It’s a sunny summer day in Eugene, Oregon. The 2024 Olympic Trials are well underway. Over the loudspeakers, the crowd listens for the final results of the men’s 3,000-meter steeplechase.
“Rooks in 8:21 has crossed the line over Wilkinson. Matthew’s done it, and then…”
A pause.
“Coming across behind them…”
A shuffle of papers.
“James Corrigan!”
Kenneth Rooks and Matthew Wilkinson — both favorites — clinched their tickets to Paris. But the final Olympic spot didn’t go to two-time medalist Evan Jager or Olympian Hillary Bor. It went to Corrigan, a BYU sophomore who placed ninth at the NCAA Championships.
Surprising his coaches and even himself, Corrigan snagged the third and final slot for the Paris Olympics.
But the work wasn’t over.
To officially qualify for the Olympics, Corrigan still had to meet the Olympic standard of 8:15. Previously, he had only run an 8:26.
With only days left to qualify, coaches, teammates and friends scrambled to get him a last-minute spot at the Penn Relays Summer Showcase. There, with fans cheering and pacer guiding his pace, Corrigan crossed the line in 8:13:87.
Just days later, he sealed another deal: marrying his sweetheart, Ashley Nolan.
After a full cross-country season, a track season, two personal bests and a wedding, Corrigan became an Olympic athlete.
Now, a year later, Corrigan has returned to the BYU cross-country and track team to finish his eligibility and compete collegiately. This past weekend, he became the NCAA steeplechase champion.
“This last year and a half, he's just shown that one can continue to improve,” said Ed Eyestone, BYU’s director of track and field and head men's cross-country coach. “And as long as you're humble and hungry and continue working and don't put any limits on yourself, then really the sky is the limit.”
Balancing school, training and married life hasn’t been easy — but Corrigan says it’s helped him refocus.
“Coming back into the NCAA season and racing again made me realize that I need to have my focus on what's most important to me — what's gonna bring lasting joy,” Corrigan said. “For me, that’s my relationship with God and my relationship with my family.”
His wife supports him however she can to help him reach his goals.
“James will tell you that I always tell him that ‘student’ comes before ‘athlete,’ because if anything happens to running, then he still needs to be able to have a job and support his family,” Ashley Corrigan said.
Corrigan is currently majoring in marketing and, as part of his academic focus, is developing an app. He also tries to, as he says, “promote greatness on and off the track” with social media initiatives.
“He has always tried to take his success and use it for good to support and push other people,” Ashley said. “He does this thing called ‘Sunday Night Live,' where he will hop on (social media) and all of his followers can ask him questions and he can give them advice.”
At BYU, faith is built into the athletics culture, and for many, it fuels more than performance.
Eyestone has coached nearly 25 years’ worth of athletes through the program. Most, if not all, have a belief in a higher power.
“The majority of the guys on the team are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, most of whom have served two-year voluntary LDS missions,” Eyestone said. “So I think when they come into high-pressure situations, they've experienced something that's a little beyond track and field. They've experienced a higher power in their life. It really kind of centers them and allows them to be their best self.”
Corrigan served a two-year mission in Mesa, Arizona, during COVID-19. He returned in 2022 and had a redshirt season before competing again.
“Having a relationship with my Heavenly Father has been huge in my training, because it allows me to stay more calm and confident,” Corrigan said. “The hope that we have in God allows us to be calm under pressure.”
And there has been a lot of pressure over the past year. Coming back as the resident Olympian in the NCAA can sometimes feel like you have a target on your back, he said, and the competition is just as tough.
“Recently at the conference championships, I felt like I had a breakthrough where I had some inspiration to really just look to God and focus on God leading up to my race,” Corrigan said. “And I felt no nerves.”
Both James and Ashley Corrigan credit a lot of their success and focus this year to God and Jesus Christ.
Even during their busiest weekends, the Corrigans still make time for date night — one of their dates being going to the temple together.
“Our lives are definitely crazy. So going to the temple will always bring that peace and give us time to just be there as a couple and reassess where we are in life,” Ashley said. “We can go in with questions and it just helps bring the craziness down.”
Corrigan’s sights are now set on the U.S. championships. If he performs well there, he’ll head to the World Championships in Tokyo this September.
But his most life-changing event might come even sooner.
Ashley is expecting their first child, a baby girl, due the week before Tokyo.
“I think me being due and having a baby right around the time that he's racing a huge race shows that we can achieve our goals at the same time,” Ashley said. “We won’t always be together, and I won’t always be at his races, but it shows that we can support each other.”
Ashley, whose long-time goal has been to be a mom, is excited that they can celebrate both of their wins this year.
“If he were to think about that too long and hard, it might be a little bit overwhelming,” Eyestone said. “I think James has a very good way of compartmentalizing, though.”
Eyestone himself, a father of six daughters, understands the juggling act.
“That’s something that comes when you’re a man of faith and have a family of faith, is you know that ultimately things are going to work out in the long run,” he said.
Both Corrigan and his coach are confident that when the time comes, he will perform well both as an athlete and as a father.
“James was always the goof off — lighthearted, joking, late to practice,” Eyestone said, perhaps referencing Corrigan’s affinity for magic tricks and Minecraft.
“But in races when it counted, when he put on that uniform with BYU on his chest, the guys knew he was going to come through,” he said. “James is a great case of leading by example.”
Ashley, who has been with James since his redshirt season, has seen him grow into that example.
“He's grown a lot in the running world. He's become, you know, faster and better. But he also is using that for good and helping to support other people, which I love,” she said.
James Corrigan — NCAA champion, Olympian, husband, student — is now preparing for the biggest title yet: dad.