This was the biggest stage of BYU runner James Corrigan’s career.
If he got a time of 8:15, he would become an Olympian. The only problem was that he had never run an 8:15 steeplechase. His fastest time, six weeks earlier, was just 8:46, and the pressure was mounting as he heard everybody screaming from the summer crowd in Philadelphia.
He lined up at the start line. Corrigan normally told himself, “This race doesn’t really matter that much.” To him, there were more important things, like having a family and following God, but his mind went in another direction at the start of this one.
"I was on a really big stage, and a lot of people were watching. And I think the impressions I got before that race, when I was getting pretty nervous, weren't the same," Corrigan said. "It wasn't like, 'Don't worry, it's just another race.' It was more like, 'Hey, you have the support of so many people, and there are so many people you can make a difference for.'"
Though it ramped up the pressure, Corrigan used the potential of being a positive influence and sharing the gospel to sharpen his focus on the steeplechase, qualifying with a stunning time of 8:13, meaning he had cut 33 seconds in a six-week period to qualify.
“I could tell he was tired, but he could smell his Olympic berth,” BYU coach Ed Eyestone said. “It was an impressive performance.”
"He's the nicest person. But when it comes to the race or the track, you don't want to be up against him, because he's a pretty fiery, competitive person," said his BYU teammate Carter Cutting.
Corrigan is now an Olympian who has had the eyes of the world on him, so he has started to figure out more ways to share his love of the gospel as a Latter-day Saint. He shares videos of his time at church during the Olympics in France and has more recently started something called Sunday Night Live.
Sunday Night Live is a series of Instagram reels that Corrigan posts on Sundays, sharing tips about running along with his testimony of Christ.
“I mean, they're nothing spectacular. They're pretty low key, and that's kind of what I was going for. I'm really fortunate to have a large following on Instagram right now," Corrigan said. "There are over 14,000 people, and I feel like sometimes it's hard to really connect on the level that I want to with everybody. So I created Sunday Night Live as an opportunity for me to just share some of the things I am knowledgeable about."
Corrigan shares things like his nutrition habits or training techniques, while also answering questions about faith. Often, his videos end with questions.
“I never know what I'm gonna get asked. And it's been really cool, because recently somebody in the comment section asked, ‘How can I get closer to God?’ I was able to then further the conversation about it off camera,” Corrigan said.
They messaged each other for a while to have a conversation about faith and how running can be a part of it.
“It was just a really good way to make a connection that I probably wouldn’t have made otherwise,” Corrigan said.
Along with sharing online, Corrigan has been able to share what he loves with his fellow runners around him, talking to his teammates when they room together for races or even to his opponents at Olympic events.
“I had an experience at my race in Pennsylvania to have an amazing conversation with one of my fellow runners, and I was able to share a lot about what we believe. He had a lot of wonderful questions,” Corrigan said.
But why does he share it? A lot of it comes from his personal experiences dating back to his childhood.
As a youth, Corrigan’s grandfather on his mother’s side passed away. It was the first time someone close to him had passed, and it was very impactful. But something that really helped Corrigan was the knowledge of eternal families as taught among Latter-day Saints.
“We had learned about having faith in God's plan for us, and all those things were just really put into reality. And I realized that I was really calm about it all,” Corrigan said. “I watched my mom's side of the family, who were primarily non-members, really, really struggle with his passing, and it made me realize that the difference was the gospel. It grew my faith.”
This pushed Corrigan to become Elder Corrigan as a missionary in Arizona, where he had opportunities to share about eternal families and Jesus Christ’s sacrifice every day.
Running has been a means for Corrigan to share his faith, but in his eyes, it has also helped with his running.
“I really feel like because of my faith, I've done better," he said. "The biggest thing that I can think of that could have been a detriment to my running career would have been my service as a missionary, but I think I learned lessons there that have helped me keep everything in perspective. In turn, it has helped me race better than I would have otherwise."
In his eyes, faith and running can go hand in hand — and he’s living proof of that.