Grant Fisher to Race Cole Hocker at 2025 Millrose Games in Battle of America’s Best Distance Runners

America’s two best distance runners are set to square off at America’s most prestigious indoor track meet.

On February 8, Grant Fisher will race Cole Hocker over 3,000 meters at the 2025 Millrose Games at the Armory. Fisher is the reigning US champion in the 5,000 and 10,000 meters and a double Olympic medalist. Hocker is the US and Olympic champion in the 1500 meters. Let the hype commence.

Over the last three years, the men’s 3,000 at Millrose has produced some of the best racing of the indoor season. In 2022, Geordie Beamish used a killer kick to upset Hocker and Cooper Teare in the home straight. In 2023, miler Josh Kerr surprisingly stepped up and won in a big pb of 7:33.47, demonstrating the endurance chops that would presage his World Championship 1500 victory six months later. Last year, the event was lengthened to two miles, and Kerr streaked to a world indoor record of 8:00.67 after Fisher tried and failed to break him during the second mile.

The top four finishers at 2024 Millrose would combine to earn seven global medals in 2024. Kerr claimed World Indoor gold in the 3,000 and Olympic silver in the 1500. Fisher, the runner-up in an American record of 8:03.62, took Olympic bronze in the 5,000 and 10,000. Hocker, 3rd in 8:05.70, claimed World Indoor silver and Olympic gold in the 1500. And fourth-placer Beamish (8:05.73) would defeat Hocker to win the World Indoor 1500 title three weeks later in Glasgow.

“You look back at that race, that was a pretty loaded field,” Fisher said on this week’s LetsRun.com Track Talk podcast where he announced he would be running Millrose. “Maybe not everyone said that at the time. They might’ve said Josh was the class of the field. But now post-Olympics, you see some people did really, really well throughout that season, and it all kind of started at Milrose at that two-mile. So it’ll be a fun spot to get things rolling again.”

More athletes will be announced as part of the field in the coming weeks, but Fisher versus Hocker should be enough to get any American distance running fan excited. This sort of matchup does not happen often. They were both Foot Locker Cross Country champions as high schoolers. They were both NCAA champions as collegians. They are both national champions as professionals. More than that, Hocker is the fastest American ever in the 1500 meters; Fisher holds the same title in the 3,000, 5,000, and 10,000. They are two of America’s brightest distance talents, now or ever, and they are firmly in their primes.

Fisher, 27, and Hocker, 23, did race three times this year, with Fisher prevailing in all three matchups: the 2-mile at Millrose, the 5,000 at the LA Grand Prix on May 17, and the Olympic Trials 5,000 final on June 30. But they’ve never raced each other as Olympic medalists. And that hits different.

Since 1968, four American men have medalled in the Olympic 1500 — Leo Manzano, Matthew Centrowitz, Hocker, and Yared Nuguse. During that same span, only two Americans have medalled in the Olympic 5,000 — Paul Chelimo and Fisher. Only once has one of the 1500 medalists raced one of the 5000 medalists. That came in May 2018, when Chelimo defeated Centrowitz in a 1500 at the Payton Jordan Invitational.

That’s it. Just one matchup between an American 1500 medalist and an American 5,000 medalist in more than half a century. On February 8 at Millrose, we’ll get to see the second, and it will come at the crossover distance of 3,000 meters. In their three battles in 2024, Fisher’s strength prevailed over Hocker’s kick, though Fisher acknowledged he had home-event advantage.

“I didn’t know I was 3-0 against Cole, but to be fair, I’ve never met him at his distance,” Fisher said. “So that gives me a little bit of an advantage. That would be like saying I’m undefeated against him at 10k or something — I don’t think that’s a fair comparison. So yeah, maybe I’ll drop down, race him in a 1500, have it be more of a balanced record to show. But Cole ran incredibly well in the 2-mile last year at Milrose.”

In 2025, however, Hocker will be looking to erase that advantage; he has spoken of wanting to be the best in the world at not just the 1500 meters, but the 5,000 as well. An early showdown against the Olympic bronze medalist is a great way to test the progess he is making.

So who will win on February 8? Hocker’s speed? Fisher’s strength? Or perhaps someone else entirely? We’ll find out in less than two months.

“It will be a really fun opportunity,” Fisher said. “Last year it was fast. I’m sure it’ll be fast this year. So it’s gonna be fun.”

posted Wednesday December 11th
by Jonathan Gault