Olympic medalist Grant Fisher a perfect example why kids shouldn't specialize in one sport

It has been a week or so since Grant Fisher set the track and field world on its collective ear in Paris.

Never in Olympic history had an American man medaled in both the 5,000 and 10,000 meters until the 27-year-old Grand Blanc alumnus did just that, leaving the 2024 Summer Games with a pair of bronzes.

And if Fisher came from a different family, it likely never would have happened.

Hey, with different parents, Fisher might never have been a runner in the first place.

I spent a lot of time following Fisher throughout his sensational high school career at Grand Blanc, and I learned he was much more than just the best runner in state history.

He graduated with a 4.05 grade point average and scored a phenomenal 34 on the ACT. (A 36 is perfect.) He would have been admitted to Stanford had never run a step.

So I knew long ago that Fisher was an amazing young man, and this past week I went through some of the stories I did on him, explaining why he is so special.

You see, long before Fisher began running, he was a soccer player — and a good one at that.

He played for the Michigan Wolves club team, which annually features some of the state’s best players in each age group.

Fisher was so much of a soccer player that even after finishing 45 ^th in the Division 1 cross country championship meet as a freshman in 2011, he skipped the state meet as a sophomore in order to play in the 2012 soccer Division 1 title game, which Grand Blanc lost, 1-0.

In today’s world of high school athletics, so many parents are in such a rush to establish their kid’s athletic identity, they force their kids to pick one sport to specialize in even before they reach high school.

That's complete idiocy, but so often, when it comes to parents and their kids’ athletics, common sense does not exist.

According to the NCAA, the chances of receiving an athletic scholarship are about 2%. It also claims that of the 150,000 NCAA student-athletes on scholarship, only 1% receive a full ride. Instead, the average athletic scholarship is around $10,400 per year, which doesn't come close to covering the average cost of college.

But there are so many parents who seemingly live in an alternate universe, delusional in their belief that their child will be in that 2% of athletes who will get an athletic scholarship — or even the infinitesimally smaller segment that goes on to play professionally.

Thankfully for the United States' track and field program, Fisher’s parents — Sonia and Dan — are anything but delusional.

Fisher began running in middle school, but never did he dream his future would be dominated by running.

"When I was in the seventh grade, I wasn't the fastest on the team, but I was having fun, and I was the best seventh-grader," he told the Free Press in his senior year at Grand Blanc. "I would get beat by the eighth-graders and stuff, but I was enjoying it and all of my friends were doing it, too, so it was fun."

It was fun.

What a novel approach.

Fisher’s parents ran in college — Sonia at Houston and Dan at Arizona State — but neither of them pressured the youngster into running.

Initially, they thought the middle child's college future was in soccer — as did he.

"They wanted me to be a soccer player because I thought I was going to be a soccer player," Fisher said. "Even when I started running, my parents never told me much about their running background. I knew that they ran in college and stuff and the basics, but I never knew what events my parents ran and how good they were in college."

Truth be told, early in his high school career, Fisher had no idea how good he was in track and cross country, but his performance his freshman year left an impression.

"I looked at the cross-country results and I was the No. 3 freshman in the state,” he said. “I was like: 'Hey, No. 3 as a freshman, so I'm No. 3 in my class, so when I'm a senior I'll probably be pretty good.' "

Being the third best freshman in the state stuck in his head.

"It was kind of weird because in soccer you can't say I'm the No. 3 player in my class — it's way more subjective," he said. "I always thought I was a soccer player, and even that freshman year I was still focused on soccer primarily. So having that factual thing saying: 'Third best in my class,' that kind of put a thought in my mind that I could be pretty good at running."

Fisher had a decision to make early in his high school career. He was asked to compete for a spot on the Wolves select academy soccer team, which would have ended his fledgling running career.

"The thing about the academy is it's an awesome program, but in academy you can't play any high school sports, so for me that was kind of a deal-breaker," he said. "After I decided not to play academy, I still played with my club team and we still were doing great."

After he entered high school, the Fishers asked Mike Scannell, a family friend who Dan ran with at Arizona State, to serve as Grant’s personal coach.

Fisher became more serious about running with Scannell after his freshman year. Ironically, Fisher hired Scannell last fall to be his coach in preparing for the 2024 Olympics; he moved to Park City, Utah, and also spent time training in Arizona.

When Scannell began coaching Fisher at Grand Blanc, he did not even suggest Fisher dump soccer to focus on running.

He loved that Fisher played another sport and didn't mind one bit when Fisher bypassed the cross country state meet his sophomore year for soccer.

"I never stop kids from doing more than one sport," Scannell said. “I’m a guy that likes to allow kids’ bodies to grow and to be coordinated and to do more than just focus on one thing, be that basketball or be that soccer or be that running.

“I like in the growth period for them to use their bodies — the whole body — not just your legs, not just forward movement.”

Fisher’s father thought playing soccer is one of the reasons he became such a terrific runner.

"Soccer is a great sport to develop a bunch of things," Dan said. "But it also develops a cardiovascular system at that young age and develops that potential and if they switch to another sport, and track and field being cardiovascularly oriented, it really helps the transition."

In addition to winning two cross country state titles at Grand Blanc, Fisher also won two 1,600 and three 3,200 titles at the state track meet.

He also won two Foot Locker cross country national championships and was only the seventh high school runner to break 4 minutes in the mile.

Dan believed all of that was aided because Fisher did so much more than just run track and cross country.

"A few of the coaches mentioned they were very interested in Grant because he is an athlete," his father said. "That is true because he didn't focus on running at an early age and he did karate and he did basketball and he did soccer and he did skiing, and all of those things built in muscle memory and agility and different types of speed and all that kind of stuff."

"All that kind of stuff" prepared Fisher to go off to Stanford and earn 12 All-America honors while majoring in electrical engineering.

Fisher made the Olympic team for the Tokyo Games in 2021, finishing fifth in the 10,000 meters and ninth in the 5,000.

Three years later, he reached the podium.

Fisher is about as humble and unassuming a youngster as you could find. He has no entourage; in high school, he refused to put himself in the same class as Dathan Ritzenhein, a runner from Rockford who also became an Olympian.

Probably the biggest accomplishment in Fisher’s mind back then was when he broke 4 minutes in the mile. That was something he cherished.

"It's cool because it's pretty universal in the States, at least," he said. "Being a distance, mid-distance runner, that's kind of the magic mark everyone talks about; everyone knows what it is. If they find out you're a runner, they ask what's your marathon time and what's your mile time?

"Those are the two benchmarks people know. So my mile time is there, the marathon time ... not so much."

Fisher loved everything about his career at Grand Blanc. He loved playing soccer for three years and being a part of the cross country and track teams.

As a senior, he spoke whimsically about high school, but also looked forward to heading to Stanford.

"It is kind of sad that this is all over," he said. "But it was fun. I've got a bunch of runs in the future and a great school to go to. It's not really the end I don't think, in my mind at least. It's just another step.

"I'm ready for the next step."

He has many more steps left in him.

Mick McCabe is a former longtime columnist for the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at mick.mccabe11@gmail.com . Follow him @mickmccabe1 . Order his book, “Mick McCabe’s Golden Yearbook: 50 Great Years of Michigan’s Best High School Players, Teams & Memories,” now at McCabe.PictorialBook.com .

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Olympic medalist Grant Fisher a perfect example why kids shouldn't specialize in one sport