FOR FISHER, PARIS OLYMPIC MEDALS LEAVE HIM HUNGRY FOR MORE
By David Monti, @d9monti
(c) 2025 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved - Used with permission.

BOSTON (01-Feb) -- Leaving Paris last August with bronze medals in both the 5000m and 10,000m, Grant Fisher was equal parts exhilarated and exhausted.  The 27 year-old Nike-sponsored athlete had fulfilled his life-long dream to become an Olympic medalist, but he needed time to process what had happened and prepare himself for another grueling year of training and racing.  In 2025 he not only hopes to medal at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo in September, but will also be competing in the new Grand Slam Track series which will claim him for four weekends beginning in early April.

"Paris, that was a dream come true," Fisher told reporters at a press conference today.  "The dream came true twice.  Afterwards I was completely fried.  I was mentally, emotionally just cooked.  There's so much built into an Olympic year that afterwards, whether it goes well or it goes poorly, you're just so, so tired.  So I took a long break."

Fisher, with his coach Mike Scannell, have carefully constructed their 2025 program which begins here with the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix tomorrow.  Fisher will step down to the 1500m which he hopes will not only bust his winter "rust" but also allow him to work on his racing skills.

"We're coming through quick," Fisher said, after today's press conference moderator Geoff Wightman told him that the pacemaker would be going through 800 meters in about 1:53.  "I'm going to get the legs moving a little bit and see if I can wind it up with these guys."

"These guys" include 2022 world 1500m champion Jake Wightman of Great Britain, 2022 Commonwealth Games 1500m gold medalist Oliver Hoare of Australia, and American 1000m record holder Josh Hoey (whose brother Jonah will be pacing the race).  Fisher only ran one race after last summer's Olympics, then called it a season.  After months of rebuilding his base, tomorrow's race should provide a pleasant jolt to his system, and perhaps a personal best.  His fastest-ever 1500m is the 3:34.90 he ran last June in New York (he's run nearly as fast indoors --3:34.99-- in Madrid two years ago).  He said he is ready.

"My training has been really, really strong," said Fisher.  "I like where I'm at.  Tomorrow will be a really good test of where the legs are.  This isn't my marquee event by any means, but I want to compete and I want to try to win.  That's why everybody shows up to a race.  I'm sure these guys will be looking for the same thing."

Fisher, who won the USA Olympic Trials at both the 5000m and 10,000m is the national record holder for both distances (12:46.96 and 26:33.84, respectively).  In Paris he beat the fourth place finishers in the 5000m (Dominic Lobalu of the Athlete Refugee Team) and 10,000m (Moh Ahmed of Canada) by a combined total of .47 seconds, showing both his closing speed and racing chops.  Even though he's stepping down in distance, he's still looking to be very competitive against some of the world's best milers.

"A personal best would be great, but competing for the win is what I'm really looking for," said Fisher.  "This race is going to go fast enough so if I'm competing for the win, if I'm in that conversation towards the end, it will be a PB."

Fisher has three races planned for the indoor season: the 1500m here, a 3000m at the Millrose Games next Saturday in New York (where he will race against Olympic 1500m gold medalist Cole Hocker), and a 5000m in Boston at the super-fast track at Boston University.  He's not planning to compete in the USATF Indoor Championships later this month or the World Athletics Indoor Championships in China at the end of March.  His dance card is full.

"Right now I don't plan on it," Fisher said of the World Indoor Championships.  "Ultimately, I'm committed to the Grand Slam Track league.  That backs up really closely to it.  Structuring out my season, it's really challenging to be at a high level all year with a late World Championships on the track in September.  In order to do the Grand Slams properly, in order to be my best at USA's and be my best at World Championships in Tokyo I need a little downtime.  Unfortunately, that falls in that downtime."

Winning two medals last year has given Fisher more motivation to train and compete.  He's raised his aspirations to run faster and finish higher.

"It wasn't really too hard," said Fisher, when asked about whether he had trouble motivating himself to get back into training last fall.  "Winning a World Championship, or winning a global title, probably feels different than third (place).  Third was everything I hoped and wished for; I wanted a medal really bad.  I had been really close in the past but had never gotten one.  So, finally getting one felt incredible."

He continued: "But after, my next goal was very obvious.  I think when you win a gold it's a little harder to determine what the next goal is.  So, I didn't really feel a lack of motivation.  It was pretty easy to set my next target.  I was really tired at the end of the year, but by the end of my break I was really motivated and ready to go again."

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Tomorrow's meet here is one of just two World Athletics Indoor Tour gold-level events in the United States (the Millrose Games is the other).  The competition will be held at The TRACK at New Balance just west of the city center, and organizers said today that the meet is sold out.  It will be broadcast nationally by NBC Sports on both over-the-air television and their streaming service Peacock at 4:00 p.m. EST.


PHOTO: Grant Fisher at a press conference in Boston on February 1 in advance of the 2025 New Balance Indoor Grand Prix (photo by Jane Monti for Race Results Weekly)


PHOTO: Grant Fisher winning the 10,000m at the 2024 USA Olympic Trials (photo by Jane Monti for Race Results Weekly)