"Great way to finish out my collegiate career" - Harvard Crimson's Graham Banks on successfully defending NCAA 10km title

Graham Blanks has defended his NCAA 10km title successfully. The 22-year-old Olympian, who represents Harvard Crimson, has recently won his second consecutive gold medal in the 10km run at the NCAA Cross Country Championships.

When asked about how he felt after winning back-to-back NCAA titles, Blanks replied,

"Good yeah, something hard to achieve, uh heard a lot today at the ends uh, but just happy to, I mean great way to finish out on my collegiate career. I would have never thought I'd be able to, you know like, I don't know just like you know uh FL the race, I was just kinda looking through the photos of uh, like myself and my teammates over the years, like all the way back to high school, and just like I'm just really really grateful that I've made it this far [0:04 onwards]

When Blanks was informed that he was the youngest American since Steve Prefontaine to achieve this distinction, he added,

"I mean that's pretty, that's obviously pretty cool you know. There's like, there's like there's a lot of different ways you can put it like, uh, you know it's still like, I mean the the word that I mean it's just a little surreal like uh, but at the end of the day, I mean I've, I've worked really really hard for this and it's not been easy. I mean it's, it's been a lot of sacrifice, a lot of pain, a lot of , I mean a lot of hurt, but it's for these moments that are worth it and like I'm glad that you guys and ESPN are able to put this stuff on TV." [3:07 onwards]

Graham Blanks has become only the 13th student in the history of the NCAA Cross Country Championships to have successfully defended his title. In 2023, he won the NCAA Cross Country Championships, becoming the first-ever male runner from an Ivy League college to have won the race.

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Graham Blanks at the Paris Olympics

Graham Blanks at Paris Olympics [Image Source : Getty]

Despite being afflicted with injury for the first half of 2024, Graham Blanks made a dramatic entry in the Paris Olympics. He initially stood fourth in the US Olympic trials held at Eugene, Oregon, with a personal timing of 13:12.61.

However, since the third-place finisher hadn't clocked the required timing of 13:05.00, he was disqualified, which allowed Blanks to qualify for the Paris Olympics in his place. In the heats, he clocked an impressive timing of 14:09.06 to qualify for the finals. Blanks' teammate Grant Fisher, who represents Stanford Cardinal, qualified for the finals with a timing of 13:52.44.

In the finals, Blanks couldn't sustain the momentum he had generated during the preliminaries. The runner from Harvard Crimsons finished ninth overall, with a timing of 13:18.67. On the other hand, Grant Fisher took home a bronze medal with a timing of 13:15.13, finishing behind gold medalist Jakob Ingebrigtsen of Norway and Ronald Kwemoi of Kenya. He went on to win a bronze medal in the 10,000m event at the Paris Olympics.

In January 2024, Graham Blanks signed an NIL deal with New Balance. This was done after the NCAA had allowed collegiate athletes to derive profit from their name, image, and likeness.