PROVO — For BYU cross country and track and field standout James Corrigan, the weeks leading up to and surrounding his marriage in early July changed his life.

Corrigan couldn't help but smile and laugh at how much has changed for the BYU cross country runner-turned-steeplechase star. Much has changed in the past month since the former 5,000-meter open racer went "all in" on the 3,000-meter steeplechase and earned a spot in the event with Team USA for the Summer Olympics in Paris.

"It's been incredible, but also really stressful," Corrigan told KSL.com moments after a workout at BYU's Clarence F. Robison Track and Field Complex. "I feel like things are sinking in; I'm realizing the implications of what I did, and I'm starting to just enjoy it and get some solid workouts in, not trying to do anything crazy or doing anything different from what I've done."

Less than two years after failing to advance out of the NCAA west preliminaries by a half-second in the 5,000, Corrigan will travel to Paris with his newlywed wife and teammates, including steeplechaser Kenneth Rooks and marathoner Clayton Young and Conner Mantz who train alongside him, for the opening ceremonies before preparing for the track competition that begins Aug. 5 at the 77,083-seat Stade de France.

Athletes with ties to BYU and the state of Utah make up a significant piece of Olympians. But of the six American steeplechase athletes in Paris, half came through Provo in Corrigan, Rooks and former Davis High star Courtney Wayment.

Corrigan may be among the more unlikely of the bunch, a runner barely two years removed from a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Madagascar and Tempe, Arizona.

"This year, he went all in on it and decided to see what he could become in the steeplechase," said Ed Eyestone, who has coached Corrigan, Rooks, Young and Mantz among his professionals this summer. "I think he's starting to recognize he could be great in that rather than just very good."

Training daily with Rooks, the former BYU harrier now sponsored by Nike who won an NCAA championship, U.S. national title and finished first at the U.S. Olympic trials to book his own ticket to Paris, has been key for Corrigan. If anyone had a significant hand in helping the rising junior soar past collegiate quality onto the world's biggest stage, it's Rooks.

"Kenneth's been huge," Corrigan said. "I've got to be the guy to run the time that I need, but it takes a village to get someone to the Olympics. I look up to Kenneth a lot; I think more than anything, his example has been huge to me.

"Sometimes you have the capacity to do things, but until someone shows you that it's possible or gives you the encouragement that you need, it's not going to happen. Kenneth was that spark for me."

Corrigan also credits his family — both literal and the BYU track and field teammates that have become like family — for his fast rise.

He gave a special nod to the Cougars' fan base, a nationwide network that was called upon before in the Penn Relays Summer Showcase, when a 3,000-meter steeplechase event was added late to help Corrigan achieve an Olympic standard time after finishing third at the Olympic trials in Eugene, Oregon, about a week previously.

One family that he saw after the event in Philadelphia told him that they drove "from a few states over" to make sure to be part of the crowd of hundreds cheering him on, waving a BYU flag and pushing him toward the Olympic standard in 8:13.87 — nearly two seconds ahead of the needed pace.

If his rise seems sudden, just consider the history. BYU has become one of the top steeplechase programs in the nation, with four NCAA champions from Bob Richards in 1966 to Rooks in 2023.

The track and field program known for plenty of distance events also counts one of the top American steeplechase runners in history among its alumni in Henry Marsh, the four-time Olympian and silver medalist at the track and field World Cup in Canberra, Australia, in 1985.

Eyestone traces his program's rise to power in the sport to another local coach, the late legendary Weber State track and field coach Charles "Chick" Hislop, who died last year at the age of 86.

When Eyestone was first beginning his coaching career, the former NCAA "triple crown" winner with national titles in the 5,000 meter, 10,000 meter and cross country joined Hislop's staff as a volunteer assistant coach to learn "the one distance event I never raced in college."

"I had 2 ½ years of a front-row seat working with one of the best coaches in the business in the steeplechase," Eyestone said.

Hislop had learned in his time at Weber State, as well as a career with USA Track and Field that included coaching distance runners in the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, that elite steeplechasers were simply "really good runners (taught) how to hurdle."

"Most runners do not want to hurdle over 28 immovable objects over 10 laps," Eyestone quipped.

Corrigan considers the steeplechase training program developed by Hislop and run by Eyestone as the best in the world — and few would argue with the results. So as he prepares for the biggest race of his young career, he's not changing much.

If anything, just his attitude.

"We want to make sure that we're not just being a tourist in Paris," Corrigan said. "We're looking to really compete on the world stage."

Paris Summer Games

Here's a list of athletes with ties to Utah competing in the Summer Olympics in Paris

Nearly 40 athletes who live, train and/or were born in Utah will represent various nations when the Paris Summer Games kick off their long-awaited opening ceremony Friday.

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