Eyes on Olympic Medal, Elise Cranny Joins Grand Slam Track

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No American woman has ever earned an Olympic medal in the 5,000 meters. Elise Cranny aspires to change that four years from now inside the L.A. Memorial Coliseum. One of the first steps on her quest: competing in the inaugural Grand Slam Track series this spring.

The two-time Olympian from Niwot, Colorado, has signed onto the four-meet series, race organizers told Outside. She’ll run the 3,000 and 5,000 meters at each of the meets on April 4-6 in Kingston, Jamaica, May 2-4 in Miami, May 30 to June 1 in Philadelphia, and June 27-29 in Los Angeles.

Athletes who sign with Grand Slam are required to race in two distances at each meet. Cranny—whose supreme speed and strength make her one of the world’s best at everything from the 1500 to the 10,000—is psyched for this challenge. In fact, she believes the series will be instrumental to her 2028 campaign.

“I’m super excited about it,” Cranny, 28, told Outside on Wednesday. “Something I’ve really wanted the last couple of years was to race a bit more. I think as I get a bit later in my career and thinking about showing up to world championships or the Olympics, I want more of that global race experience. So to be able to have head-to-head competitions four other times throughout the year, but really eight races, I think it will be good practice working on tactics. And I think the back-to-back racing is really fun, too.”

Lots of world-class racing packed with lots of fun along the way pretty much sums up Cranny’s attitude heading into this next Olympic cycle. No American woman earned an Olympic medal in a distance event in Paris this summer. But she looks at Yared Nuguse, Cole Hocker, and former Bowerman Track Club teammate Grant Fisher—three Paris Olympic medalists who have all also signed on with Grand Slam Track—and she knows the American women can crack that code to the Olympic podium, too.

“I feel like it’s been driving me crazy since Paris,” Cranny, who took 11th in the 5,000 at the 2024 Olympics, says. “I’ve been scratching my head like, ‘What are the men doing differently?’”

She credits Elle St. Pierre, Cranny’s Olympic teammate in both 2020 and 2024, and her gold medal performance at world indoor track championships in the 3,000 last March as the potential catalyst.

“Seeing Elle do that, that’s the first step, right?” Cranny says. “I do think for a while when I entered the professional running world that there was this narrative that the East Africans are just head and shoulders above. I think when you have someone like Elle, or seeing the guys do that [in Paris], that changes the narrative. I do think there is a big mental component to that and confidence and belief of, ‘Oh, Americans can compete on this level’ versus, ‘the East Africans are in a different playing field.’ You’ve lost the race before you’ve even gotten there, which, back to Grand Slam, I think is what’s super exciting.”

A Spring of World-Class Competition

You have to see it to believe it. And Grand Slam Track provides Cranny with eight more chances to see it—and to be it—just this spring. She’ll compete in the distance event group (one of six event groups, which also include sprints, hurdles, long sprints, and middle-distance) along with Kenya’s Agnes Ngetich and Tsigie Gebreselama from Ethiopia, one more yet-to-be-announced competitor, and a rotating cast of “challengers.”

That line-up already ensures Cranny’s wish of racing the best of the best will be granted. Ngetich holds the women’s 10K world record (28:46) and Gebreselama took home a Diamond League victory in the 5,000 at the Prefontaine Classic this spring before placing 10th in the 10,000 meters at the Paris Olympics.

“It’s about having more of those opportunities and normalizing racing the people at the top for more than just the prelim and final of the world championship or Olympics, for example,” Cranny says. “The more that you can race against the same people and learn from them and put yourself in it, I think that’s really going to elevate the sport even more.”

The brainchild of four-time Olympic gold medalist sprinter Michael Johnson, Grand Slam Track is a new professional track league that promises consistent head-to-head competition against the world’s best runners. (Notably, there are no field events, yet.) Part of the $30 million in funding (which largely comes from the “athlete” driven Winners Alliance) will go to the sizable prize purse. Racers are guaranteed base compensation for joining, along with the opportunity to win generous prize money—$100,000 for first place, all the way down to $10,000 for eighth place (which is last place) at each slam. Challengers are eligible for the prize money, too.

So far it seems to be a winning formula. Numerous high-profile Olympians and world champions have committed to the 2025 season, including Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, Jasmine Camacho-Quinn, Kenny Bednarek, and Fred Kerley, along with aforementioned Olympic medalists Fisher, Nuguse, and Hocker, and additional middle-distance stars Josh Kerr and Nikki Hiltz.

Grand Slam Track, Key to Completing Cranny’s Meteoric Rise?

Cranny is the 33rd of 48 athletes to sign onto Grand Slam Track. A standout since her days at Niwot High School just outside of Boulder, Colorado, she won multiple cross country and track state titles. She went on to earn numerous All-American honors at Stanford University—including two runner-up finishes at the NCAA championships, one indoors in the 3,000 in 2015, and another in the 1500 outdoors in 2016.

But her big breakout came after she turned professional in 2018 and joined the Bowerman Track Club. At the Covid-delayed Olympic trials in 2021, she won the 5,000 to earn her first Olympic berth. (She took 13th in Tokyo.) It hasn’t all been smooth sailing since. Cranny’s been open about her struggles since with RED-S and feeling burned out—physically and mentally. She refounded her groove by leaving the BTC and moving home to Colorado last year.

There, she trained briefly with Team Boss before choosing to work remotely with Jared Cornfield, the associate head coach for distance and mid-distance at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff. The bet paid off. Cranny executed the slightly nutty, highly impressive feat of competing in three rounds of the 1500 and two rounds of the 5,000 at the Olympic Trials this June, finishing sixth and second in the two events, respectively, to make her second Olympic team in the 5,000.

Her third Olympic cycle will start with some indoor meets this winter, including hopefully the Milrose Games, Cranny says, before transitioning to outdoors with Grand Slam Track and hopefully a full summer of racing that culminates with making the U.S. team for the world championship in Tokyo slated for September.

In our conversation, she shared more about her decision to join the new league, her big regret from Paris, her aspirations off the track (trail runners and triathletes, watch out!), and the changes she’s making over the next four years to put herself in the best position possible to check that remaining Olympic podium box for American women.

Outside: You said earning an Olympic medal comes down to confidence. What percent of these championship-level races is mental?

Elise Cranny: Oh man, a really big part of it. If you’ve made it to the line in a final, everyone has trained really hard. Everyone’s in good shape. And so I think it’s a lot of the training to get there. But once you’re there, those are the mental edges.

Someone told me this, and I believe this is so true: Everyone stands on the line and wants to be mentally strong, but who are the people who truly deep down have the confidence and belief of, ‘I can’? Watching Grant in that 5K he went from like eighth to third. He knows he can do it, you know? He’s not just wanting to, he truly believes that he is one of the best three in the world. There has to be this switch to believing that you really truly can do it.

How close were you to knowing you could medal this summer?

I think I was closer than I’ve ever been for probably 85 percent of the race. I think I was there, but I think in the moments that it mattered most, the last 800, that definitely exposed me. I had confidence to be not just hanging off the back and be responding to the moves and going for it, which I think is a huge step forward. But I think I’m just still working on the training of really being able to close that last K.

What you see is crazy on the world stage. No matter how slow and tactical or fast the race is, the last K is going to be an absolute barn burner. So working on that specifically in training, but also just wrapping my head around that mentally of like, ‘OK, closing the last 1K at 4-flat [minutes per mile] pace is normal.’ You have to normalize that instead of, ‘Maybe it will be a little bit slower and not go that fast.’ That needs to be the expectation.

Do you imagine the Grand Slam Races to be tactical like that? 

Yeah, I’m really curious to see. I do think with there being four races and the back-to-back there will be some tactics involved. Racing so many times at the [Olympic] trials, especially doing three rounds of the 15, was so much fun for me. Each of those races was run in a completely different way, and that was just so mentally stimulating for me.

And it’s so fun to be like, ‘OK, I’m  actively working on going out fast, or taking the lead and making a decisive move.’ And I think Grand Slam is going to provide a great opportunity for that as well, to just really practice different things and practice different tactics. What’s exciting about it, too, is that it’s so different from the Diamond League meets. You’re not going to have perfectly paced, set-up races. That’s where I feel like I really thrive is USA’s or the [Olympic] trials, for example. And that’s what I’ve felt since college: being focused on just competing and throwing time out the window. Hopefully the time is fast, but you don’t know it, because you’re so engrossed in competing that you’re not focused on anything else.

How do you feel about getting to race more 3Ks?

In all honesty, I feel like the 3K might be my favorite event and is like my sweet spot. I love, I love the 3K. It’s so fast from the beginning, it’s really fun. I am really excited about that as well just because there’s not usually too many outdoor opportunities to run it.

It’s kind of like bringing high school track to professional track.

It really is! Back to the 3K and 3,200 days.

Do you feel like the 3K is less pressure, in a way, because you race it less and have fewer data points around it?

That is so true. Over time, you gain so much experience in this sport, but sometimes it’s almost like you start to know too much. Going back to high school, you didn’t think about any of that. You’re just running. I even think about [the state championship] and it’s like you’re running two events one day and then you turn around the next day and you run another event, you turn around the next day and you’re not thinking about how you feel. And I do think there is a part of professional running sometimes where there becomes so much of like, ‘This is how you feel, this is what you do.’ And so I think it’s fun to be like, ‘I can still race with my legs even when they’re tired.’ I did that all throughout high school.

And I think that’s cool in terms of even the [Grand Slam] point system. It’s less like, ‘OK, I need to knock this one race out of park.’ It’s like, ‘I need to be consistent over two races.’ It’s a game to kind of figure out and tinker with. Because racing is the best part.

And what’s exciting about Grand Slam as well is just more opportunities where you show up bring your A game and do your best, but you have multiple opportunities to do that instead of one time a year to showcase training that you’ve been doing for 11 months, because it’s almost like too much on that one race.

You said at the very beginning of 2024 that your goal this year was to have fun. Did you accomplish that?

The trials was a really good example of that for me, just having my family there. When I look at the week of the trials, I was so excited to line up for every race. I was spending time with my family and feeling like I was approaching it with a really “nothing-to-lose” attitude. Reflecting on that, I wish I had done a better job bringing that mentality to Paris. I think I got to Paris and I would say I lost it a little bit.

I think I was like, ‘This is the Olympics.’ I didn’t see my family as much. I think I needed to still find that balance of like, going out to dinner with them is maybe not like sitting in your room, but that’s actually going to be better for you. And so I would say overall, yes, but I think the part that I look back on is like, dang, I feel like that’s the biggest  peak moment of the year. I didn’t quite do as good of a job at that.

So would it be fair to say that your goals for this next Olympic cycle are higher than ever, but you’ll also be trying to have more fun than ever? 

Yeah, for sure. There are just so many different ways that people approach it. For a while, I was trying to be super intense. I’m intense and super competitive when I get on the line. But I think what I learned this year is that I really perform my best when I’m having dinner with my family or something, even if it’s chill. Having fun and not thinking about running when I’m not racing.

And maybe for some people that’s different. Maybe they like to think about the race. Maybe they like to visualize it a ton. I like to do that at points, but I think for me, when I get to thinking too much about one thing and put too much energy on it, I just can’t dig as deep in the race because I almost feel like I’ve already done part of that.

So for the next four years, not to sound cliche, but joy and having fun with it is truly how I’m going to run my best. And I think it’s very easy in society and just like sports culture in general to be like the harder the better and more, more, more. And I feel like I’ve done the, “OK, you need to train harder. You need more mileage.’ Now, I figured out a little bit more of what works for me and I think it’s about owning that and being like, ‘OK, how can I be in a state of mind where I’m really excited to race?’ And I’m not approaching it where my grip is so tight on my goals and it’s so forced and it’s just brute force. It just doesn’t work that way for me.

What role has moving back home to Colorado played in this new mindset?

I think the biggest thing is my family is there and just being back in the place where I grew up. I work out at my high school. I’m back running on the trails that I got started on. I think there’s something really special about that, kind of feeling like a full-circle moment.

I would say the biggest thing is I have a couple really good friends that I’ve been friends with since elementary school. One of them, she had a baby like 10 months ago. She’s like my two sisters in terms of being so supportive of running, but completely out of the running world. And I think that’s been really helpful to be surrounded by a really great support system in Colorado. They get it and they’re supportive, but I’m also able to spend time with them and feel like a normal person and disconnect from running for a little bit, which I think is really important.

That’s something that I definitely struggled with toward the end of my time in Eugene. I do really, really miss being part of a team. There is something so special about that, living with teammates, going to altitude camp with teammates. But I think part of what’s refreshed my approach to running is having that outlet that’s completely separate from running.

I think it’s even from a training perspective, it’s really hard to beat just the sunshine, even if it’s cold or snowy at times. Recently, doubles or evening runs have been my favorite because it’s so nice with the sun going behind the mountains and the crisp fall air and I’m just like, ‘Wow, this is much better than having to go out in the pouring rain and be soaking two minutes into your run.’ Just the trails, or even just the view of the mountains or the Flatirons, I have such a great appreciation for it.

“For the next four years, not to sound cliche, but joy and having fun with it is truly how I’m going to run my best.”

I just had a run a week ago, where it was just so clear. And I was running on Lobo, just back and forth toward the mountains and I was like, ‘This is crazy.’ It makes you want to be out there longer. I’m getting in trouble with my coach for going longer, but I’m just like, ‘No, it’s amazing out there.’ I was having a great time. It’s funny. It’s also a fun feeling. It’s fun to be in a place where you’re excited to be out there and be running and you’re enjoying it.

I would say a really, really crucial part of my training setup, honestly, has been my parents. They’ll sometimes bike with me on runs or they’ll show up to the track and read off splits. So they have been a huge part of it. And then this upcoming year, I’ll do like a couple camps in Flagstaff, which is where my coach Jared is, so that’s just another good place to be. I want to be in person for some of those bigger workouts before the big points of the season just because it’s nice to have eyes on you and a coach that can make adjustments.

I feel like the combo of the two will be really good. There’s no way the running in Flagstaff is better than Boulder, but I always do like the training camp mentality.

I have to ask because you mentioned trails and running longer than you were assigned: do you have any interest in racing on the trails and/or going longer than a marathon?

It’s funny, both of my grandparents did ultras and they did several 100-milers. I don’t know if I want to do that. I definitely want to do a marathon at some point, but I definitely do love the trails. It’s actually been hard being back just because there are some nights where I’m like, ‘You should just go for a normal run, Elise, and not on the trails.’

Before the trials, I rented an Airbnb up in Nederland, and I was living in the basement of a trail runner, and it was super fun. They wanted to take me on trail runs, and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I would love to do some trail running in the future.’

There’s too many things I want to do with running. I still want to stay on the track, but I want to do trails. My parents did triathlon, so I’ll eventually want to do a triathlon, maybe an Ironman, a marathon, I don’t know, there’s too many things, plus, I want to do something else, a career outside of running.