The most sensible thing for Fisher, seemingly, would be to stay on the track through 2028 and then try to make another Olympic team in the marathon in 2032.
I will be a little disappointed if he doesn’t race a half marathon in 2026, though. With it being a non-championship year after an unprecedented 5-year stretch of championships, it’s the perfect opportunity for World XC and a fast half debut.
He’ll be 35 yr old in 2032. I do agree that 2026 is the year for him to try a half marathon, and if it goes well, try a fall marathon (?Chicago). Then he can decide if he’s ready for the roads and done with the track. I suspect he thinks he’s more competitive in the 5K/10K, and has a better chance to medal in a home Olympics in 2028 on the track.
He flew too close to the sun indoors and never was at that level outdoors. He should take a good rest and work toward wr attempts next July-August. Last year, he got it really right. The previous year he set himself up very well after injury by closing out the season right. Hopefully, he will be in 12:30s shape next summer and be ready in 2027 to be a real threat to win the 5 and 10. It's not like he hasn't outkicked Hocker before.
In his interview with Lewis Johnson, Grant talked about being tired after the U.S. championships, and he mentioned the high level of competition we now have at the national level.
Moving forward, I think USATF should reconsider the scheduling of the U.S. championships during world championship years. It's a lot to have our best 5k-10k guys race each other at those distances twice in four days. It would be better for USATF to do what they did in 2022, when they had the 10k as a separate standalone event a month before the 5k and the rest of the championships. Or, at the very least, have a week in between the 10k and 5k races.
We need to give our best distances runners a chance to recover in between their national championship efforts so they aren't worn down at the conclusion of USAs.
Posts like this seem to overlook a very fundamental issue: Distance running is intensely competitive. On any given day any one of a number of people can win a race. Depending on the person’s fitness that day, tactics, etc.. You had a dozen people together with 400m to go, and Cole Hocker was 12th. And he won. Big Congratulations to him. Fisher was in the lead group at that point and he didn’t win or medal. So what? Nobody calls a golfer who won the Masters last year and finishes 10th this year “past his prime.”
But I assume Fisher will head for the marathon before long; more money than in the 10,000, I imagine.
I agree this is a good idea. Also, while Nationals usually have just a single race in the 5k the Olympic Trials IIRC usually have a prelim. They should do away with that. There are very few people who even have the Olympic standard; it’s a waste to make those who have it race twice. The idea that the Trials format should duplicate that of the Olympics is absurd; the four-day Nationals was quite sufficient for picking a Worlds team, no reason to use a longer meet for the Olympics.
In his interview with Lewis Johnson, Grant talked about being tired after the U.S. championships, and he mentioned the high level of competition we now have at the national level.
Moving forward, I think USATF should reconsider the scheduling of the U.S. championships during world championship years. It's a lot to have our best 5k-10k guys race each other at those distances twice in four days. It would be better for USATF to do what they did in 2022, when they had the 10k as a separate standalone event a month before the 5k and the rest of the championships. Or, at the very least, have a week in between the 10k and 5k races.
We need to give our best distances runners a chance to recover in between their national championship efforts so they aren't worn down at the conclusion of USAs.
But he did well last year. So we shouldn’t move USAs just because of one person.
I admire Grant as one of the greatest US long distance runners, but he is passed his prime, and probably losing his passion for the sport. Will be highly surprised if he ever medals again.
Definitely passed the prime of his 2025 season. And being that championship season is over I doubt he ever medals again this year too.
As for his career? LOL. No. Fishers future has world medals ahead still. Bank on it.
In his interview with Lewis Johnson, Grant talked about being tired after the U.S. championships, and he mentioned the high level of competition we now have at the national level.
Moving forward, I think USATF should reconsider the scheduling of the U.S. championships during world championship years. It's a lot to have our best 5k-10k guys race each other at those distances twice in four days. It would be better for USATF to do what they did in 2022, when they had the 10k as a separate standalone event a month before the 5k and the rest of the championships. Or, at the very least, have a week in between the 10k and 5k races.
We need to give our best distances runners a chance to recover in between their national championship efforts so they aren't worn down at the conclusion of USAs.
But he did well last year. So we shouldn’t move USAs just because of one person.
Notice that I said my suggestion was for WC years. The Olympic Trials have a different schedule with more days in between the 10k and 5k races. The Trials aren't compressed into four days like USAs are in WC years.
Grant wasn't the only American distance runner who looked flat in Tokyo. Nico also said his legs didn't have it in his interview after the 5k.
So many people have over complicated the results from this WC. Kenya sweeped all the Women's distance events. It's no surprise that in an incredibly warm/humid champs, largely speaking the athletes that did well were either from Africa (Chebet, Odira, Faith, Chepchichir, Jerotich, Wanyonyi, Sedjati, Kejelcha, etc) or had been experimenting with heat training extensively (Gressier, Almgren, Clayton Young, Beamish), meanwhile the non-heat-trained Western athletes suffered
I'm sure this thread was trolling anyway, but it's still a stupid assertion when there was such an obvious external factor at play
So many people have over complicated the results from this WC. Kenya sweeped all the Women's distance events. It's no surprise that in an incredibly warm/humid champs, largely speaking the athletes that did well were either from Africa (Chebet, Odira, Faith, Chepchichir, Jerotich, Wanyonyi, Sedjati, Kejelcha, etc) or had been experimenting with heat training extensively (Gressier, Almgren, Clayton Young, Beamish), meanwhile the non-heat-trained Western athletes suffered
I'm sure this thread was trolling anyway, but it's still a stupid assertion when there was such an obvious external factor at play
Those african runners are from altitude where it's nice and cool. Perhaps they specifically trained for the conditions somewhere/somehow, but their heat tolerance isn't due to their homeland.
I admire Grant as one of the greatest US long distance runners, but he is passed his prime, and probably losing his passion for the sport. Will be highly surprised if he ever medals again.
Ran 12:44 indoors in February. He raced a lot this year. He was lured by GST’s promise of money and played that game to perfection. Definitely an overconfidence that he could fit any race into a schedule and have WC work out well. If Paris went so well, why deviate from the plan? Like all BTC runners, his window was very small. His new set up should buy him a little more time but he lost the plot. The goal is to win medals not accrue money. It wasn’t about supporting US meets. It was about the temptation of all the zeros MJ promised. That cost him. Then he raced a few more times after USAs. Too much racing.
Absurd to say he's done, but it is true that Fisher will never have a better chance to win a global gold than this year's 10k specifically, and he and Scannell badly mistimed the peak. Somewhat understandable since he thought he was gonna get paid, but still.
He'll stick with the track at least through 2028, and I get it, but we might miss out on seeing an American born athlete run 2:02/2:03 because of it. Hope he at least tries seriously running a half next year.