PARIS, France – Grant Fisher ’19 won an NCAA title at Stanford and holds four American records, but his crowning achievement as a runner came Friday when Fisher captured bronze in the 10,000 meters at the Olympic Games.
In a wild finish in which the top six finished within a second of each other, Fisher ran 26:43.46 to become the second American to medal in that event since Billy Mills won gold in 1964. Galen Rupp (silver) in 2012 was the other.
Fisher, the 2017 NCAA outdoor 5,000 champion, was focused from the gun. The pace was honest and Fisher, with a couple of brief exceptions, always was near the leaders. At every kilometer, Fisher was no further back than fifth, which came at the 7K mark.
On the final two laps, Fisher had the inside, but was boxed in. However, he remained patient and a gap opened as they rounded the final turn. For a moment, Fisher seemed to have a shot at Uganda’s Joshua Cheptegei, who would in an Olympic record of 26:43.14, but in the frenzy of the finish, Fisher ended up getting nosed out by Ethiopia’s Berihu Aregawi for silver by 0.02.
Next, Fisher races in the first round of the 5,000 on August 7th at 2:10 a.m. PT.
Friday marked Fisher’s first medal at a major world event. At the 2022 World Championships in Eugene he finished fourth in the 10,000 and sixth in the 5,000. He missed the 2023 World Championships in Budapest after finishing fourth at nationals while running on a stress fracture. This is his second Olympic Games, having finished fifth in the 10,000 and ninth in the 5,000 in Tokyo in 2021.
In 2023, Fisher shattered his own American record in the 3,000, running 7:25.46 at the Prefontaine Classic. He holds U.S. outdoor records in the 3,000, 5,000, and 10,000.
At Stanford, Fisher was a 12-time All-American and a two-time Pac-12 cross country champion. An electrical engineering major, Fisher was the 2017 USTFCCCA Men's Track Scholar Athlete of the Year, a two-time USTFCCCA Men's Cross Country Scholar Athlete of the Year, and the 2018 Pac-12 Men's Cross Country Scholar Athlete of the Year.
The first day of track and field at the 2024 Olympics featured five Stanford athletes – four alums and rising sophomore Juliette Whittaker, who advanced to Sunday’s semifinals in the women’s 800 by placing third in the first heat to qualify on place, running 2:00.45. She became the first active Stanford athlete to compete in Olympic track and field since Gabe Jennings advanced to the 1,500 semifinals in the 2000 Sydney Games.