PARIS — Grant Fisher won the first track and field medal of the Games for Team USA Friday night on the purple Stade de France oval, putting together a masterful effort to come away with bronze in the greatest men's 10,000 race in Olympic history. Fisher, who was fifth at Tokyo, sped to a 26:43.46 for the second fastest time ever by an American as 13 men broke the previous Olympic record. World record holder Joshua Cheptegei of Uganda pulled away for gold in 26:43.14 as Ethiopia's Berihu Aregawi outleaned Fisher for silver in 26:43.44. Nico Young placed 12th in 26:58.11, the eighth fastest U.S. performance ever, with Woody Kincaid 16th in 27:29.40. Fisher's bronze was only the fourth U.S. medal in the 10,000, and the first since Galen Rupp's silver at London in 2012. A rapid early pace had 20 men passing the 5km mark in under 13:30, led by Aregawi in 13:23.2 as the Ethiopian contingent took turns with the lead. Fisher stayed in the front of the pack throughout the race apart from a bobble just after the 17-minute mark when he stumbled and dropped back before regaining his place. The pace slowed for a while later in the race, allowing the pack to regroup, and 11 runners were within a second behind Aregawi going through 9km in 24:16.9. Cheptegei covered the final lap in 55.0 for the win. Dismantling the world record in the mixed 4x400 relay, the quartet of Vernon Norwood, Shamier Little, Bryce Deadmon and Kaylyn Brown stopped the clock at 3:07.41 to take more than a second off the previous WR of 3:08.80 that was set by an American team to win the World Championships at Budapest last summer. Norwood kicked it off with a strong opening leg of 44.47, coming on down the stretch to hand off in the lead to Little. Little extended her lead with a 49.32 carry on the way to a clean exchange with Deadmon, who only added to the margin with his 44.17 split before giving the baton to the youngest member of the squad, 19-year-old Kaylyn Brown of Arkansas. Brown had no trouble bringing it home in 49.45 to claim the first world record of the athletics portion of the Games. Shaping up as an almost-final, the first heat of the women's 5000 had world record holder Gudaf Tsegay of Ethiopia, reigning world champion Faith Kipyegon of Kenya, and defending Olympic champion Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands, along with American hopefuls Elise Cranny and Karissa Schweizer. Japan's Yuma Yamamoto took a big early lead, passing 1km in 3:03.3 with a seven-second margin over a pack that included Cranny and Schweizer. Yamamoto's lead stretched to eight seconds going through 2km in 6:07.3, but the pack soon started chipping away at that lead as it was less than five seconds at 3km in 9:17.2. Namoi Tanaka of Japan took over by 4km, passing in 12:14.3 with nine women within a second. A hard push over the final kilometer didn't break up that group much and the fight was on for a spot in the final. Needing to finish in the top eight to advance, Cranny and Schweizer hung onto the back of a group of eight and nabbed a berth in the final, with Cranny seventh in 14:58.55 and Schweizer eighth in 14:59.64. Whittni Morgan faced a daunting task in the second heat with more than a dozen women sporting PBs better than her 15:02.07. Uganda's Esther Chebet ushered the field past 1km in 3:03.5 as Morgan settled into the back half of the pack, a second behind. World 10,000 record holder Beatrice Chebet of Kenya eased to the front through 2km in 6:09.2, but not many women had dropped off that pace, and at 3km Australia's Isobel Batt-Doyle was a stride ahead in 9:13. Morgan went through that mark in 9:14.1 in 13th to stay close. Batt-Doyle kept her lead at 4km in 12:13.1 ahead of a mass of 16 other women as the pace started to crank up in anticipation of the final sprint. Morgan tucked into the top eight on the inside with two laps to go and she kicked into the final with a speedy last circuit, placing sixth in a season best 15:02.14. It was the second time in Games history that three Americans earned spots in the final. Starting his quest for a record third straight Olympic men's shot put title, Ryan Crouser looked restrained on his first attempt and still hit 21.49/70-6.25 to automatically advance to the final. Payton Otterdahl also was one and done with a 21.52/70-7.25 blast, but Joe Kovacs needed two tries to assure him a place in the final. Kovacs, twice a silver medalist behind Crouser's golds, went a ho-hum 20.65/67-9 in round one and then improved to 21.06/69-1.25 on his second attempt, good enough to move on. He took one more throw, a 21.24/69-8.25 that ranked him seventh overall. Reigning Olympic women's discus champion Valarie Allman was firing on all cylinders in Group A of qualifying, uncorking a 69.59/228-3 on her first attempt, the best throw ever by an American at the Games. That put her in the final as the lone U.S. representative after Veronica Fraley threw her best of 62.54/205-2 in round one of Group B to rank 13th, one place out of the final, and Jayden Ulrich had one legal attempt, a 61.08/200-5 in the third round that put her 18th. Jasmine Moore barely had time to get comfortable in the women's triple jump qualifying, bounding 14.43/47-4.25 on her first attempt to surpass the auto advancement standard, a distance only she and three other U.S. women have ever achieved. Competing in her third and final Olympic Games, Keturah Orji left it to the very end as she stretched out to 14.09/46-2.75 in round three to grab a finals berth, the first time two U.S. women qualified for an Olympic final. Tori Franklin had a best of 14.02/46-0 in the second round to just miss the final in 14th place. Perched in fourth at the bell in heat one of the women's 800, Juliette Whittaker pushed the gas pedal in the final 200 to cross the line in third at 2:00.45 and advance to the semifinal, edging Switzerland's Valentina Rosamilla by .003 for the benefit of avoiding the repechage round. Nia Akins and world leader Keely Hodgkinson of Britain led through 400 in heat four before Tokyo silver medalist Hodgkinson eased away to win in 1:59.31. Akins comfortably ensured her advancement to the semifinal with a 1:59.67 in second. Left with a lot of real estate to make up in the sixth and final heat, Allie Wilson moved up to sixth in the final stretch, but couldn't crack the auto qualifying group with a 1:59.69 and will take part in the repechage round. Earlier in the day, convincing wins in the heats of the women's 100 went to Trials champion Sha'Carri Richardson and TeeTee Terry. Richardson blew past her challengers in heat one and cruised to a 10.94 win, while Terry won the sixth heat in 11.15. Melissa Jefferson also easily advanced to the semifinal with a second-place 10.96 in heat three. Also in the morning session, all three U.S. men made it through to the semifinal of the 1500. Cole Hocker was the fastest of the trio, placing second in heat two at 3:35.27, with Hobbs Kessler also second in his heat at 3:36.87. Yared Nuguse had to battle traffic on the way to a fifth-place finish in the first heat, crossing the line in 3:36.56. Vashti Cunningham, winner of 14 USATF titles in her career, made it through to her third straight Olympic final in the women's high jump, going over 1.92/6-3.5 on her third attempt, but collegiate record holder Rachel Glenn of Arkansas couldn't navigate that height and went out with a best of 1.88/6-2. American record holder Rudy Winkler nailed the automatic qualifying mark on his first attempt in the men's hammer, hitting 77.29/253-7 for the fourth best mark out of all competitors. Trials champion Daniel Haugh had three fouls and did not advance. After day one of the men's decathlon, Harrison Williams was the top American in the standings, sitting eighth with 4,432 points that was highlighted by a PB in the shot put of 15.66/51-4.5 and season bests of 10.62 in the 100 and 1.96/6-5 in the high jump. Heath Baldwin used a huge high jump clearance of 2.17/7-1.5 to help tally 4,366 in 11th, while Zach Ziemek struggled to 4,071 in 19th.