Has Nico Young surpassed Grant Fisher?

full pod here https://podcast.letsrun.com/episode/b7790054/hocker-s-ar-lutkenhaus-1-44-nico-s-kick-elle-s-record-comeback-can-the-us-sweep-world-indoors-keely-1-56-and-sam-ruthe

Better right now? Hard to say who wins a 5k/10k straight up, I think Nico takes a 3k.

Overall, Fisher has been the main long distance US medal hope and actual medalist for a while now. Nico has some work to do to take that place.

Kind of click baity thread to post in February—we’ll find out in the summer.

Grant has a good track record of bringing his A+ game when it really matters.

Nico looks great but will need to bring home some hardware before I’m convinced

Grant has a longer record of excellence and consistency. It’s so harsh to just write people off like this and likely RoJo momentary hyperbole. Why can’t we appreciate what they’re both doing rather than pitting them against each other in attempt to claim who is better? Grant is older and more experienced. Also what he accomplished at the Olympics is very rare. Nico is performing at a very high level though he is younger. He has potential to do great things in the future but as we know nothing is guaranteed.

Rojo also has an over-inflated view of his own coaching prowess. He should aspire to be more like you - grounded, stable, rational and knowledgeable. When he's good he's really good. When he's bad he goes to pieces. (song lyric, i think Bowie)

Those hep championships would say otherwise. Rojo could fix Athing, get Cooper to sub 1:40, and turn the other Cooper into gold medal threat in the steeple.

I’d say Nico is level with Grant right now but trending past him. Grant has been a disappointment since the Olympics. Nico getting better and better.

Does Young bring an A- game when it matters? Who has the better game face?

Well Grant has two Olympic medals, so I think he deserves the praise.

Nico might one day do the same or even get a silver or gold. And that would be great. I hope he does

I don't think Grant breaking two indoor world records last year was disappointing.

The kneejerk reactions to Nico's performances have been all over the place lately. Last month, people were asserting that Nico's career was going downhill after two subpar cross country races. Now he's surpassed Grant Fisher as America's best distance runner after two indoor track races!

It's easy to get caught up in recency bias, but let's not forget that Grant outkicked Cole Hocker in their 3k duel last year, he closed in 51 to win the GST Kingston 5k, and he kicked his way to two Olympic medals in Paris. Grant also still holds the American records at 3k, 5k, and 10k (and is #2 at 2k).

To Nico's credit, he did beat Grant in 3 out of 4 championship races last year, he won a Diamond League meet, and his kick last weekend was very impressive. But I think he needs to do more to say he's surpassed Fisher.

Huh? Multiple AR's and two olympic bronze medals say otherwise. Nice may just surpass this; but at the moment, he is a clear #2.

In response to Wejo’s question, I believe they are dead even from 1500m/mile to 10000m. “One day” will be next year’s WC.

I think Rojo meant "Past accomplishments aside, Nico is better than Grant this year."

I would wait until outdoors before making grand proclamations.

The only problem I have with this statement is that Nico is pretty inconsistent, sometimes he has insane indoor seasons, then poor outdoor seasons, or peaks to early in outdoors. I'd say peak for peak Nico is and will be better than Grant Fisher (meaning I view Nico as a bigger medal threat).

Nico is clearly the heir-apparent, but let's not jump the gun here

I'm just busting balls. I didn't realize how important the Heps are. I always thought that the NCAAs, and the number of All-Americas were the standard for college coaches? ;-)

I think Young is certainly on Fisher's level. However, I don't think he has established himself as the top guy amongst the other guys his own age, not to mention Fisher. Wolfe, Blanks, and Young are all born within a year of each other. Can we really say that one of these guys is head and shoulders above the other two?

His DL win last year was crazy impressive, and he beat Fisher at USAs and Worlds. I don't think he's surpassed Fisher in terms of who has had the better career, but he's ahead of where Fisher was at this point in his career, and I think it's more than defensible to say he's the best 5k/10k guy in the country right now. Personally, I think it's too close to call, particularly because Fisher was injured for Worlds last year, and he just ran under the 2k WR, coming super close to holding 2k/3k/5k WRs at the same time, and he ran 3:48 last year at Pre.

Gold at World Indoors would sway me in Nico's favor, but right now, I'm more than happy that we can argue between two guys that are that good, not to mention Hocker, who is better than both of them at 1500/5k.

This is where I land as well. Nico’s body of work has some exceptional, world class wins/times, but they’re mixed in with near-misses and other lesser results. It also seems to me that Nico over races, which I think works against him.