The Olympics came and went and while there were many historic and captivating performances, the 5000M was mostly under the radar. But, there was one notable occurrence in each the men’s and women’s.
The US men have a 5000/10000 runner, Grant Fisher, who has competed well on the world stage but had yet to medal in a world championship. While I don’t know if he’ll ever be within striking distance of the world record (he’s 11 seconds off of it currently) he has been fast enough to be in the mix for medals. In this Olympics, he finally broke through to the podium with a bronze.
The women’s race didn’t feature any major upsets but it did see hard, jostling contact between Faith Kipyegon of Kenya, who ultimately took silver, and Gudaf Tsegay of Ethiopia.
During the race, it looked like Tsegay cut in and created the contact but Ethiopia filed a protest that stripped Kipyegon of the silver. However, on further review, they reversed their decision, restoring the silver to Kipyegon. It was an odd bit of drama but it looked like it got sorted out the right way.
Oddly, the 2024 track season is not over as there are three more Diamond League meets. I’ve not been a professional runner but I have to wonder if running in the Diamond League after the Olympics might be like playing a basketball conference championship after the NCAA tournament. There may be an advantage-maybe it’s more relaxing without the eyes of the world on the meet.