glad it wasn’t around for me because it would’ve made a hard decision more complicated. Q: In your brief pro career, is there one city you have really loved competing in, or is there somewhere you look forward to competing? HK: I’ve competed mostly in the US. I’ve only been over to Europe a few times. Nothing really stands out too much. I’m hoping in the next couple years I’ll really make a mark in the Diamond League meets, and I think that’s where doors really open as far as running fast and all that. I’m looking forward to that. I’ve raced the Monaco Diamond League in the 1000 before but I’m hoping to race there in the 1500 eventually because it’s the fastest 1500 in the world. All the best guys, the best location, the best rabbits, the best conditions, everything. It’s just cool to know what a perfect setup looks like. Q: You won the inaugural World Athletics Road Mile Championships in Riga last year. Going into that race, were you expecting to win? HK: I couldn’t really tell to be honest because there were a lot of 3:30 guys in the race and guys with better track resumes, but it was late in the year and they had been racing. I was fortunate enough to be able to put in a little bit of a strength block at altitude so I was probably in a little better fitness. I didn’t know that at the time but at this point in my career, especially that level of racing, I just want to put myself in contention to win, whether I can win or not, give myself a shot just in case everything lines up. I found that I was up there with the leaders with 300 to go. The guy I was kind of sitting on moved out, moved to the right so it left me facing the wind so I’m like, “Well, if I’m going to be taking the wind I might as well try to jump the field,” and just went really hard. I just kept waiting for everyone to pass me, but they never did. And then the finish line got really close, and I was like “I really hope they don’t pass me now,” and I was able to hang on and it was a super great, euphoric feeling. It was a bit of a frustrating year, 2023, so it was a great way to end it on a high note. Q: How was racing on the road versus on the track? HK: I’m pretty experienced with road miles for whatever reason. I’ve just run a lot of them. The timing is definitely trickier just because it's harder to gauge how far you are in the race. It’s not always perfectly flat so there would be sections where you’re feeling really bad, and you’ve misjudged an effort, but you’re just going uphill, or you’ve gone around a hard turn and are just feeling the sting from that a little bit. But at its core, it's the same. The best people on the track are going to be the best people on the roads. It’s just a matter of a very short learning curve of figuring out timing and how to stay locked on the road. But it’s really pretty similar. Q: In March you won your first international track medal in Glasgow at the World Indoor Championships, and you also went sub-3:49 in the mile at Millrose. What did those two experiences mean to you? HK: Training went really well all fall, all winter, so I knew I was set up for it. It was pretty scary for a bit there because I knew there was a possibility of putting something really good together and I was just happy I was able to execute it and things worked out in my favor. I came out with a really good race, opened up so that gave me really good confidence and momentum. And I basically raced every weekend so just kind of keeping momentum going. I normally felt pretty trashed until about Thursday, and by the Saturday race I was back on my feet. But it was really exciting, and it has given me a lot of confidence in my ability to execute, and confidence in my training. Really just trusting that everything works well and the systems we have in place are well oiled and work well, which you always know, but a little bit of proof is nice. Q: What is your coaching set-up? HK: I have a bit of a unique set-up at the moment. Ron Warhurst coached me in high school and still does to a certain degree, but as he’s pretty much at retiring age so he’s pretty hands-off. It just leaves a lot of it up to the athlete, so I have to fill in some of the gaps. I’ve had other people really help me out with some of the details and over time we’ve developed a system. Me, Ron, my dad, Pat Henner, that’s the core group along with some other people. Just through experimentation and learning by talking to people and past experiences and everything, we’ve developed a system that we feel pretty confident in. We’re constantly tweaking it, but it worked really well indoors and the things we learned we can improve on indoors, we’ve taken those steps. But it’s very collaborative and I would say very unique. At the end of the day, I’m the one, with a lot of help, making a lot of the decisions. I have people telling me like, “Hey, this isn’t right,” or “Let’s change this,” so it’s definitely unorthodox but it’s working so far. With my personality, I like having a bigger say and more control in my training. Q: What’s most important to you on race day? What do you really have to have to have a good day? HK: On race day, in my opinion, maybe other athletes have different opinions, but I think things are pretty much set in motion. The fitness is either there or it isn’t. I feel like I have confidence in myself to execute the race to the best of my ability. All I can do is try to stay focused and set everything up so I can execute the best. Again, it’s pretty much just like there’s not really much you can do on the race day. All the preparation is decided behind the scenes in your preparation. That being said, you can definitely mess it up. But if you’re confident in your mental abilities and focused, poised, executing, all that stuff…what’s gonna happen is going to happen and all you can do is trust yourself. Q: What is your ultimate goal on the track, if you have one? HK: To get a medal, especially an Olympic medal, is the dream for any middle-distance athlete. If I could get that at some point it would be really cool. Hopefully I can be competitive over the next 10-12 years and there will be a few years where it’s just my time and I can get up to that level and things just line up. Kind of like they did for Jake Wightman in 2022. Beyond that, I just want to keep getting better year-by-year. Train the best that I can, as smart as I can, consistent as I can. Hopefully that will allow me to be world class over the next decade or so. But we’ll see. All you can do is wait and let the training compound, you know? Q: The mile world record has stood for so long and still hasn’t been broken. What do you think is going to be key to that record going down? HK: Yeah that’s a good record. I don’t know if I’m really the one to speak on it because I’m still coming into the home stretch when those guys are crossing the finish line with my 3:48. I think the farther you can get a pacer, the more likely it is to go down. Yared and Jakob got really close at the Prefontaine Classic last year. Yared basically had a pacer the whole way with Jakob, but Jakob had to take the pace decently far out if I remember correctly. If they can get him through 1200 or even 1300 then he’ll be set up really well. Basically, to do that you need a 3:29 guy to rabbit you through, so either paying him enough money to make it worth his time to not participate in the race, or maybe they want to be really generous and see the record go down. But I think that’s the key, is having a really good pacing set-up. And having a good night and everything else. In the 90’s, they would have Kenyans take them to the bell or even farther. Obviously at those speeds, just to be pulled through a little longer does really make a difference. Mentally and just not having to break the wind. Q: Your other passion is rock climbing, something you have been doing longer than you have been running. How does competing in climbing compare to track as far as being solitary pursuits for the most part? HK: It’s really pretty similar. I think mentally, it feels exactly the same. Warming up, getting on the wall, everything. The two main differences are that climbing is a lot more technical so you can be in really good shape but not have your technique right, have your foot slip, read beta wrong and fall early on a climb. And then the other main difference is everyone climbs the same route, but you climb it alone. You’re not going head to head against other people, so it's a little different. You go, and then you watch other people go. It is really pretty similar though. I prefer racing to competing in climbing. I just think it’s a more natural thing. I think as far as outdoor climbing, it’s a better measure of one’s ability. I think it’s hard to measure elite climbing if you just get one route on four boulders. It’s an imperfect thing, especially in bouldering. I prefer running for that reason, but I also can't wait to be able to rock climb and really try to push my limits in that when I’m done running. Hopefully that’s a long time from now. Q: What’s the hardest climb you’ve completed or your favorite climb, the best one you’ve done? HK: The hardest I’ve done is called Southern Smoke. It’s rated 5.14c in Red River Gorge (Kentucky). That’s probably one of my proudest. Nowadays there’s probably 10- and 11-year-olds doing it. It’s not a huge deal in the grand scheme of things but it meant a lot to me at the time, and I guess it still does. I’m really proud of it, but I don’t think it’s anywhere close to my limit. As far as my favorite climb, it was this other climb in Red River Gorge, which is like my home crag basically and one of my favorite places in the world. It’s called Transworld Depravity and it’s maybe 120 feet long and just good hard sustained climbing, great movement, great holds, great setting. It’s just one of those perfect climbs. Five out of five stars. That’s got to be one of my favorites off the top of my head. Q: When you come to a new route how do you plan? How do you get prepared for that? How long does it take you to get ready to go? HK: I guess there are a few different ways depending on the circumstances. It depends if you’re trying to do it quickly, then you just look at it from the ground and try to do it on your first try, but if it’s really at your limit it obviously starts with going in with really good climbing fitness, so you need to be fit first of all. Then, figuring out all of the details of the route: how to climb it as efficiently as possible, how to get to the hard sections with the most energy possible and knowing where every finger goes on every hold, where you twist your knee in vs. twist your knee out. It’s just a really complex puzzle you have to figure out and memorize. Then, once you have all that it’s just about keeping really good goes from the ground which take a lot of energy, a lot of focus, and you got to try really hard. It’s a whole process but it’s really fun and really rewarding and really something I can’t wait to get back to. I’m getting excited just talking about it. Q: When you have these spatial equations going on in your head, do you think that you have an elite mindset doing that, or is it something that you just developed? HK: I just think it’s a skill you learn from climbing a lot and doing it a lot like doing anything else. I definitely think if you do it really intentionally you can cut the learning curve, but you still have to put in your time. I don’t think anyone's a natural at it. It's learning what movements are most efficient for you, will give you the highest percentage doing the move, how you can get through certain sequences using the least amount of energy as possible, which conditions work best for the route, all these little details, how long to rest at the rest, and it really adds up. I think it’s a skill that you just keep learning. You learn things that work, you learn things that don’t work. It’s individual to the route and the process in general. Q: Where in the United States haven’t you climbed, that you’d love to? HK: That’s a good question. I would like to climb in Hueco Tanks, Texas, going bouldering. I’ve never been there, and I think it’s on everyone’s bucket list. There are some spots in Southern Utah that I’ve heard amazing things about that I’ve never been able to get to, so that would be really cool as well. To be honest, if it were up to me I would just like to spend all my days in Kentucky. So many hard climbs to do and I feel like I have such a personal connection to it. That’s where I want to be. Q: Do you have a favorite climber? Somebody who you follow? Somebody who you’ve learned a lot from? HK: Growing up you look up to your pro climbers. There were a few personal mentors of mine that I’ve looked up to since I was young, and I still look up to. I doubt they will be listening to this, but Erik Libbe and Dylan Barks are probably ten years older than me and have been there since I started climbing and are huge mentors and friends, and I really look up to them to this day and have learned a lot and am really proud to have them as friends and mentors. They are outstanding climbers and outstanding people. Q: What’s the key to physical training for being an elite climber? What do you think are the aspects that need to have the most focus? HK: it’s similarish to running except it’s a little more technical. You need to have your base endurance. You need to have your raw power. Then you need a combination of both with power endurance. It’s the same as strides, easy running, and speed endurance. Just figuring out the correct dosages and timing. Climbing, the training is a lot less complicated. It’s more about climbing hard and climbing a lot, and really getting after it. I think it really rewards intensity and trying hard as well as the volume of trying a lot. Basically trying hard a lot is the way to do it. There’s no real perfect formula, but you have to be in the gym really getting after it two to four times a week. Q: Upper body versus lower body: do you need a balance there or is there something you need to focus on more? HK: The main limiting factor is your forearm endurance and your finger strength. The max amount of force you can pull with. Beyond that, your upper back is really important as well as your core to have body tension. It all starts, I feel like, from your fingers and shoulders. Fingers, shoulders, and core are really the keys. You really get most of that training from climbing. You can do a few specific exercises like weighted one arm hangs are really effective, front levers are really effective, and some rows for your back. Beyond that just climbing hard will make you really good and really strong. Q: You’ve probably seen American Ninja Warrior at some point. That seems to encourage people to try climbing. Do you think there’s something similar that we could do in the track and field world that would encourage more people to get out and run? HK: That’s interesting. Yeah, I don’t know. I know in Japan they have their Ekidens. I could be wrong, but it’s one of the most viewed television events in the country. I think it’s a matter of really getting eyes on the sport. I guess track and cross country are two of the most participated in high school sports, so just making the connection between all the people running and have them follow the sport. I don’t know, eyes on it in any capacity would help. It’s obviously annoying, it feels like I have thirty different track subscriptions and I still can’t watch all the races I want to see so It's definitely hard. I don’t know, that’s a good point, I’ll have to think about it, but an Ekiden I think would be a pretty cool start. Maybe shorter distance. I’d break it up half mile, mile, 5k. I don’t know about this half marathon leg. That looks brutal. Q: In the future would you be tempted to try Ninja Warrior? HK: Man, maybe. Those guys are so good at it now. I feel like in the past decade or five years people have really specialized in it. I would give it a go. I wouldn’t expect to be competitive, they’re a whole different breed. Q: Have you ever been in the middle of a climb and gotten really scared? HK: Yes. Luckily most of the time you’re safe. You can let go at any point and you’ll just fall into space, but on occasion there are instances where you don’t want to fall, and I really don’t like that. I love climbing. I don’t want to die for it. I stick to the safe climbs. I don’t have the balls some climbers do. Q: What’s the mindset for free climbers? What do you have to have to say, "I’m going without ropes."? HK: I think you have to be nuts. I think maybe there are some people that just really crave really high stimulation that just want those really intense experiences, but I don’t know. They’re crazy. I think they represent such a small percentage of climbers too, a very visible few. Out of every thousand climbers, maybe one consistently free climbs, or maybe one out of every ten thousand. Who knows. It's a very small group, though, and they’re psychos. Q: There aren't too many other track athletes who were competitive climbers. Tori Allen was a pretty good youth pole vaulter, made the world youth championships in the pole vault, and was a great speed climber. Do you know of anybody else who shares this passion, who’s really into climbing? HK: I think on a recreational level there’s a ton of overlap, just fit, active, outdoorsy types. Climbing and running are two of the main activities that you can do to scratch that itch. I think on a recreational level there’s a ton. People trying to be elite, there's a lot fewer as far as I can tell. I’m the only one whose made it to decently high levels in both sports. Again, I think on a recreational level there are thousands and thousands of people that consider themselves runners and climbers. Q: When you went to the international youth championships in 2019 in Italy, how was that experience and what did you learn from that? HK: It was fun. I didn’t really have the conditioning I needed to be competitive, so I didn’t place very well, but it was a great experience and really cool to see what the very best people do. They are on a whole other level. The guy from my category at the time, who was second that year, ended up being an Olympic champion two years later, so that was crazy. I think that was youth A or youth B. Really talented group of people, so it was cool seeing them do their thing. It would have been great to be a part of the finals, but I wasn’t at that level at that time. Q: Can you describe to somebody who doesn’t know anything about climbing, what is "lead climbing" that you competed in. HK: I guess whenever you think of rope climbing you’re thinking of sport climbing or lead climbing. That’s just climbing with a rope and given how steep a lot of these climbs are the safest way to do it is you start from the bottom with your rope, and you clip into anchors every couple feet and then you climb over them and clip into the other one and that’s how you protect yourself. When you fall you get a little airtime but it’s perfectly safe and the way all high-end climbing is done with ropes. Q: What other interests do you have outside of running fast and climbing fast? HK: To be honest, I’m pretty boring. Those are my main two hobbies or activities. I like spending time with my loved ones, friends, and family. Quality time, especially outdoors, is how I like to spend my days. Just hanging out with my buddies or hanging out with my family or both. Guess that’s what I’m into over everything else. Q: Were your mom and dad both competitive, outdoorsy people? HK: Yes. Both great runners and I would say they’re decent climbers. Some of my first running memories are when my mom qualified for the Olympic Trials marathon in 2012 and my dad was coaching at the time. I remember she’d go off on a 20 mile run, and me and my dad would follow her in the car and drop off gels and waters and all that, so those are some of my earliest memories of elite running. It still shaped how I think of it. Having parents with sophisticated understandings of running competitively made it easier because they understood the process more and were able to give me a lot of guidance. Q: What was the best advice they gave you? HK: They’ve been really patient with me. There are never any real expectations to succeed, but once it became clear that it was something I really wanted for myself they were like, be kind to yourself, be patient, and let things stack up over time. That juxtaposed with them being like you still got to get out the door every day, that’s the most important thing. Whether you feel like running or not, getting up and out the door is probably going to be the biggest indicator of long term success. They kind of taught me that, the balance of be patient, let things happen over time along with you still got to put in the work on a daily basis. They kind of taught me I don’t have to be emotionally attached to it, you just get out the door and get it done no matter what. Q: What advice would you give to someone who is in your same situation about what’s the best thing for them to do from high school? HK: I really think depending on your individual circumstances it will be relatively obvious. I would say with going to college some of the advice I received was really helpful which was go somewhere for the people and culture, don’t go for the facilities, don’t go for the locker room, because at the end of the day most of your time is going to be spent either on the bus with them or somewhere out running with them. Really having a good group of guys and girls around you is really key. Also, a coach you know really cares about you as a person, and not just a runner, which at NAU everything lined up with those criteria even though I didn’t go, I still feel like I benefited from choosing a school with great people. Q: What effect do you think social media has had on running? HK: I hope it makes it more marketable and bigger. Personally speaking, I try and stay away from it as much as I can. I’m a little bit addicted, but I try and not have social media on my phone or anything just because I feel like it takes ownership away from the things that I love for whatever reason, maybe that’s individual to me. I don’t like it. I wish it wasn’t a thing. It just grosses me out. That being said it is a great tool, but I don’t know if I’m the one to use it. I just want nothing to do with it.