Went to a wedding last weekend where Ed Eyestone was officiating.

Other notable attendees were Canadian Olympic marathon and byu alum Rory linkletter and a few other former byu track and xc athletes

Went and chatted with Ed after the ceremony and asked him a bunch of questions about the Olympics.

Some highlights:

He is leaving for Paris today. He will fly over as part of team USA with his 4 athletes where they will participate in the opening ceremonies.
Afterwards, they will be heading to Zurich to train at altitude for the couple weeks between the opening and their events.


Said that team USA pays for his flights and hotels and that the runners shoe companies will pay for the rest. Also said that if they don’t cover everything byu will step in because corrigan is a current byu athlete.

Talked about Corrigan and his steeple chase miracle to make the Olympics. He said that it was a bit of a surprise that James was able to make the Olympic trials then a bigger surprise that he was able to finish top 3. Then they had to scramble to get another internationally recognized race in and flew across the country from Oregon to Penn in two days. Eyestone said he gave Corrigan an outside chance of making the Olympics going into that race but the kid ran the race of his life and made the Olympic standard time and is now is the American leader for time.



He talked a little about our byu guys’ chances in the races:

Steeple chase: said that both steeple chasers are a bit off of the world leading pace (like 12 seconds off) but both Corrigan and Rooks could easily be in the mix to make the finals.


Marathon: Conner and Clayton come in ranked 177th and 179th in the world in time respectively. But times are so different depending on conditions over the 26.2 that both could potentially be in contention to compete. Neither are by any means favored. Ed said that Conner is most likely going to want to hang with the leaders and “stick his nose in there” but will need to check his pace if people flash too early. If he’s in the leaders mix toward the end of the race, he has a great kick and his endurance could win out. I’d expect him to at least make some noise toward the beginning of the race and we’ll just hope he can keep it together to the end.
Ed said that Clayton will strategize to run more of a technical race. He will likely ignore the other runners and focus on his pacing and run his own race. If something weird happens like happened in the Olympic trials that got him his spot (despite not being even considered by the media as having a shot to make the team) then Clayton could have a decent shot at the end of the race when other runners start to fade.

Eyestone doesn’t train Rory, so not sure about his strategy or chances but Rory ran a full marathon at Olympic pace the morning of the wedding and then tore up the dance floor at the wedding, so I’d say his endurance is pretty strong.

Didn’t get a chance to ask about the girls, but coach Taylor would have all the details on them instead of Ed anyways.

The real win for byu (and indirectly the church) will be if the guys get a lot of coverage. Not very often that 4 RMs reach the peak of any sport and to have 5 byu athletes competing in just two events is pretty special.

They will also be doing a fireside in Paris the Sunday before the marathon if anyone will be out there and wants to hear them talk!

Go USA and go cougies.