Missouri track great Karissa Schweizer places 10th, leads U.S. runners in Olympics 5,000 final
The top U.S. runner in the 5,000-meter at the 2024 Olympic games was a Mizzou Hall of Famer.
Former Missouri track and field and cross country star Karissa Schweizer placed 10th in the 5,000-meter finals with a time of 14 minutes, 45.57 seconds on Monday, leading the Team USA contingent in the event in Paris. It was Schweizer’s first top-10 finish at any distance in an Olympics final.
The result was one spot — and more than 10 seconds — better than her mark at the Tokyo games in 2021, when she finished 11th. The result in Paris is part of a remarkable and unlikely comeback for the former Tiger.
Schweizer, who was inducted into the Missouri Intercollegiate Athletics Hall of Fame in 2023 after winning six individual national titles from 2014-18, has battled injuries since her appearance at the Olympics in Tokyo, including surgery on her achilles and a calf injury that forced her to withdraw from the 2022 World Athletics Championships final.
After qualifying for her second straight Olympics berth at the U.S. Olympics Track and Field Trials in June in Eugene, Oregon, the Urbandale, Iowa, native told the Des Moines Register she had considered retiring.
To reach the 5,000 finals, Schweizer placed eighth in her heat to take the final qualifying spot from that run for the final, running a 14:59.64.
Kenya’s Beatrice Chebet took gold in the 5,000 in Paris with a time of 14:28.56. Fellow Kenyan Faith Kipyegon, who crossed the finish line second, was briefly disqualified for a push during the race, bumping Schweizer up a spot in the standings. Kipyegon's second-place finish was reinstated later after an appeal, pushing Schweizer back to 10th.
Schweizer, 28, narrowly beat Stanford product Elise Cranny to the line to finish as the top U.S. runner. Three Americans made the finals, with BYU grad Whittni Morgan taking 13th place.
The former Missouri star’s games aren’t done, either. She will compete in the 10,000 finals at 1:57 p.m. Friday. Schwiezer finished 12th at the distance in the 2020 Olympics.
Former Missouri swimmer Clement Sechhi earns bronze for France
Clement Sechhi, an SEC champion in the 200 fly during his lone season with Missouri swim and dive in 2022-23, was part of the French 4x100 medley relay team that earned the bronze medal in the event Sunday.
Sechhi did not compete in Sunday’s final for the French team but swam the third leg for France in the preliminary round, which allows him to earn a medal under Olympic rules, per a Missouri athletics news release.
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This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Missouri great Karissa Schweizer places 10th in Olympics 5,000 final
