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.
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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 the pacemakers targeting a 3:45 finish time. He could certainly break 3:50.
“I think if the PB doesn’t go down I’m in big trouble,” said Fisher, eliciting a burst of laughter from the assembled media. “It’s been over a decade since I’ve run a mile, a true mile. So, this will be fun, it will be special, and it will be new. I’ve got nothing to lose here, and that’s a good feeling going into a race.”
Fisher, 28, who is coached by Mike Scannell, has every reason to be optimistic based on his year so far. After running that 1500m PB at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix on February 2 in Boston, he ran a world indoor record of 7:22.91 for 3000m at the Millrose Games in New York City just six days later (he passed through the one-mile mark in about four minutes flat).
Then ran another world indoor record of 12:44.09 for 5000m at a different track in Boston, his second world indoor record in seven days.
Since then, Fisher has focused on the Grand Slam Track series where he was the long distance group champion at Kingston in April, and Miami in May (he scratched from the Philadelphia Slam later in May). Those efforts earned him $200,000 in prize money plus undisclosed appearance fees.
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He hasn’t raced since then, instead focusing on building his base for the summer season where he hopes to duplicate his magical season from last year when he won both the 5000m and 10,000m at the USA Olympic Team Trials, and the two bronze medals at the Olympics. Of course, this year he will be targeting the World Athletics Championships in September instead of the Olympics; he confirmed today that he plans to double at the USATF Championships later this month.
“Ultimately, the mile is not my goal for the year,” Fisher told Race Results Weekly in an interview. “And even the other guys that I’m racing, everyone in it, their goal is the world championships. So people are really fit right now, their sights are probably slightly different. I think you’re going to see people take big swings at it and see what happens.”
Fisher emphasized that championship distance running is all about having the strength to stay with the leaders until the final laps where top speed is critical for achieving medals. For instance, at the Olympic Trials last year Fisher ran his last four laps of the 10,000m in 65.6, 62.4, 60.5, and 58.2. In the Olympic 10,000m he ran his last lap in a blistering 54.7 seconds.
“Oftentimes those championship races come down to 1500m speed,” Fisher explained to reporters. “So, I need to continue to work on that. I’m very competitive over the 10-K on that last lap because it’s just a different skill set that you need. The 5-K, it’s really beneficial to have those 1500 legs. I’ve been working on that. I’ll test them out tomorrow, and we’ll see what I got.”
As usual, the Bowerman Mile field is bursting with talent. Six of the ten fastest men during the 2025 season at 1500m are in the field led by Frenchman Azeddine Habz, who ran 3:27.49 at the Paris Diamond League on June 20th (Habz’s mile PB is 3:47.56, run indoors). Olympic 1500m gold medalist Cole Hocker is racing (3:48.08 mile PB), as is bronze medalist and USA mile record holder Yared Nuguse (3:43.97 PB).
Fisher is in the enviable position of simply having fun at an off-distance, and he’s excited to just go along for the ride.
“You never know how long you have in this sport at your best,” Fisher said, turning serious. He continued: “I want to take advantage of it, run fast, race the best people.”
