After listening to the LR podcast it got me thinking about Jimmy's 10k victory. I mean here is someone who has never medalled period. All the sudden he is the World 10k Champ and wins a bronze in the 5k! So if it is all down to training what has he done differently?
After listening to the LR podcast it got me thinking about Jimmy's 10k victory. I mean here is someone who has never medalled period. All the sudden he is the World 10k Champ and wins a bronze in the 5k! So if it is all down to training what has he done differently?
Jimmy share your training!
Maybe he found more in makhloufi’s locker than just sweaty socks?
After listening to the LR podcast it got me thinking about Jimmy's 10k victory. I mean here is someone who has never medalled period. All the sudden he is the World 10k Champ and wins a bronze in the 5k! So if it is all down to training what has he done differently?
Jimmy share your training!
I mean, he hasn't really made any big jumps in fitness, but he didn't need to for worlds this year, which had one of the slowest winning times in the 10k ever. He was just better acclimated, didn't have pressure as a favorite, and had great tactics day-of.
What I dont get is how he developed such a monster kick out of nowhere. He has never been in the mix on the last lap at Euros and earlier this year he got destroyed by Schrub in the last 100m in the French championships over 5000m
He hasn’t done much differently. He’s just a handsome dude. He goes through women faster than he goes through teams (he’s with the Dams now if you lost count). He got a two game suspension for violating his TUE, but that is just how the man rolls.
I think he's always had a solid kick but was never in position to actually use it.
I think maybe the biggest thing is the heat and humidity slowed the races down enough to give him a chance to use his kick
The 5k was won in a time not too far off his PB with a big kick. He got bronze. The 5k has been won in much slower times at previous global and European championships but he still wasn’t able to use his “solid kick” in those races either. It seems like something changed this year.
European cross country champ 4 (3x u23 , 1xsenior)
Zurich diamond league 3000
If he 3 times NCAA cross country and a 1 senior? dont know if that exist in the US or if its just NCAA and an American continent championship in 10.000, y'all would be saying that this was just a matter of time. Lets say Nico young took it? How would you feel? Doping as well?
European cross country champ 4 (3x u23 , 1xsenior)
Zurich diamond league 3000
If he 3 times NCAA cross country and a 1 senior? dont know if that exist in the US or if its just NCAA and an American continent championship in 10.000, y'all would be saying that this was just a matter of time. Lets say Nico young took it? How would you feel? Doping as well?
If he was American, people would still be surprised, very surprised.
We would think he was a talented runner who was a cross country specialist with no chance on the track. And then suddenly he wins the whole thing? It would have been more shocking than say a Todd Williams winning it all back in the day.
You don't normally go from track also ran to world champion in your late 20s. In the history of worlds, there is only one other case close to this and he also was European - Mo Farah. And there were plenty of similar questions of - how did he get so much better?
I have compiled a chart that shows you the ages of all of the world 10,000m champions on the men's side. When Farah won his first 10000 world title, he was 30 (he won hist first 5000 at 28 and an Olympic 10,000 at 29). That is an outlier. The oldest previous first time champion besides him was just 25.
Year Location Champion Nationality Age at Win ---- ----------- ------------------ ----------- ---------- 1983 Helsinki Alberto Cova ITA 24 1987 Rome Paul Kipkoech KEN 24 1991 Tokyo Moses Tanui KEN 25 1993 Stuttgart Haile Gebrselassie ETH 20 1995 Gothenburg Haile Gebrselassie ETH 22 1997 Athens Haile Gebrselassie ETH 24 1999 Seville Haile Gebrselassie ETH 26 2001 Edmonton Charles Kamathi KEN 23 2003 Saint-Denis Kenenisa Bekele ETH 21 2005 Helsinki Kenenisa Bekele ETH 23 2007 Osaka Kenenisa Bekele ETH 25 2009 Berlin Kenenisa Bekele ETH 27 2011 Daegu Ibrahim Jeilan ETH 22 2013 Moscow Mo Farah GBR 30 2015 Beijing Mo Farah GBR 32 2017 London Mo Farah GBR 34 2019 Doha Joshua Cheptegei UGA 23 2022 Eugene Joshua Cheptegei UGA 25 2023 Budapest Joshua Cheptegei UGA 26 2025 Tokyo Jimmy Gressier FRA 28
I've bolded the ages of the fist time champions.
-Rojo
PS. For full disclosure , there are plenty of first time 5000 champs who were over the age of 25 at their first win including: Eamon Coghlan (30), Said Aouita (27), Yobes Ondieki (30), Salah Hissou (27), Benjamin Limo (27), Bernard Lagat (32), Kenenisa Bekele (27), Mo Farah (28).
He's 28 now and was never a major medal threat at World or Olympics until this year. The biggest area he has improved over the years is the 1500m. He has improved every single year but one in his career. The 10000m dropped to 26:58 last year (27:07 on the roads) and the 5000m dropped from 2022 to 2023 by 12 seconds, to 12:56, now 12:51, but the speed really progressed to the point that he's among the fastest 1500m men in those 10000m and 5000m races, and he couples that somehow with fitness that goes all the way to sub-60 for half marathon.
1500 Metres 2016 3:48.91 Villeneuve d'Ascq, Villeneuve d'Ascq (FRA) 10 JUN 2016 2017 3:43.78 Bruay-la-Buissiere Meeting National, Bruay-la-Buissiere (FRA) 04 JUL 2017 2018 3:40.46 Montreuil Meeting Elite, Montreuil (FRA) 19 JUN 2018 2019 3:37.83 Meeting de Marseille Pro Athlé Tour, Marseille (FRA) 02 JUL 2019 2020 3:36.04 59th Ostrava Golden Spike, Mestský Stadion, Ostrava (CZE) 08 SEP 2020 2021 3:35.97 Meeting International, Stade Delort, Marseille (FRA) 09 JUN 2021 2022 3:36.09 Meeting National à thème de l'Est Lyonnais, Stade Raymond Troussier, Decines (FRA) 11 JUN 2022 2023 3:33.90 Fast 5000, Montesson (FRA) 10 JUN 2023 2024 3:34.58 Meeting National Est Lyonnais, Stade Raymond Troussier, Decines (FRA) 04 MAY 2024 2025 3:32.71 Night of Athletics, Stadion De Veen, Heusden-Zolder (BEL) 19 JUL 2025
This is it. He dropped over 1 second off his 1500m best and 6 seconds off of his 3k best this year. He just got faster over the shorter distances. Add in slower paces where he could leverage that new found speed, along with his endurance, and it was a perfect set up for him.
After listening to the LR podcast it got me thinking about Jimmy's 10k victory. I mean here is someone who has never medalled period. All the sudden he is the World 10k Champ and wins a bronze in the 5k! So if it is all down to training what has he done differently?
I don't know if he's done anything different with his training and I doubt he needed to. What was very different at the Worlds this year was how the race unfolded. You've got a slow enough pace that almost everyone in the field was in contention in the last couple laps and a big enough field that some guys who could have a good enough kick to win couldn't get clear enough to use that kick. But he managed to. Positioning was at least as important as fitness.
And there were comments suggesting that there was strict drug testing at the meet which may have been problematic for East African runners. I believe Gressier actually said something to that effect, for what it's worth.
Jimmy has one of the best records amongst elites of consistent year-on-year progress to now own PR's if 3:32/3:52/7:30/12:51/26:58/59:45.
He's not always been a World beater but over the years he's edged into the frame (for things other than his finish line antics). The first time I sat forward and paid attention was 2023: he ran sub13 and for a white athlete of course that is noteworthy, but then later that year he went on to battle really well for 5th at the World Athletics Road Champs HM where he broke 60:00. That was more noteworthy than the 5000m.
Ever since then he's continued progressing really well across all distances 1500-10K:
By comparison, Grant Fisher's 2024 PR's were 3:34/7:27/12:51/26:43 and everyone expects massive things from him. Did I pick Gressier to win? maybe not, but put some respect on his name for sure.
I don't know if he's done anything different with his training and I doubt he needed to. What was very different at the Worlds this year was how the race unfolded. You've got a slow enough pace that almost everyone in the field was in contention in the last couple laps and a big enough field that some guys who could have a good enough kick to win couldn't get clear enough to use that kick. But he managed to. Positioning was at least as important as fitness.
And there were comments suggesting that there was strict drug testing at the meet which may have been problematic for East African runners. I believe Gressier actually said something to that effect, for what it's worth.
That's true for the 10,000. He also medalled in a 12:58 5000.
Interesting you mention Fisher's 2024 SBs in comparison to Gressier's PBs. Gressier was *not* on Fisher's level last year nor at the beginning of this year.
Fisher ran that 12:51 indoors to win a race where second place was 13:04. Gressier ran 12:54 last year in Oslo to finish 11th, more than 18 seconds behind the winner.
Fisher ran 15 seconds faster than Gressier in the Olympic 10k. Fisher finished 3rd, Gressier was 13th.
Fisher won bronze in the Olympic 5k. Gressier failed to make the final.
At Millrose this year, Fisher ran 7:22 and Gressier was more than 7 seconds behind him in 7:30.
At the BU Valentine meet this year, Fisher ran 12:44 and Gressier was 10 seconds behind him in 12:54.
Prior to this summer, Gressier hadn't done anything to indicate he was on Fisher's level as a medal contender. Something changed with Gressier this year, and it's fair to wonder what.
