Grant Grosvenor appears for a split second on screen, faintly and out of focus, the slightest glimmer of agony on his face, thousands of spectators watching on.
Then comes the next frame, and then the next. Finally, we see Jakob Ingebrigtsen, the Norwegian middle-distance superstar and two-time Olympic champion at 5,000 meters, shrugging to the camera as a title card blasts across the screen: “Winning isn’t for everyone.”
This, of course, is a Nike commercial, one that was screened to a global audience during the 2024 Paris Olympics. Grosvenor, a 32-year-old middle-distance runner from Seattle, Washington, did not qualify for the Olympics, but he was a background actor for this production, earning a cool $20,000 for less than one-second of air time—precisely 81 seconds in.
The glamour of a national television spot was enough to give Grosvenor a taste of an idea he’s held on to since he was a teenager running without anyone watching. It was enough to spark the embers of a dream that took him from Montana State to the University of Oregon, and then from the depths of an alcohol addiction to the realization that he needed to stop drinking altogether.
For Grosvenor, it probably meant so much more than anyone could realize. So he asked himself, why not chase after the sub-four minute mile?
“Taking advantage of the time I have,” he said.
Traversing the road ahead
Billions of people are on this earth, and yet less than 1,000 American men in history have broken four minutes in the mile. Track and Field News, one of the sport’s gatekeepers of times and records, keeps a full list of U.S. runners to have broken the mark (at least through 2023). But most of them were either in college or early in their professional careers when they achieved the feat.
Grosvenor hardly even ran the mile until he was in his 20s. In the mid-2010s, as a prep at Jackson High School in Mill Creek, Washington, he parlayed a high school best of 1:50.06 for 800 meters into a scholarship with Montana State. “He was just a bulldog,” Grosvenor’s former coach, Eric Hruschka, said.
Things went well there—he reached the NCAA Outdoor Championships in 2013 in the 800—until Grosvenor dreamt a bit bigger. He transferred to the University of Oregon in 2014 and won an NCAA title in the distance medley relay just two years later, running the half-mile leg. He finished his career with a second-place finish in the Pac-12 championships in the 800 meters. “He got excited and went a little early,” former Oregon coach Andy Powell, now at Washington, said of the conference meet. “But he almost won the thing.”
All of this success was great, but in time it also festered issues. There was drinking and partying and wondering about life’s mysteries—what exactly am I supposed to do after I graduate? “I kind of just went along with trying to find out what I should do,” said Grosvenor, who worked for Nike at one point. “I went to Seattle to work for a software company. The culture was a lot more partying.”
As quickly as Grosvenor’s budding success blossomed, it also just as quickly fell apart. Without running as a backbone, he lost his way. He put on 40 pounds. Smoked weed. Lit up a cigarette when he was stressed. “I knew deep down I was going on a path that was worse than using this stuff seasonally,” he said.
Then the pandemic hit. A few years went by. Grosvenor moved to Arizona and then back to Everett, Washington, deciding one day, along with a friend, to quit drinking and substances all together.
It was February 20, 2023.
A new path forward
Grosvenor officially picked track and field back up in 2021, clocking a best of 1:47.66 for 800 meters at the Sunset Tour. He rode the high and then hit it big with Dogecoin—an investment Grosvenor made years before the meme stock exploded from September to October of 2022—which allowed him to travel the world and race in places like Italy and Switzerland and Great Britain.
But all wasn’t sunshine. In 2023, he started going to AA meetings to combat his addiction. “I learned that alcoholism isn’t just the guy or girl on the street who’s struggling,” he said.
A sober Grosvenor decided he still had gas left in the tank. He started first by pacing races out of the Dempsey Indoor Facility in his hometown, where Powell was surprised to see him. “It’s amazing to see he’s stayed with it,” Powell said.
Grosvenor then went all-in at the turn of 2024, running at 1500 meters in April with a time of 3:45.78. Next came his big break with the Nike commercial, an out-of-the-blue opportunity—you can see him if you squint just right. “I was Jakob’s background guy,” he said.
Late last year, as Grosvenor’s quest for sub-4 began, he began splitting time in Flagstaff, Arizona, and San Diego, California, using the former to train at elevation, and the latter so he could enjoy the sun and surf on the weekends. His remote job selling online ad space was the perfect conductor. Grosvenor roomed with friends.
In January of 2025, he chased after four minutes for the first time, missing it by just six-tenths of a second indoors in Seattle. Two weeks later, now more determined and across the country in Boston, he was just over a second shy of the mark. A week after that, now tired and still in the northeast, he ran 4:01 again.
In between those attempts, he traveled to New York and competed against the fastest men in the nation at 800 meters during the U.S. Indoor Championships. “I won’t set a limitation,” he said. “I’ll just keep rolling.”
Grosvenor gave his last indoor sub-4 attempt a shot in March.
In a heat where eight men broke the tape in under four minutes, he missed it by two-tenths of a second.
Failure never really stung. “It’s about doubling down,” said Grosvenor, who carries his yearly AA recovery chips around as reminders of his journey. “I’m asking myself, ‘What does this body have left when the legs can still go?’”
His next race might come in May. But if sub-4 never comes? “That’s not going to be an option,” he said. “Can’t let it happen.”
