Has Nico Young surpassed Grant Fisher?

If you're mainly thinking about 2027 and 2028, then keep in mind that Fisher has said he might choose to target the marathon, depending on how things go with his foray into longer distance road racing.

As whatchamacallit said, we can anticipate that Wolfe will be a major 5k-10k US contender moving forward. I don't think Blanks is going anywhere, even though his kick isn't as good. There's also a very strong cadre of young runners coming up.

Fisher has the hardware, the times and had a frustrating (for him) year last year over 5,000/10,000. That doesn't mean Young is currently better than him.

If Fisher had run at Millrose and run well...based on his 2000m there was no reason to think that he wouldn't run well if not win the race.....would you even suggest this? I doubt it.

An opinion that Young may be better over the next few years I can understand but a declaration that Young is currently better than Fisher is not a particularly good opinion.

I feel like the Olympic 10k race fisher ran is underrated because he “only” got bronze. Wasn’t the time like 26:45? And it was un-rabbited. And had all of the big dogs in it.

Rojo is just mad because Grant didn't run world XC. He's very biased.

Wasn't there a thread not even a year ago about whether or not Grant had finally surpassed Galen Rupp as America's top distance runner? So, the idea here is that Nico has also already passed Galen Rupp? Absolutely insane thread. This feels like the thread you post only so that if/when he does pass him in 1-2+ years time in terms of accomplishments, you can look back and say "I said it first". Nico is a fantastic runner, but he needs a medal before this is even a conversation

Nico is absolutely better than Grant right now just factoring in the last year. As a career though? No

We aren't talking about career accomplishments. I mean by that count Fisher is way >>> than Young.

I was only thinking about 5/10k on the track right now. And it just blew my mind that if you think about it for just the last 12 months only, there is no doubt Young has surpassed Fisher. He's 100% had a better last 12 months than Grant Fisher. Just got off the phone with JG and he said it was a fact.

That thought would have been LAUGHABLE last year at this time when Grant was coming off of two Olympic medals and two indoor WRs.

Nico choked too hard at Worlds to be considered better than Fisher.

Didn't I just watch Grant break Bekele's 2K WR (I know he finished second) while training for his debut in the Half Marathon???? How much sharpening do you actually think he did for that indoor 2K?

I think he's going to run around 59:0x for the HM and then carry that strength into Outdoors where he breaks his 5K or 10K AR this summer.

Blame me if it's click-baity. How else should I frame it?

I thought it was a very worthy point to discuss from the podcast. I sort of took it from granted Grant is #1 but Rojo makes a good point.

The time at the top is VERY limited in our sport. 2 Olympics cycles is rare.

Yes you did. And if Grant ran Millorse and blasted it we might not be even having this debate. Nico's kick was impressive in the 3000 but a year ago Grant blasted Cole Hocker to set a 3000 world record.

Well I am not sure it would have been laughable. If we go back roughly a year, Nico ran 3:50 and 12:51 indoors at age 22. So while one might not assume that Nico would be as good or better than Grant, who is now 28, one might not find it laughable either. Certainly when it comes to the track, most 28 year olds have run their best times already.

hahaha 😝 lolol

NO, Mike Smith has failed Nico Young

The first thing I thought of when this thread started, that Nico > Grant and Cooper L > Josh H was Hobbs Kessler's T&FN quote recently: "I know I've been the benefactor of this, but this fixation with the prodigy seems to be a really big thing. I feel like I got almost more attention in high school when I had the promise to do what I'm doing now...". The comparisons aren't completely aligned, but the general premise that relative youth and perceived potential are greater than recent accomplishments struck me as worth noting.

I think the Nico vs Grant and Cooper L vs. Josh H debates are legit, and fun. We're lucky to have so much talent these days and don't have to claim Almgren is the greatest in history and expect serious debate. But... Hobbs has a point. In today's world "What have you done lately?" has turned into "What are you going to do soon?"

A bit of a short sided statement from Rojo, I expect better of him, and to make a generalization without context is amateur. As of today, Grant is the BEST American distance runner. His range of times, combined with success at the world majors proves this without a doubt. That being said, Nico is definitely the heir apparent, and if he continues to improve the way he has, and can match Grant's success at global majors which would podium better than bronze (both the 5k and 10k) he can then lay claim of de-throning Grant.

hold on their tiger. as soon as young produces some olympic hardwear, he can be joined in the conversation. until then, keep on runnin'.

I think Nico Young is Grant Fisher's equal, but neither is the best 5K and 10K runner in the US as Rojo said. The best 5K runner in the US without question is Cole Hocker.

Looking ahead to '27 and '28, there may be others in the mix such as Yared Nuguse, Parker Wolfe and Ethan Strand.

It's even worse in baseball. There are whold podcasts devoted to Orioles prospects. I listen to one here in town and one of the guys admitted he didn't even watch many Orioles games (admittedly maybe he only meant last year when they disappointed). He's watching the minors.