This summer’s Olympic games in Paris will be must-see TV for Cougar Nation.
Nine current or former BYU athletes will be competing in the world’s premier sporting event, marking the most Cougars to crowd an Olympics since 2004.
Here are the competitors headed from Provo to Paris.
Jimmer Fredette: 3x3 basketball
The 35-year-old Fredette — the 2011 National Player of the Year and face of “Jimmermania” — scored 2,843 points as a Cougar and spent a decade playing professionally before entering the world of 3x3 basketball, where he’s been referred to as “the best 3x3 player ever to play the game.”
Fredette was named the 2023 USA Basketball 3x3 Male Athlete of the Year, and he helped Team USA win gold at the 2023 Pan American Games to qualify for the Olympics.
Courtney Wayment: 3,000-meter steeplechase
Once an NCAA steeplechase national champion, Wayment will now bring her talents to the Olympic stage.
Wayment finished second in June’s Olympic trials to qualify for Paris, posting a personal best 9:06.50 mark — the fourth-fastest time ever for an American.
Conner Mantz: Marathon
A two-time NCAA cross-country national champion, Mantz earned another first-place finish in February’s Olympic marathon trials. The Nike athlete finished in 2:09:05, just ahead of his training partner and fellow BYU product Clayton Young.
Mantz’s personal best marathon time came in 2023, when he ran a 2:07:47 in the Chicago Marathon as the top American.
Clayton Young: Marathon
In the 2020 Olympic marathon trials, Young came in as the 136th-place finisher. In February’s 2024 trials, Young finished just behind Mantz at 2:09:06 — more than 20 minutes faster than his 2020 time — to punch his ticket to Paris.
Young won the 2019 NCAA outdoor 10,000-meter national championship and currently competes for the Japanese company Asics.
Whittni Morgan: 5,000-meters
Morgan finished fifth in the 5,000-meter Olympic trials in June, but because two runners ahead of her dropped out, the former BYU star will now get her shot at Paris glory.
Morgan’s fastest outdoor 5,000-meter time came in 2021 at 15:09.47. The 2021 NCAA individual cross-country national champion now competes for Adidas.
Rory Linkletter: Marathon
Linkletter is the lone BYU athlete not competing with Team USA. He will instead represent his native country of Canada.
A Puma athlete, Linkletter’s 2:08:01 finish in the 2024 Seville Marathon made him the second-fastest Canadian ever over the distance.
James Corrigan: 3,000-meter steeplechase
Corrigan, a current BYU student athlete, will likely have the most unique summer of any of his classmates.
The 22-year-old returned missionary qualified for the Paris Olympics by setting a new American collegiate steeplechase record with a 8:13.87 finish in June. He dropped his time by 33 seconds in just six weeks.
Kenneth Rooks: 3,000-meter steeplechase
Another BYU steeplechase national champion, Rooks finished first in the event at June’s Olympic trials to earn a spot on Team USA.
Rooks holds a personal best time of 8:15.08 in the steeplechase and signed with Nike earlier this year.
Stephanie Rovetti: Rugby Sevens
After playing five years of women’s basketball at BYU and Fresno State, Rovetti began playing rugby at the age of 24 and immediately excelled, earning MVP honors at the 2018 Club Sevens national championships.
Rovetti, who plays both the flyhalf and wing positions, has been playing with Team USA since 2018.