2024 Olympic 10K: Joshua Cheptegei Wins a Classic as Grant Fisher Secures Bronze Medal

PARIS – Joshua Cheptegei has officially completed the 10,000 meters.

World record holder. World champion (times three). And now, Olympic champion.

The one hole on Cheptegei’s 10,000-meter resume is now filled, and the 27-year-old Ugandan accomplished it on Friday night in the grandest fashion imaginable: by running perhaps his finest race in the fastest Olympic 10,000 of all time in front of a raucous crowd of more than 70,000 at the Stade de France.

After tonight, there is no doubt: Cheptegei is an all-time distance running legend. After this year, Cheptegei, who is also the reigning Olympic champion and world record holder at 5,000 meters, plans on leaving the track behind for the marathon. But before he left, he offered one more reminder of his greatness on the sport’s greatest stage.

Cheptegei’s golden moment was just one of many highlights from a classic final destined to live long in the memory. Cheptegei’s winning time of 26:43.14 obliterated Kenenisa Bekele’s 27:01.17 Olympic record from 2008, and he needed to run that fast to win what was the deepest 10,000 in history. The top 13 finishers in Paris broke 27:00, easily surpassing the previous record of nine set at the 2011 Prefontaine Classic.

While this was Cheptegei’s seventh World/Olympic medal on the track (five of them gold), the silver and bronze medalists tonight were both podium newbies: Ethiopia’s Berihu Aregawi (26:43.44) and the United States’ Grant Fisher (26:43.46), who were the two first men off the Olympic podium three years ago, finishing 4th and 5th in Tokyo. Neither man is known for his kick, but their closes were plenty fast tonight as they emerged from an eight-man pack in the home straight, running down Canada’s Moh Ahmed (26:43.79), who faded from silver to off the podium over the final 50 meters. The top six finishers all finished within a second of the win.

Kevin Morris photo

Fisher’s medal was the first by an American man in this event since Galen Rupp in 2012 and just the fourth ever, joining Billy Mills (1964) and Lewis Tewanima (1912). He did it by running the second-fastest time ever by an American (only his American record of 26:33.84 is faster) against a loaded field in the biggest race of his life. It was a sensational run, and validation for Fisher’s decision to leave the Bowerman Track Club and coach Jerry Schumacher after last season to train in Park City under his high school coach Mike Scannell.

Nico Young, the second American, finished 12th in 26:58.11 after hanging with the leaders until the final 800, while Woody Kincaid was 16th in 27:29.40.

The race

On a beautiful night for spectating – though slightly warm for running (73 degrees) – the Ethiopians dominated the early laps, with Aregawi, Yomif Kejelcha, and defending champ Selemon Barega using team tactics to push the pace and hit halfway in 13:23.07. Yet because this was the Olympic final, there was still a large 15-man pack at such a fast pace. And, amazingly, the 15th of those men was the eventual winner and three-time defending world champion Cheptegei, who was content to trot along at the back of the group.

Ironically, the racing began in earnest when the pace began to slow. When the leaders traded 63- and 64-second laps for a 66 and 68 with just under two miles to go, the group began to bunch, a reminder that this was no time trial but a race for the Olympic title. The 6th to last lap was even a 69.22.

Aregawi took the lead with just under a mile to go and began a long push for home, going 65.7-63.6 for the next two laps, but it was not enough to shake the contenders. Cheptegei used the same strategy as he did to win the world title in Budapest last year, making a hard move with 550 meters to go and fighting off all comers to win thanks to a 54.9 last lap.

While Cheptegei had a couple steps on the field over the final lap, a wild battle was unfolding behind him for the other medals. Fisher had tried his best to stay in the top four throughout the race, but was in fifth with 300 to go with 2021 Olympic bronze medalist Jacob Kiplimo of Uganda trying to pass on his outside. 

In the past, Fisher had been reluctant to go too hard, too early, worried about sapping his kick before the final straightaway. But earlier this year, that conservative approach backfired when Fisher chose to hold back on the back straight of the LA Grand Prix, a race that featured most of the men he would face in Paris tonight. In LA, the top four opened a gap that would never close. In Paris, Fisher went with the move, and while Kiplimo ultimately got around him, chasing Kiplimo put Fisher in position to fight for a medal in the home straight. 

Aregawi, who was in a great position in second approaching the bell, totally squandered it and appeared dead in the water, horribly boxed in and 7th with 120 to go. Somehow, he escaped and mowed down everyone but Cheptegei to take the silver thanks to an unreal final 100.

The fans in the Stade de France brought the energy throughout the race and knew they had witnessed something special in the aftermath. The stadium was buzzing for a good five minutes after the final runner crossed the line as an amped-up version of “I Will Survive” blasted from the speakers. Half the field stood looking at the scoreboard, looking for their names and scarcely believing the times, while Cheptegei, Fisher, and Aregawi took their victory laps. It was a reminder, after uneven crowds in Rio and no crowds due to COVID in Tokyo, that this is what the Olympics are meant to feel like.

Results, analysis and post-race interviews appear below.

Quick Take: Cheptegei heard the doubters and proved them wrong

Twenty years from now, when people look back at Cheptegei’s career, they’ll see this race and the fact that Cheptegei won the last three Worlds before it, and assume he was clearly the favorite coming in. But that was not the case. 

Cheptegei was certainly among the contenders, but many – including this author – doubted his ability to win in Paris considering he had failed to win any of his four races this year, including a 6th-place finish at World Cross Country in March and a distant 9th at the Oslo Diamond League on May 30. In that race, Cheptegei was more than 15 seconds behind winner Hagos Gebrhiwet.

But Cheptegei has had subpar races in the leadup to major champs before (he was only 6th in the Florence Diamond League 5,000 in 2021 before winning the Olympic title two months later) and has learned to trust his preparation under longtime coach Addy Ruiter. In many ways, his strategy today – lie in wait for much of the race, then strike hard and fast at the perfect moment – served as a microcosm for his season as a whole.

By the way, Cheptegei heard the doubters this year. And he was very happy to prove them wrong.

“When everybody is saying Cheptegei’s gone? Yeah, I come back,” Cheptegei said. “…All my races are really special because when people are looking that he is going to be defeated, then you come out and you win.”

Quick Take: The pieces all came together for Grant Fisher

In October, Fisher made the biggest decision of his professional career in leaving Jerry Schumacher and the Bowerman Track Club heading into his prime Olympics at age 27. It was a risk because Fisher achieved incredible times and results with BTC. But not leaving was also a risk – if he considered leaving and stayed, he would always wonder what might have happened had he left.

Fisher broke down the factors that went into his decision to leave BTC in a podcast with LetsRun.com in January, and Fisher said tonight many of those factors wound up contributing to him winning a medal tonight. 

“To summarize the change I made a year ago, it was just to optimize everything I could,” Fisher said. “One piece was to optimize my altitude plan (by training in Park City year-round), one piece was just to individualize my training a little better. Switching coaches was a piece of that, implementing different ideas and training a lot more threshold work a lot more. Choosing high frequency of workouts over high intensity of workouts, a lot more lactate testing…Generally being happy in my whole setup.”

Fisher has had a sensational year, sweeping the 5k and 10k at the Olympic Trials and now winning his first Olympic medal. It is a season he and coach Mike Scannell should be immensely proud of. But the margins are very fine in this sport. Fisher beat his former BTC training partner Moh Ahmed – still coached by Schumacher – by .33 tonight. If Fisher doesn’t catch Ahmed, who historically has been much better in the 5000 than 10,000, in the final meters, the narrative would be that Fisher made the wrong choice in abandoning a proven setup.

The reality is likely somewhere in the middle. Schumacher helped Fisher improve a lot from 2019-23 and set the stage for this medal. And funnily enough, some of the “puzzle pieces” Fisher noted – more threshold training, more frequency rather than intensity of workouts – are things Bowerman has incorporated this year anyway. But Fisher is clearly happy and thriving with his current setup, and there is no greater validation than an Olympic medal.

Quick Take: Grant Fisher has climbed the mountain

Fisher has been viewed as the Next Great American Distance Runner ever since winning the Foot Locker Cross Country Championships as a high school junior in 2013. The next year, Fisher repeated as Foot Locker champ and broke 4:00 in the mile. When you do that, fans are going to speculate about how good you can eventually become, with the best-case outcome a spot on the Olympic podium.

On Friday night, Fisher fulfilled that promise he first flashed in Balboa Park more than a decade ago. So many young runners are hyped as the next big thing that it is impossible for all of them to succeed. But Fisher met expectations at every level, winning an NCAA title at the end of his sophomore year at Stanford, becoming a US champion at 25 and now an Olympic medalist at 27. To progress in that way while carrying the weight of American distance community on your shoulders is no easy feat, yet Fisher has handled it beautifully.

Quick Take: Moh Ahmed was proud of how he ran and had no regrets

Going from 2nd to 4th in the final 50 meters is usually devastating, and Ahmed, who medalled in the Olympic 5,000 in 2021, obviously wanted to add a second medal tonight. But he came away very proud of his performance. Tonight’s race featured seven of the 12 fastest men of all time in the 10,000, and Ahmed put himself in position to medal; he just ran out of steam in the final meters.

“This was the hardest 10,000m race ever because of the depth,” Ahmed said. “So many 26:30 dudes, and I was one of those dudes. Those guys came at me and I had nothing to respond to them.”

Ahmed put it a bit more succinctly in his post-race interview with the CBC:

“Honestly I have no regrets. I think I ran that really, really fucking well.”

Quick Take: Yomif Kejelcha comes up short again

Between the three medalists and seven other men who ran personal bests tonight, vibes were high by the finish line immediately after the race. Except for Yomif Kejelcha. The 27-year-old was disconsolate, sitting on the track with his hands on his head for a good five minutes, pondering how he had come up short on the biggest stage again.

Kejelcha entered tonight’s race with the fastest season’s best in the field at 5,000 (12:38) and 10,000 (26:31, which he ran to win the Ethiopian trials). Yet Kejelcha could only manage 6th tonight, meaning that in seven global final appearances outdoors, he has brought home just one medal (a silver in 2019) despite consistently running as one of the best runners on the Diamond League circuit throughout that entire period.

Kejelcha is not known for his kick, but neither were Aregawi or Fisher, both of whom medalled tonight. And it’s not as if he has no speed – he is the indoor mile world record holder and a two-time World Indoor champ in the 3,000. You could argue that helping to force the pace prevented him from medalling tonight, but Aregawi also led plenty of laps and got the silver.

Since that 10,000 medal in 2019, Kejelcha has finished 7th in the 10,000 at the 2021 Olympics, 8th in the 5,000 at the 2022 Worlds, 5th in the 5,000 at the 2023 Worlds, and now 6th in the 10,000 at the 2024 Olympics. He has a track record of not coming up big when it matters.

Quick Take: Nico Young did incredibly well to run 26:58 in the Olympic final at age 21

Young had an incredible winter, winning two NCAA titles and running NCAA records of 12:57 and 26:52, and though he did make the Olympic team at the Trials in June, he looked tired from a long year of collegiate racing. Just making the team in the 10,000 at age 21 is hard enough, and no one would have faulted Young if he struggled tonight. Instead, he came out and was less than six seconds off his personal best in an Olympic final.

Young said he took some downtime right after the Trials and then added in some higher mileage weeks – mileage totals he was unable to log when he was racing so much earlier this year. That helped him get back to the high level he was at this winter.

“Being five seconds off of my personal best in this event, I’m very proud of that,” Young said.

The future is very, very bright for Nico Young. Back in 2008, a 22-year-old Galen Rupp ran 27:36 in the heat of Beijing to finish 13th in the Olympic final and went on to medal at the next two Olympics. It’s unfair to expect the same of Young, but if he can stay healthy, he should only get better from here.

“The next [Olympics], 2028, and 2032, I’ll still be in my 20s, so hopefully that’s going to be the peak of my career,” Young said. “…If I can do this here now, I’m very excited for what I can do then.”

Talk about the race on our world-famous messageboard:

• Official Olympics Day 1 Friday Evening Session Thread: Men’s 10,000m Final, Women’s 800, 5000 More
• GRANT MF FISHER MEDALS
• STANDING OVATION FOR GRANT AND NICO
• Is Grant Fisher Amerian Indian?
• NICO MF YOUNG 26:58 IN THE OLYMPIC FINAL
• Grant Fisher is Canadian-Born, Not Native to America
• Never thought I’d say this: I thought Fisher was going to win it
• Josh Kerr is THIN!
• Uodate: Nordås to Kerr in the interview zone: “You can beat my countryman”
• Has Fisher surpassed Rupp as the American distance GOAT?
• US distance runners will come back with ZERO medals
• Thank you Peacock!!!
• Yomif Kejelcha CANNOT perform when it matters
• The Greatest 10000m of All-Time
• After best 10k in Oly history: could Farah have won the race?
• Kincaid needs to go to longer distances

Post-Race Press Conference