Team USA Olympic athletes, and former BYU runners Kenneth Rooks, Clayton Young, and Conner Mantz, along with current BYU runner James Corrigan, shared inspiring and faithful messages during a fireside in Paris Sunday night.
The event was conducted in French and had translators for the American athletes. Many youth, family, friends, and missionaries gathered to listen to the messages.
The evening’s first speaker, Corrigan, spoke about the challenges of the steeplechase, including the 35 barriers with seven of those being water jumps. Corrigan explained that throughout his career he has learned three major lessons as an athlete.
First, God knows a lot more than he does.
“I learned this from my coach this season because he pushed me to try the steeplechase, even though I didn’t want to,” Corrigan said.
He said that he also learned that even though we may not always want to do certain things, God knows best. Heavenly Father knows what we each need and often God will want us to be someone better and different than we want.
Corrigan said the second lesson he has learned is that amazing things don’t happen overnight. He shared that things in life happen little-by-little. It is easy to get distracted or caught up in life, which makes it hard to look back on the amazing things that have been accomplished.
The final lesson Corrigan shared is that he races better because of his faith in Jesus Christ. When hard times in life, practice, or a race arise, he thinks of how Jesus would respond. There were many races where Corrigan felt that he was not good enough or didn’t belong, but prayer helped him find peace knowing that Jesus Christ knew how he felt.
“Because of him, I am a better athlete. I can’t wait to race and to represent this country and my God,” Corrigan testified.
Rooks spoke about his fall during his NCAA national championship race in 2023. With some added humor, he mentioned how he didn’t plan to fall, but once he did, he had to make the decision of whether to stop or keep going. Prior to the national championship final, Rooks fell during practice, which helped him come up with a plan to catch up slowly. This made him feel prepared when it happened later in the championship race.
It took him two laps to fully catch up. As he kept going, he then realized that he had the chance to win.
“In life we fall, but with Jesus Christ we know that we can win or that we can prevail,” Rooks said.
He testified that the plan of salvation has kept him grounded through his trials.
“That’s what brings me hope in my life and sometimes life is difficult, but if we are diligent and follow him, eventually things will work out and get better,” Rooks said.
Following Rooks, Young shared his appreciation for his membership in the Church.
“This last week I have been known as an Olympian. But in this building, I am known as a Latter-Day Saint,” he said.
Leading up to the Games, Young said he felt a lot of pressure and started comparing himself to others, their training plans, and their workouts.
Young asked himself, “Where can I turn for peace?” He said he started to sing to himself the well-known hymn, “Where Can I Turn for Peace?” He went through some lines in the first and second verse.
“When with a wounded heart, anger, or malice … Where, when my aching grows …Where is the quiet hand to calm my anguish?” he said.
Young asked the audience, “Where do you turn for your solace?” Following his question, he read the final verse from the hymn. “He answers privately, Reaches my reaching. In my Gethsemane, Savior and Friend.”
Young closed by encouraging those in attendance to examine where they go for peace.
“Often we turn to the world or our phones and seek external validation from others and social media…what are you searching your soul for?” he said.
He testified that sometimes we have to go through trials or fall, but we should remember the message of the final verse.
“If we continue to take little steps with him by our side, we can return to him and can finish this race,” Young said.
In his remarks, Mantz shared his feelings about his identity outside of being an athlete.
Mantz explained that he’s often introduced with his accomplishments as an athlete, but one thing that is typically not said is who he is or what his identity is.
He quoted President Russell M. Nelson, who said, “You are a child of God and as a member of the church you are a child of the covenant.”
“So who am I really?” Conner asked the audience. “I am a child of God, a member of His Church, and a disciple of Jesus Christ.”
With inspiring and faithful messages, Mantz invited the audience to remember those three identifiers and to pray about their divine worth.