American Escapes Disaster to Win Medal in Most Unlikely Olympic Event

The United States’ haul of track and field medals at the Paris Olympics should be significant. Noah Lyles, Sha’Carri Richardson and Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone are among Team USA’s multiple favorites to win gold.

No American track and field medal will be more unexpected than the one captured by Grant Fisher on Friday.

On the opening day of competition at Stade de France, the 27-year-old Michigan native and Stanford alum finished third in the men’s 10,000 meters final with a time of 26 minutes and 43.46 seconds. Fisher’s bronze was only the second medal won by an American in the last 56 years.

Billy Mills won gold in the longest race on the Olympic track at the 1964 Tokyo Games. No American has won the 10,000 since, man or woman. Galen Rupp took silver in the men’s 10,000 at the 2012 London Olympics.

That’s the daunting history Fisher faced entering the Paris Games. He also was up against a 10,000-meters field featuring Uganda’s Joshua Cheptegei, the world-record holder at 26:11.00, and Ethiopia’s Yomif Kejelcha, owner of the world’s fastest time this year at 26:31.01.

Fisher won both the 10,000 and the 5,000 at the U.S. Olympic Trials and holds the American record in both events. His personal-best 10,000 time of 26:33.84, the ninth-fastest time ever, gave him hope of contending for a medal.

A self-inflicted wound nearly cost Fisher a place on the podium.

In the middle of the race, Fisher stepped on the inside railing and nearly took a disastrous spill. He twisted his ankle but kept his balance.

On the final lap, Fisher had to navigate his way through traffic to keep pace with the leaders. Off the final turn, he found open road and began his final kick as if he was shot out of a cannon. He moved his way into silver medal position but got caught at the finish line by Ethiopia’s Berihu Aregawi.

The race was the fastest 10,000 meters in Summer Games history. Cheptegei won gold with an Olympic record time of 26:43.14.

“The narrative when I was a kid was, ‘You just can’t run with East Africans, you can’t run with the Europeans.’ I hope I showed I’m capable of that,” Fisher said afterward.
“I hope people see as my mindset shifts, America’s can as well.”