Grant Grosvenor’s New Purpose after a Second Chance

By: Jacob Infald

Grant Grosvenor, a former standout in the 800 meter at the University of Oregon, struggled to find purpose in life after graduating and leaving competitive sports in 2016. He attempted to climb the corporate ladder while simultaneously picking up bad habits and struggling with addiction. However, Grosvenor has now found his purpose again and it is back on the track; at 34 years old he has turned his life around and is running faster than ever while hoping to inspire others to chase second chances in adulthood. 

Almost everyone reading this story has played some sort of team sport in their life. Whether it was being a high-level collegiate athlete like Grosvenor, or playing little league baseball, nearly every person was involved in some sort of team structure in their life. However, when that team structure is lost, finding motivation and meaning in things beyond school or work can be a challenge.

That was the position Grosvenor found himself in, in the summer of 2016. Just a few spots off of qualifying for the Olympic Trials, Grosvenor said he could have continued to train at a high-level to chase a professional contract, but he felt burnt out and said he believed that now it was time to move on to the next chapter in life, which he believed was making money. 

“I was experiencing some rough life stuff and I just kind of dropped running at the time and started focusing on making money and climbing the corporate ladder,” Grosvenor told The Extra Mile. “Years went by and it still kind of crept on me, I felt like my career was cut short, but I was so deep into trying to fake this other life, that it was pretty hard to get back on track.”

That other life Grosvenor referred to involved more than the corporate sales life he was involved in. He said he began partying, and began to struggle with substance abuse including alcohol, weed, and nicotine. 

Grosvenor said he began to pick up exercise and running again during COVID-19, just to give himself something to keep him out of trouble and away from partying. However, after clocking a 1:47.66 800 in July of 2021, narrowly beating his personal best from Oregon, he said he was once again hooked. 

Meanwhile, Travis Thompson, another 800 runner who graduated from Oregon in 2012, said he always wondered what happened to Grosvenor after hearing nothing about the former standout from his alma mater. Thompson said he got his answer after reading about Grosvenor’s story in an article and instantly became a fan from afar. The pair reconnected, and while neither of them currently have professional running contracts, Grosvenor moved in with Thompson in Arizona for a few months this past year to live and train together. 

“I think the thing I picked up on the most was just his attention to detail,” Thompson told The Extra Mile. “It felt like I was around an 18- to 25-year-old Olympian, but he was in his 30s and I remember just being like, ‘Wow this is a really cool story. This dude struggled, he's back, he’s training, he’s in his 30s, and he’s gonna run really fast.’”

Shortly after training with Thompson, Grosvenor ran a sub-four minute mile for the very first time. At 33 years old, he ran a 3:58.58 on January 30 at the University of Washington. This past indoor season, Grosvenor also ran a personal best in the 1000 meter run of 2:18.19, and qualified for the USATF Indoor Championship in the 800, all without any sponsorship. 

This second chance at finding a purpose in competition and athletics is not something many people are able to realize in life. Grosvenor said this is why he started being active on social media, in hopes that others who are struggling with addiction or simply just burnout resonate with his story. 

“When I returned to track, I was just open to [saying] I’m just doing this to find a way out of partying and then it turned into okay, wait, there might be something here,” Grosvenor said. “I think if I can go from what I was doing…then I think a lot more people have that second chance available to them if they can muster up the courage to start.”

At 34 years old, Grosvenor is all in on running once again. He is now based out of Australia, training with some of the best 800 meter runners in the world with Fast8TrackClub under coach Justin Rinaldi. Here, he trains with athletes a decade younger and up to four seconds faster than him, including Australian national record holder Peter Bol who has a personal best of 1:42.55 and placed fourth at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. 

“With the limited amount of time I had left I was like, ‘I need to fine-tune [training] and make sure I’m in the best spot moving forward,’” Grosvenor said. “I’d say getting around a group, and really honing in on my recovery, diet, and just my attitude around training has really been probably the biggest difference for this year specifically.”

While Grosvenor is a super talented athlete, he is looking to inspire people across a wider range of skill levels. Thompson said anyone involved in a sport such as running that may not be as mainstream can resonate with Grosvenor because of how lonely the comeback process can be regardless of what level you compete at. 

“Creating discipline in your life, whether it’s signing up for a race, signing up for a marathon or trying to make a comeback like Grant, I think that’s what life’s all about,” Thompson said. “I think more and more people should do that as they age, because it is so easy to lose yourself…and go down a path you didn’t expect to go down.”

This past weekend on June 13, Grosvenor ran a 1:46.91 in his first race at 34 years old, continuing to run faster than his collegiate times a decade later. While Grosvenor has goals of making a U.S final, running sub 1:45, and getting a professional contract, he said those are no longer the most important aspects of his career. 

“I think there’s a greater purpose to my running than me running fast and placing high at these meets,” Grosvenor said. “It’s really just to showcase that if you stay consistent, have a good attitude, and maybe be a little delusional you can really reach heights you never thought you could.”