“We’re gonna rob a bank,” says his coach. Well, Grant Holloway is the guy who’s practically flying over those 110m hurdles. He’s not just fast—he’s a really interesting guy to listen to. He’s got that 2024 Olympic silver medal and just a crazy list of wins, so when he talks, people in the track and field world really listen. Well, he was in a conversation with Ready Set Go recently, and he said something that totally had fans abuzz. He used this wild comparison, saying that track and field is like… robbing a bank!

Don’t worry, he’s not talking about actual crime. For him, it’s more about trusting your coach completely, working hard, and going after success. It’s this really vivid picture he painted, which he apparently got from his coach, Mike Holloway. He described athletes being blindfolded, with only their coach’s voice telling them how to get the “money”—meaning, snatching that win or personal best. For a sport that’s all about split seconds and doing everything yourself, it’s a pretty bold way to put it. So, what’s the deal with this crazy comparison, and why is Holloway so into it?

It’s all about That “Bank Heist” Mindset. Holloway’s words really hit you. He said, “When I first met Coach Holloway, he said, ‘Look, we’re gonna rob a bank, but I’m gonna blindfold you. All you gotta do is just listen, I’m gonna tell you where the bag is, leave everything else up to me.’” Isn’t that wild? The way he sees it, the “bank” is the track itself, that “bag of money” is like hitting a personal best time or getting on the podium, and the “blindfold” means you have to put complete trust in your coach’s plan.

Holloway—a guy who’s run a 12.81 in the hurdles and won world titles in 2019, 2022, and 2024, totally lives by this. His coach handles all the complicated stuff – the workouts, how much rest he needs, the race strategy —and his job is super simple: just show up and do exactly what he’s told. “All the thinking and figuring out what the body needs to do and why is this muscle tight… that’s not your job,” he explained. It’s this kind of mindset that’s gotten him to the very top, but how does that actually work every single day for a track star?

At its heart, what Holloway means by this bank analogy is basically about letting go—not giving up, but giving yourself over to the training process. He puts it like this: “Your job is to go out, each and every day, and put 110% regardless of any situation.” Track athletes don’t usually get to pick their workouts; they just get the plan and follow it, pretty much no questions asked.

Each race is like a mini-heist, with his coach guiding him, basically saying, “Go up to the second floor! The bag is there!” Holloway sounds so confident when he talks about it: “If you do that, you’re gonna go up to the second floor every single day, grab the money, you gonna be like, ‘Oh, this is easy. It’s easy now.’” It’s a formula that’s clearly worked wonders for him, but what does this mean for younger athletes coming up?

Grant Holloway and how his 2025 season has been going so far

The incredible hurdler and three-time world champion, Grant Holloway, started off 2025 just tearing it up. He kept that insane win streak going in the 60m hurdles indoors. At the U.S. Indoor Championships, he ran a blazing 7.36 seconds, setting a record and capturing his fifth national title in the 60m hurdles. And get this, at the World Indoor Championships over in Nanjing, he made history! He won his third straight title in the 60m hurdles, running 7.42 seconds.

He even said about that win, “This one was different. I had to rely on my experience,” telling World Athletics that. That streak of his, over 70 races without a loss since way back in 2014, seriously keeps fans in awe. But, you gotta wonder, could the outdoor season maybe mess with his reign a bit?

Well, outdoors, yeah, he actually had a pretty rare hiccup. At the Tom Jones Memorial meet on April 19th, he actually lost! Trey Cunningham beat him, running a world-leading 13.09 seconds. This was Holloway’s first loss on U.S. soil in the 110m hurdles in ten years. Pretty wild, right?

Still, the guy’s an Olympic gold medalist from 2024, and he’s already looking ahead. He’s totally focused on bouncing back in the Diamond League meet in Silesia on August 16th and going for a fourth world title in Tokyo from September 13th to 21st. He sounded pretty determined, so the big question is, can Grant storm back and grab more gold?