Untouchable: Faith Kipyegon and Jakob Ingebrigtsen Reign Supreme on Final Day in Paris
Grant Fisher Gets Medal #2
By LetsRun.com
PARIS – The stadium portion of the track & field competition at the 2024 Olympics concluded on Saturday night at the Stade de France with fast-times and historic victories before another packed house.
Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Faith Kipyegon put on the dominant individual performances of the night in the 5000 and 1500 respectively and we analyze them below. Jakob won won his 3rd straight global 5000m title with ease as Grant Fisher picked up his second medal at these Games, as Kipyegon got her 3rd straight Olympic 1500m title.
In other, action the men’s 800 was an instance classic where Emmanuel Wanyonyi edged Marco Arop, 1:41.19 to 1:41.20, with Bryce Hoppel breaking the American record but not medalling, the men’s and women’s 4×400 teams gave the world record a scare, and there was a jump-off in the men’s high jump. We break down the other action here.
Quick Take: Jakob Ingebrigtsen remains untouchable in the 5,000
Jakob Ingebrigtsen wins 2024 Olympic 5000m (Kevin Morris photo)
Ingebrigtsen won the Olympic 5,000 gold tonight to add to his 2022 and 2023 world titles at the distance, and he did so by closing in 3:53.5 for his final 1600, 1:19.9 for his final 600, and 53.2 for his final 400 in a 13:13.66 race. Even though Ingebrigtsen was five meters behind Hagos Gebrhiwet at the bell after Gebrhiwet’s big surge at 600 meters, he would end up winning by 1.38 seconds, the largest margin of victory since Kenenisa Bekele’s epic victory in 2008.
Unlike the 1500, where Ingebrigtsen must force a fast pace to drop the kickers, in the 5,000, he is the kicker. Even if someone tried to push the pace tonight, it’s unlikely Ingebrigtsen would have been dropped. But in a tactical race like this, Ingebrigtsen is essentially impossible to defeat as no one in the 5,000 has his speed.
That said, Ingebrigtsen also ran a smart race tonight. He said he initially could not respond to Gebrhiwet’s big move because he was boxed in, but even once he freed himself, he did not panic and try to make it all up at once. He realized that he was not gaining on Gebrhiwet as quickly as he thought, which suggested Gebrhiwet may have overcooked things. So he caught him gradually, then put the hammer down on the final turn.
“It’s all about saving some energy for the last 150, because in the 5k, you can ruin your chances by going too hard, which I have done many times before,” Ingebrigtsen said.
We also asked Ingebrigtsen whether he would consider changing his tactics in the 1500 given OAC coach Dathan Ritzenhein told LetsRun that Yared Nuguse was ready and willing to lead parts of the Olympic 1500 final at a fast pace.
The answer appears to be no. Ingebrigtsen started his race by suggesting, as he did in the immediate aftermath of the race, that his tactic in the 1500 final in Paris was sound but he executed it poorly.
“If you do something well, I think it’s considered a good tactic,” Ingebrigtsen said. “And if you don’t do something well, it’s considered the opposite. It comes down to the execution.”
He also said he wants to win the 1500 on his own terms.
“I’m a believer in winning in a way that’s honorable,” Ingebrigtsen said. “Reaching the finish line first is always the main goal, but still I’m a big fan of proving myself. Not to anybody necessarily, but also to myself [and being] rewarded for the work I’m putting in. Sometimes that’s doing something a certain way.”
Quick Take: Renato Canova’s prophecy (almost) comes true
Almost eight years ago, Ronald Kwemoi’s then-coach Renato Canova predicted to LetsRun.com that Kwemoi would be the 2020 Olympic 5,000m champion. Canova may have been off by four years (and one place), but we’re giving him credit considering Kwemoi was mainly a 1500 guy at the time and owned a 5,000 pb of 13:16.
Kwemoi was a monster talent as a youngster, running a world U20 1500 record of 3:28.81 in 2014 that still stands. But Kwemoi never ran faster than that for 1500 and developed a series of hamstring problems that necessitated his move to the 5,000 after the 2021 season. Kwemoi barely raced on the track the last two years as he tried to get healthy, but this year he won the Kenyan trials and is now the Olympic silver medalist.
One of the classic pieces of armchair advice for athletes who can no longer thrive in the 1500 is to move up to the 5,000 where their speed will become an asset in a kick. It is rarely that simple, but both the gold and silver medalists in Paris tonight are 1500/5,000 runners.
Quick Take: A historic Olympics for Grant Fisher
Grnat Fisher Gets 5000 bronze (Kevin Morris photo)
Fisher made history in Paris by becoming the first American, man or woman, to medal in both the 5,000 and 10,000 in a career at the Worlds/Olympics, let alone the same meet. He said that in tonight’s 5,000, with one medal already secure, he was able to run free of pressure, knowing that no matter how he did the meet would still be considered a success.
With a lap to go, a medal was looking unlikely for Fisher, who was in 8th place, later dropping to 9th by 300. And this was not by design. Fisher wanted to be able to counter Gebrhiwet’s move but said his legs were “shot” from the 10k and he was not physically capable of matching it.
“My coach told me before this to just be really, really patient,” Fisher said. “And my legs forced me to be patient. I wish I could have gone with that move, I prefer to not let gaps open up.”
Whether he meant to or not, hanging back proved to be the right strategy for Fisher. He was never going to catch Ingebrigtsen for gold, but while his rivals began to tie up over the final 200, Fisher held form well, closing in 26.4 – faster than anyone in the entire race, including Ingebrigtsen. Meanwhile the men just behind him like Dominic Lobalu (27.0), Gebrhiwet (27.9), and Biniam Mehary (28.5) paid for their early aggression. Fisher was 8th with 250 to go and still only 6th with 50 to go but passed three guys in the home straight to take home the bronze.
Quick Take: We may never see another miler like Faith Kipyegon
Faith Kipyegon celebrates Olympic gold #3 (Kevin Morris photo)
We hope you have appreciated Faith Kipyegon over the last decade because it is going to be a very, very long time until we see someone this dominant in the women’s 1500 meters. Kipyegon has three world titles in the 1500 (a record) and now three Olympic titles in the 1500 (also a record). More than that, she’s the first woman to win three golds in any running event at the Olympics.
Kipyegon is so far ahead of her peers that you could make a case for splitting her career in two and ranking them as the best and second-best 1500 runners in history. We called Kipyegon the GOAT after she won her second Olympic gold in Tokyo. Since then, she has gone on to win three more global titles, break the world records in the mile and 1500 (twice), and tonight lowered her own Olympic record with a 3:51.29 tonight.
Quick Take: The Georgia Bell story gets even better
We thought it was wild back in March when Georgia Bell finished 4th in the 1500 at World Indoors. Not bad for someone who never even made a Pac-12 final, let alone make it to NCAAs in two years at Cal and spent almost four years away from the sport after she finished up her NCAA career in 2017. In March, we thought it was incredible that someone who at the beginning of 2023 had a 1500 pb of 4:16.96 had gotten down to 4:03 to finish 4th at World Indoors.
Since then, Bell has PR’d three more times in the 1500 (and twice in the 800) and is now a 3:52 performer (British record and #11 all-time) and an Olympic bronze medallist
Bell cautioned that she was not some couch-to-5k story – “people do need to remember I started running when I was 11” (she ran 2:08 at 14 and 2:03 at age 20) – but she trains very differently now under coach Trevor Painter (who also coaches Keely Hodgkinson) than she did at Cal, about half as much mileage (30 mpw instead of 60). Going into the meet, Bell knew she did not face the same expectations as some of her opponents and tried to relish that role.
“I know that I’ll never really be in this position again where I can come into the Games with absolutely no pressure,” Bell said. “Even making it to the Olympics was huge.”
Bell also has a full-time job in cybersecurity sales but was able to secure a leave back in May to focus on the Olympics. When she left, they told her they still wanted her back even if she won a medal in Paris. Now she has to decide whether to follow up.
“When they said that when I left on May 1 and the laptop got slammed shut, I thought, there’s no way I’ll win a medal, so I’ll see you guys,” Bell said. “So yeah, [I’ll] probably have a chat with them. Things have changed slightly.”
Quick Take: The American 1500 women should not feel too bad about not medalling
After the U.S. Trials, one thing was in every American track fan’s mind. All three Americans ran under 3:56. The American women can medal in the 1500 in Paris. Yet when the medalists crossed the finish line in Paris, the Americans were nowhere to be seen. Nikki Hiltz and Elle St. Pierre faded badly on the final lap and both finished in the back half of the 1500 final as Hiltz was 7th in 3:56.38 and St. Pierre was 8th in 3:57.52.
But did you see what it took to medal? 3:52.61. Laura Muir ran a pb in her second straight Olympic final (3:54.50 in Tokyo, 3:53.37 in Paris) yet earned silver in Tokyo and was only 5th tonight.
To medal tonight, you had to run 2.28 seconds faster than Shelby Houlihan’s 3:54.99 American record (and I doubt we have to remind you that Houlihan is currently serving a doping ban). Though given how much someone like Jessica Hull or Georgia Bell have improved this year, we imagine the American women thought they might be able to run 3:52.
But that’s a tall ask. We at Letsrun.com did not like their race strategy. Both of the Americans went out in under 60 seconds for the first 400. For them to beat the likes of Welteji, Hull, etc, they probably were going to need some help and run smarter tactically. If you are going to run the first 800 in 2:04, then go 62-62. But neither woman regretted going for it in such a big way.
St. Pierre said her coach Mark Coogan told her to stay with the top group and she was happy with how she executed it.
“She just took it out really fast,” St. Pierre said. “It’s all about positioning and staying tough, and that’s what I tried to do.”
“I didn’t want to miss the move,” Hiltz said. “It’s risky to play that game of I’m going to come through in 2:08. You don’t know if you’ll have enough because there are so many bodies [to pass]. But that was never the plan. It was put yourself in 4th through 6th and just hang on. So that’s what I did.”
- 1500 and 5000 Talk on the Forums:
- MASTERCLASS. Jakob Ingebrigtsen BOSSES the 5000 field. Fisher bronze.
- Who ran smarter, Hiltz or St. Pierre?
- Elle St. Pierre is a terrible racer
- Grant Fisher undisputed US Distance GOAT
- Jakob’s last 1600m of the OLY 5000m: 3’51… What does he run for the 3000m?
- How did Georgia Bell go from not even making NCAA finals to getting a bronze medal at the Olympics?
