eagleeye wrote:
I think I'm slowly getting on board the Cole Hocker train for the 3rd spot. It's hard for me to envision a scenario where an Olympic 1500 Champion who is a 3:27/7:23 guy, all done within the last year, who has specifically said his goal for this year is to make both the 1500 and 5000 teams, isn't able to finish top 3 in a race that is run after rounds in warm weather. Barring injuries, the only scenario I can see where Cole gets dropped is if Graham makes it a 12:50 race.
I'd also like to take this moment to remind everyone that an American with a faster PR than Jakob has a decent shot of not even making the team (Graham)
Bad logic.
It's counter intuitive but I bleieve warm weather makes it HARDER to hang with the pack.
Anyways. JGault has written about the 5000 as well. Fun fact, in the history of USAs,there has never been the same top 3 in the 10,000 and 5,000.
JG wrote:
2025 has been a historic year for American men’s 5,000-meter running. Grant Fisher got things started in Boston on February 14, when he ran a world indoor record of 12:44.09 (the time also bettered his outright American record of 12:46.96). At the time, Fisher was the only American man ever under 12:50, but four months later, Nico Young (12:45.27) and Graham Blanks (12:48.20) joined him in the club in Oslo. Young also won that Diamond League race — one of the most significant victories ever by an American 5,000-meter man.
Americans Bob Schul and Bill Dellinger went 1-3 at the 1964 Olympics before the East Africans were really on the scene, and Bernard Lagat and Matt Tegenkamp finished 1-4 at the 2007 Worlds, with Teg coming just .03 shy of a medal. But in terms of depth, one through three, there has never been a harder US team to make than this one in 2025. Because in addition to the three fastest Americans ever in Fisher, Young, and Blanks, the field at USAs also includes these guys:
Parker Wolfe (13:10.75 pb): Wolfe is a year younger than Young and Blanks, and he beat both of them to win the NCAA 5,000m title in 2024. Then he beat Blanks again to finish 3rd at last year’s Olympic Trials. The talent is there, but he’s dealt with some bad luck — he didn’t go to the Olympics last year because he didn’t have the standard, and he missed NCAAs this year due to a foot injury.
Abdihamid Nur (13:03.17 pb): Nur won USAs in 2023 and pushed Fisher to the line at the ’24 Trials, but tore his posterior tibial tendon at the Olympics and has only raced twice since (3:43 for 1500, 13:34 for 5k).
Cooper Teare (12:54.72 pb): Teare, the 2022 USA 1500 champ, has run 7:30 and 12:57 (twice) in 2025, yet he was not the top American in any of those races. In fact, in his most recent 12:57 in Oslo, he was barely within 10 seconds of the closest American. The bar is high in 2025.
Woody Kincaid (12:51.61 pb): Kincaid is the fourth-fastest American ever and possesses one of the most feared kicks of his generation. But he’s also 32 and was just 9th at the last two US championships.
Dylan Jacobs (13:07.89 pb): 5th last year, then 5th at World Indoors in March in the 3,000.
Drew Hunter (13:08.57 pb): Things have clicked for Hunter in the last year. He was 4th in the 10,000 at last year’s Olympic Trials and enters USAs fresh off a 3:33 1500m pb/win at Sunset Tour.
Sam Gilman (13:15.58 pb): Gilman was 4th at World Indoors in the 3,000 this year while balancing a full-time job in the Air Force and training largely alone in Dayton, Ohio. Now he’s in the Air Force WCAP and has been able to spend the last few months training at altitude in Utah. Gilman has a dangerous kick (he was 2nd in the 3k at Grand Slam Track Philly, beating Blanks and others) and is a threat in a slower race.
Cole Hocker (12:57.82 pb): Oh yeah, the Olympic 1500 champ is running this race! Hocker has talked all year about wanting to double at Worlds. On paper, a 3:27/7:23/12:57 guy with an Olympic-winning kick should be close to unbeatable in a championship 5k, but Hocker was only 7th at the Trials last year. That was his fifth race in 10 days; this year, the 5,000 will be his third race in four.
Fisher, Young, and Blanks have been by far the three fastest guys this year, each posting multiple impressive races. But they’re also the heavy favorites to go 1-2-3 in the 10,000, and since the 5,000 was first held at USAs in 1933, there has never been a year where the same three guys finished in the top three in both the 10,000 and 5,000. It’s hard to bounce back from a 10,000 on Thursday night and run a great 5,000 three days later. Even if Fisher, Young, and Blanks take care of business in the 10,000, chances are good someone will break them up in the 5,000.
The other storyline to watch is whether Young can dethrone Fisher as the champion. Fisher has not lost to an American in a race beyond one mile since July 2023, and after last year’s twin medals at the Olympics, he looked destined to rule the 5k and 10k in the US for several more years. Now he’s got a 23-year-old Nico Young winning a Diamond League (Fisher’s never done that) and breathing down his neck. Both men are legitimate medal threats in Tokyo; it’s a treat for US distance fans that we get to see them duel twice in Eugene this weekend.
This week's podcast. We talk about the 5000 at the 51:11 mark:
