It was in the Stade de France stadium on both the purple track and the rugby pitch where Olympic aspirations reached the medals podium for three athletes connected to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
From the purple track to the basketball court to the shooting range, more than a dozen athletes connected to the Church competed in the 2024 Paris Olympics — most making their Olympic debuts.
Here’s how they did.
• USA’s Kenneth Rooks sprinted from behind to win silver in the 3,000 meters steeplechase final with a time of 8 minutes, 6.41 seconds, a personal best. The 7.5-lap race has multiple barriers and a water obstacle on each lap. The first-time Olympian was near the back of the pack for the first several laps and began moving to the front. On the last lap, he surged ahead of the other runners as Soufiane El Bakkali of Morocco caught up with him to win his second straight gold in the event. Abraham Kibiwot of Kenya, who won bronze, was six hundredths of a second behind Rooks.
Rooks, 24, of Washington state, is a returned missionary who served in Uganda and also Orem, Utah, and is a former NCAA champion at BYU. He won the 3,000-meter steeplechase in the U.S. Olympic trials. During the 2023 USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships, he fell in the finals and came from behind to win the race.
- Ponipate “Poni” Loganimasi, 26, was part of Fiji’s rugby sevens team that won the silver medal. It’s the first Olympics for the returned missionary. He scored a try in the pool game against Uruguay. Fiji won all three pool matches against Uruguay, the U.S. and France. It played Ireland in the quarterfinals and Australia in the semifinals. It was a rematch against France in the finals, with France winning gold. (Fiji had won gold in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 2016, and in Tokyo, Japan, in 2021.)
- Stephanie “Steph” Rovetti, 32, was part of USA’s historic bronze-medal winning rugby sevens team, helping to secure the ball that led to the winning try. The United States finished fifth when the sport debuted at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 2016, and sixth in Tokyo, Japan, in 2021. This year, the team won its pool games against Japan and Brazil and lost to France. With a win against Great Britain, it advanced to the semifinals. After a loss to New Zealand, which won gold, the U.S. women faced Australia in the bronze-medal match. Rovetti played in every match and was a starter against Brazil, France and New Zealand. The former BYU women’s basketball player was born in Reno, Nevada, and lives in San Diego, California. She is a scrumhalf on the U.S. team, and Paris is her first Olympics.
- Team USA’s men’s rugby sevens team included 32-year-old Make Unufe of Provo, Utah. The team was eighth overall, with a win against Uruguay, a loss to Fiji and tying France in the pool round. In the quarterfinals, it lost to Australia and then in the 5-8 bracket lost to Ireland and Argentina. Unufe, a wing, played in most of the matches, substituting in during the second halves. Unufe, who played football at Provo High School, was on Team USA during the 2016 Rio Games.
- In the marathon, USA’s Conner Mantz and Clayton Young were eighth and ninth in the 26.2-mile race that took them through Paris to Versailles and back. Mantz was second midway through the race, with Young close behind. Mantz’s time was 2 hours, 8 minutes and 12 seconds — a minute, 46 seconds after the gold-medal time. Young’s time was 2:08:44, behind the winner by 2 minutes and 18 seconds. Both were season’s bests. Mantz, 27, and Young, 30, were first and second in the U.S. Olympic trials in February. Mantz and Young are both former BYU runners and are training partners living in Provo, Utah. Mantz, of Logan, Utah, was a two-time NCAA cross country champion. He served in the Ghana Accra West Mission. Young, a California native, who was an NCAA outdoor 10K champion, served Spanish-speaking in the North Carolina Raleigh Mission.
- USA’s Courtney Wayment was 12th in the 3,000-meter steeplechase final with a time of 9 minutes, 13.60 seconds in the 7.5-lap race that has multiple barriers and a water obstacle on each lap. The gold medalist set an Olympic record, with several others in the top 10 setting country or area records, or personal or season’s best times. Wayment, who is from Kaysville, Utah, had a successful collegiate career at Brigham Young University, has been on two Team USA senior national teams and has competed in the World Athletics Championships. She was fourth at the U.S. Olympic trials for the Tokyo Games and was second for the Paris Games.
- USA’s Whittni Morgan raced in the 5,000-meter final and was overall 14th of the 16 runners. She had a personal best time of 14 minutes, 53.57 seconds — nearly 10 seconds faster than her qualifying time. Morgan, 26, a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, had knee surgery last November and began running again in April. The Panguitch, Utah, native and former BYU runner was fifth at the Olympic trials in June. After two higher finishers who also qualified for other races dropped out of the 5,000 meters, Morgan was added to the team to go to the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
- Also in the men’s 3,000-meter steeplechase, USA’s James Corrigan was 10th in his preliminary heat, with a time of 8:36.67. Corrigan, 22, had to race an Olympic standard time after coming in third during the trials — faster than his personal best this season — and did it a day before the qualifying deadline. The BYU sophomore from Los Angeles, California, served a mission in Tempe, Arizona.
- Australia’s Peter Bol ran in the men’s 800 meters. In both the preliminary and the repechage heat, the 30-year-old quickly moved to the front and then other runners surged forward at the end, with a sprint to the finish. In the repechage heat, he was fourth of nine runners with a time of 1 minute, 46.12 seconds. Of the 32 runners across all five heats, he was 18th. This is Bol’s third Olympics — he ran in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and in 2021 in Tokyo, Japan. In Tokyo, he was fourth in the finals. His family is originally from South Sudan and emigrated to Australia when he was a child.
- The U.S. men’s soccer team, including forward Taylor Booth, 23, a native of Eden, Utah, was eighth overall of the 16 teams. In the pool round, it defeated New Zealand and Guinea and lost to France. Team USA advanced to the quarterfinals and lost to Morocco. Booth played in each of the games. This is the first Olympics for Booth, who has been playing in the Netherlands for FC Utrecht as a midfielder. This is the first USA men’s team to go to the Olympics since 2008.
- Jimmer Fredette, 35, was part of USA’s 3x3 basketball team, which came in seventh overall. The former BYU basketball star, who has also played in the NBA and professionally in China and Greece, was injured during the team’s second pool game, against Poland, tearing two ligaments and will have a six-month recovery. He wasn’t able to play in the team’s remaining five games as he cheered teammates on from the sidelines. In the pool round, Team USA won two games against France and China and lost to Serbia, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and the Netherlands.
- USA’s Alexis “Lexi” Lagan, 31, was 25th in the 10-meter air pistol qualification event. She is from Boulder City, Nevada, attended the University of Utah and is now at Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Lagan also competed in the Tokyo Olympics, which were in 2021.
Several athletes also participated in a series of local devotionals for youth and young adults, including Fredette, Booth, Lagan, Morgan, Wayment, Rooks, Corrigan, Mantz and Young.
- Following Jesus Christ will ensure a victory greater and more certain than Olympic gold, say Bishop Caussé and Latter-day Saint Olympians
- ‘God is always there’: Latter-day Saint Olympians share messages of faith, trust in God’s plan at devotional
- Latter-day Saint Olympians talk about finding hope, strength in Jesus Christ
