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AT THE GAMES — Last fall, Grant Fisher broke off his long-standing career with the prestigious Bowerman Track Club and moved to Park City to train under his high school coach Mike Scannell.
Less than a year later, the 27-year-old distance runner would make history with a pair of bronze medals in the 5,000/10,000-meter double.
Fisher used a powerful kick in the final 200 meters to earn his second podium finish of the Paris Summer Games, finishing third in the 5,000-meter run in 13 minutes, 15.13 seconds Saturday at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis.
Norway's Jakob Ingebrigtsen won gold with a season-best 13:13.66, and Kenya's Ronald Kwemoi took silver in 13:15.04.
Grant Fisher does it again!
— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) August 10, 2024
He becomes the first American man to medal in both the 5000m and 10,000m in an Olympic Games. #ParisOlympics
📺 NBC & Peacock pic.twitter.com/V76mcezAF0
With the podium finish, Fisher becomes the first American man to medal in both the 5,000 and 10,000 meters in the Olympics — and he did it in a span of eight days, with a short trip to Switzerland for altitude training in between.
The American record holder in the 3,000, 5,000 and 10,000 meter who trains in Park City and runs with Utah's Run Elite Program ran around the fourth or fifth position with five laps to go. He pulled into the top three of a crowded front pack with 800 meters remaining, but fell as far back as ninth while trail a trio of Ethiopians as the bell sounded on the final lap.
After opening with a 2:50.3 split in the first 1,000 meters, Fisher ended with a 2:37 kick in the final thousand meters.
He fell into fifth place before finishing with a menacing kick down the stretch, clinching his second medal of the Olympic games less than 2 seconds behind Norway's Ingebrigtsen.
Raboutou adds silver for US climbers
Another silver medal is coming back stateside with the USA Climbing delegation based out of Salt Lake City.
Brooke Raboutou totaled 156 points in boulder and lead combined Saturday to earn the silver medal at Le Bourget Climbing Venue.
It's the second medal of the Summer Games for USA Climbing, after incoming University of Utah freshman Sam Watson won bronze in a world-record time of 4.74 seconds, and the first medal by the U.S. women's team in Olympic competition.
Raboutou scored 84.0 points in bouldering to sit in second place behind Slovenia's Janja Garnbret. The 23-year-old rising star from Colorado who attended the University of San Diego finished fifth at sport climbing's debut in Tokyo in 2021 and has won bronze medals nine times in World Cup events since then.
But Raboutou finished the lead portion of her time with 72.0 points, a fifth-place effort that was good enough for silver behind Garnbret, who added a third-best 84.1 points in the discipline and allow the two of them a joint emotional celebrate together in the final of the Paris Games.
"This was just the dream. We have an incredible friendship, where we both want each other to do our best," Raboutou said of Garnbret in a news release. "That's what happened today, and it feels really good to share that with somebody."
Austria's Jessica Pilz won bronze with a combined score of 147.4.
The moment Brooke Raboutou became the FIRST American woman to medal in sport climbing! 🇺🇸😤 #ParisOlympicspic.twitter.com/eywgSPFBCM
— On Her Turf (@OnHerTurf) August 10, 2024