Shared bond, shared bottle: BYU Olympic marathoners finished in top 10

Clayton Young and Conner Mantz were in no hurry Saturday to leave the finish line of the Olympic men’s marathon. For as long as the Utah runners could, they stood on the lavender matting laid out in front of Les Invalides, doling out handshakes or hugs to any athlete who finished after them.

They had quite a few to get to.

Making their Olympic debuts, the two former BYU athletes finished in the top 10 in a field of 82 runners from 41 countries. In an effort reminiscent of the United States marathon trials, they ran the entire 26.2 miles within eyesight of one another before Mantz broke away on the home stretch to take eighth in 2 hours, 8 minutes, 12 seconds. Young, soaking in the crowd with a huge smile and his hand over his heart, loped in at ninth in 2:08:44.

“If you would have asked me that beforehand what I thought [those times] would do on this course, I would have said, ‘Oh, they’re going home with a medal with that time,’” said Ed Eyestone, who coaches both Mantz and Young as well as the BYU men’s track and cross country teams. “Yeah, I think they worked hard.”

Ethiopia’s Tamirat Tola, an alternate, won the race by breaking the Olympic record. Tola was added to the roster five weeks ago after 2024 Boston Marathon winner Sisay Lemma dropped out due to injury. Tola’s time of 2:06:26 cut 6 seconds off the previous record, set in 2008 by Kenya’s Samuel Kamau Wanjiru.

“When Sisay had injuries, then I had a chance to represent him. I was fully prepared and knew I could fulfill my dream,” Tola told reporters after the race. “I am happy to do that today.”

Bashir Abdi (2:06:47) earned silver to give Belgium its best finish in Olympic marathon history. Benson Kipruto (2:07:00) kept Kenya on the podium for the fifth straight Olympics by claiming bronze.

Rory Linkletter, a third BYU alum in the pack who was representing Canada, placed 47th (2:13:09).

(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Clayton Young, and Conner Mantz, run at the Clarence F. Robison Outdoor Track, on Friday, Feb. 23, 2024. (Rick Egan/)

A bronze medalist in the 10,000 meters in 2016, Tola, 32, made a move to overtake then-leader Eyob Faniel of Italy near the midway mark by Versailles. He then charged up one of the steepest hills in Olympic marathon history to solidify a lead he carried through an equally steep downhill and 13 miles to the finish line.

Mantz, who ran near the front for the first half of the race, hung with Tola when the Ethiopian passed Faniel. The Logan native harbored concerns about his nutrition, however, after missing the handoff of a bottle containing his fluids and nutrition at a feed station early in the race. Young, who then accidentally picked up Mantz’s bottle instead of his own, shared half its contents with his training partner. Still, Mantz decided to stick with the conservative plan he’d devised with Eyestone rather than press his luck.

He fell back as the runners charged up the hill, slipping from second to eighth over the next 5k. That section also took a toll on Young, who dropped from sixth to 14th.

“I was hedging my bets that if I went with that front pack, I would not be able to finish in a medal spot,” Mantz said. “And I still didn’t, but I think I was worried that if I went with that front pack, I was going to fall back and end up in the 20s or 30s.”

Reunited with a quarter of the race remaining, they reeled in several racers to reach the top 10. Together, they became the first pair of Americans to finish in the top 10 since Rio 2016. That Olympics, Galen Rupp took silver and Utah’s Jared Ward took sixth.

“It was a very, very good day. A very, very good day when you’re finishing in the top 10, single digits,” Eyestone said. “I think they are so competitive, and rightly so, that they wanted a little bit more than that. But they’ve very good spirits.”

(Russel Daniels | The New York Times) Conner Mantz, left, and Clayton Young at a park in Springville, Utah, March 11, 2024. The close friends ran more than 10,000 miles together Ñ then they both vied for a place in the marathon at the Paris Olympics. (RUSSEL DANIELS/)

Mantz said he initially circled back to the finish to congratulate Young. Then he realized that in the hubbub of activity, as volunteers and race workers tried to keep athletes from collapsing or shepherd them to media interviews, no one was commending the athletes on their efforts.

“It’s just nice to have that feeling of congratulations,” Mantz said. “Usually at the end of a race, everyone’s trying to say, ‘Hey, stay on your feet, move along.’ But no competitors are saying, ‘Hey, nice job.’ It’s just encouraging. …

“It’s what I would have wanted to hear.”

Following the Rio Games, Ward co-founded the Run Elite Program, a running group that reduces barriers for professional athletes to live and train in Utah. Both Mantz and Young are REP athletes, as is teammate Kenneth Rooks, who earlier this week took silver in the 3,000-meter steeplechase and Grant Fisher, a Park City resident who kicked off track and field in Paris with a rare American bronze in the men’s 10,000 meters.

BYU sent a record seven track-and-field athletes, current and alumni, to compete in Paris. Six of them reached the final in their event, with Rooks collecting a medal.

Eyestone said that’s a good start.

“All eyes will be focused on Los Angeles 2028,” Eyestone said, noting the buildup will include world championships and other notable races. “I think these young men and young women — if they choose to stick with it, which they should — should be in a good position to compete and do even better than they did now. So, it’s going to be exciting for the look ahead.”

Shared bond, shared bottle: BYU Olympic marathoners finished in top 10

Shared bond, shared bottle: BYU Olympic marathoners finished in top 10

Shared bond, shared bottle: BYU Olympic marathoners finished in top 10

Shared bond, shared bottle: BYU Olympic marathoners finished in top 10

Shared bond, shared bottle: BYU Olympic marathoners finished in top 10