PARIS, France — An Athens native made his way into an Olympic track and field final on Wednesday in Paris.
Graham Blanks qualified out of the 5000m heats, finishing sixth in his race at the Paris Olympics. Blanks, 22, recorded a time of 14 minutes, 9.06 seconds.
The 5000m final is on Saturday, August 10 at 1:50 p.m. ET (7:50 p.m. local time in Paris) at the famed Stade de France national stadium.
Blanks, who went to Athens Academy, is at his first Olympics. He's a rising senior at Harvard, where he competes for the Crimson's track and field team.
He finished fourth at the U.S. Team Trials earlier this year, which would not have sent him to Paris -- however, the third place finisher did not attain the 2024 Olympic qualifying standard. That left the U.S. Olympic Committee with the option to select Blanks, which they did
Blanks finished with a time of 13:12.61, whereas the third-place finisher, Parker Wolfe of the University of North Carolina, finished with a time of 13:10.75. The Olympic qualifying standard (a time you must have recorded at some recent point) was 13:05.0.
He was fifth this year and second last year in the 5000m at the NCAA Track and Field Outdoor Championships. Blanks was also the NCAA cross country national champion last year.
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