Fisher Happy To Step Down To The Mile At Prefontaine Classic

Editor’s note: The art of story-telling is being lost in the modern scourge of social media. While the world of social media is more of the knowledge of the tree of good and evil, story-telling is what, in my opinion, is missing from much of track and field writing. 

David Monti, and his wife, Jane Monti, have covered the sport for over three decades. David’s writing is crisp and thoughtful, and Jane’s photographs complement the text, to provide the reader with a more complete picture of the athlete, and the situation.

This story is about Grant Foster and his first mile in a decade. He wanted to run a big PB and he did. We will note it at the bottom of the article. 

We think that the story will help you, the reader appreciate the challenges of racing at the ultra elite level in the 5,000m and 10,000m, where Grant Fisher finds himself, after much hard work and contemplation. In Paris, Grant took the bronze medal in both the Olympic 5,000m and 10,000m, no mean feat. To do that in Tokyo, to at least replicate those performances, Grant will need to be able run somewhere in the neighborhood of 3:56-3:52 over the last 1,600m in the 5,000m and 10,000m. 

FISHER HAPPY TO STEP DOWN TO THE MILE AT PREFONTAINE CLASSIC
By David Monti, @d9monti
(c) 2025 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved, used with permission. 

EUGENE (04-Jul) — Looking at the entry list for tomorrow’s Bowerman Mile at the 50th Prefontaine Classic here at Hayward Field, Grant Fisher’s name sticks out.  The double Olympic bronze medalist in the 5000m and 10,000m from Paris last August has the slowest –and likely the oldest– personal best in the field: 3:59.38.  He ran that time ten years ago when he was a senior at Grand Blanc High School in Michigan.  At the time he became the seventh American to break four minutes for the mile while in high school.

“You look at the start list and you see a 3:59 in there and it’s like, how’d that guy get in to it?” Fisher joked at a press conference today.

In fairness Fisher has run some fast 1500m races, including a 3:33.99 this past indoor season (the World Athletics scoring table equates that performance to a 3:51.46 indoor mile).  But Fisher has never had a chance to run a fast mile outdoors on a big stage like he will tomorrow.  He is clearly jazzed about the opportunity, especially since meeting organizers will have…