It hasn’t been easy to catch up with James Corrigan, the surprise Olympian from BYU. He’s been a moving target. He jetted off to the NCAA West Prelims in Arkansas and then the NCAA championships in Oregon and then back to Oregon again for the Olympic trials, where he introduced himself to the track world with a no-one-saw-this-coming, third-place finish, and then he dashed off to Philadelphia to chase an Olympic qualifying time, which he pulled off by breaking the American collegiate record and, oh, yeah, he got married in there somewhere, shoehorning a wedding into his to-do list just days after the Philadelphia race, and, anyway, his schedule has been as drawn out as this sentence.
So, here he is, a sophomore and newlywed from BYU who tried the steeplechase only a year ago and now he’s headed to the Olympic Games in Paris later this month.
“I joked about it (going to the Olympics) in (high) school,” he says, “but it didn’t seem realistic. I didn’t understand the process. It was just a cool thing to say at the time, but then …”
Then he saw BYU teammate Kenneth Rooks come out of nowhere himself a year ago to win both the NCAA and U.S. championships, and …
" … after I saw Kenny do what he did, I thought maybe I can make the 2028 Olympics and set a goal to be in position in that cycle.”
He thought that this year’s Olympic trials would provide him valuable experience for a more realistic attempt in 2028. It turned out to be much more than that. He finished in third place. The top three are selected to represent the U.S. in the Olympics, with one proviso — he had to have an Olympic qualifying time of 8:15.00 and he wasn’t even close.
His best was 8:21.22 at the trials, and that was a personal record by seven seconds. He flew to Philadelphia and ran 8:13.87, the second fastest ever by a collegian and the American collegiate record.
Corrigan is a sophomore at BYU who served a two-year church mission. At Eagle Rock High in Los Angeles, he did nothing to suggest an Olympic future. His best mark was a modest 9:13.80 for 3,200 meters, but there were mitigating circumstances. His senior year was canceled by the pandemic.
Steeplechase convert
BYU coach Ed Eyestone and his assistant, Ryan Waite, almost immediately set out to convert him to the 3,000-meter steeplechase, which consists of running 7½ laps while clearing 28 heavy wooden barriers and seven water jumps. He began doing hurdle drills and practicing the water jump.
“I was not a natural,” he says. “I had never hurdled. I struggled with getting my legs to handle the pressure of the hurdles, and the water jump scared me. I was terrified I would fall. I was scared to do hurdles, then they throw a water jump behind it. I tried to practice it the least I could. I lost so much time on water jumps in my early races.”
Once a week, he performed hurdle-related workouts and steeplechase drills. After practice, he worked on flexibility, mobility and hurdles. Sometimes he was instructed to do two miles worth of drills over hurdles while alternating the lead leg.
He debuted with three consecutive steeplechase races in March and April of last year, clocking modest times of 9:11.37, 8:52.54 and 9:06.86, but he hadn’t yet committed to the event. He fared much better in the 5,000-meter race, finishing 14th in the NCAA prelims with a fine time of 13:40.86. He opened the 2024 indoor season with another strong run in the 5,000, clocking 13:34.24, and then in his next race he finished in 13:30.67, the fifth-fastest time in school history. But his coaches were playing the long game — they still were pushing him to get serious about the steeplechase.
“Every time I raced well, no matter how well I ran, they’d say something like, ‘Think how good this will be for your steeplechase,’” says Corrigan. “I thought I had the ability to run well in other events. It was hard. The steeplechase takes time, and you have to sacrifice other events.”
Why the steeplechase?
Eyestone’s logic was simple: “If you have a 13:30 5K guy, then maybe with some work he makes the Olympic trials. If he can hurdle and get better at that, he can make the Olympic team; 13:30 guys are a dime a dozen these days. It’s not rocket science. Move to the event where there is less competition ...
“Most are too lazy or not patient enough to learn the technique or they’re afraid to jump over barriers. The pool is going to be smaller than you have to contend with in other events. Everyone can run, but not everyone can run and jump over immovable barriers. It cuts out a lot of people.”
Corrigan relented and committed to the steeplechase at the outset of the 2024 season. He made his season debut in March of this year in Los Angeles, finishing second in 8:50.58. He followed that with a second-place, 8:46.60 showing at the Stanford Invitational later that month.
In April, he made a major breakthrough with a fourth-place, 8:34.70 performance at the Payton Jordan Invitational. Two weeks later, he won the Big 12 championships in 8:29.24. He qualified for the NCAA championships in the steeplechase, but, after winning the first round with another PR of 8:28.84, he placed only ninth in the final.
“I hadn’t raced rounds before,” he says. “I wasn’t used to it. It was really hard. I had to learn how to make a two-day turnaround from the trials to the finals.”
Breakthrough performance
He did just that at the Olympic trials. He had the second-fastest time in the first round, another PR of 8:21.22. In the final, Rooks, as planned, made a big surge with two laps to go. Corrigan was running in 10th place. Eyestone had told him, “If Ken makes a hard move, there is going to be a debris field and you’re going to pass a lot of people.”
Corrigan was seventh with one lap to go and proceeded to pass five runners, including three Olympians and an Olympic silver medalist.
“With (two laps) to go, I felt confident,” says Corrigan. “I remembered what Coach Eyestone said. I could see everyone. With 300 to go, I could see Hillary Bor in third (place) running at the front of a train of guys. I was running past them. I passed into third place on the water jump. I was just elated to pass someone on the water jump.
“I flashed back to how much I had struggled with water jumps. As soon as I passed him, I gapped him on the homestretch and I thought, I’m going to do this. I had all these emotions, things swirling through my head. I took one glance back. Third is first, as Coach had told us.”
As has been widely reported, Corrigan’s finish was followed by elation and then a scramble to find a way to give him an 11th-hour opportunity to meet the Olympic qualifying time. Waite and agent Ray Flynn began making phone calls. They found a small all-comers meet in Philadelphia and convinced the meet director, Aaron Robison, a former BYU athlete, to add the steeplechase to the program.
Keeping pace
They also needed to find someone to serve as a pacer — a critical element for a fast race. Rooks immediately suggested Dan Michalski, an Air Force-sponsored athlete who had paced one of his races earlier in the season. Corrigan also suggested Michalski.
“We were trying to figure out who could pace,” says Corrigan. “It needed to be someone who was capable of running 8:20, and someone who ran smoothly and wouldn’t trip me up. I asked, ‘Who’s the guy who paced Kenny earlier in the season?’ I found out Kenny had mentioned him to Coach Eyestone already. Dan looked fantastic over the hurdles and maintained pace well and held it longer than anyone we had seen. We needed someone who could pace long.”
Eyestone and Corrigan heaped praise on Michalski after the race and for good reason. Michalski provided a steady, fast pace (inconsistent pacing uses more energy) for a full 2,000 meters before stepping off the track.
“He ran 65 (seconds) every single lap,” recalled Corrigan. “He did so well that I couldn’t help but continue (the pace) when he stepped off the track. I don’t think I saw him look at his watch. I did my best to ignore (the split times). I trusted Dan would know and I wouldn’t have to think about it. It made it easier. I put my full trust in Dan.”
Later, Corrigan would say he felt a rush of adrenaline when Michalski stepped off the track. He had prepared for this moment. During a light workout the day before the race, Eyestone ordered some race modeling. He asked Michalski to run down the backstretch with Corrigan on his heels and then step off the track to let Corrigan finish the lap alone.
“It happened just the way we drew it up (in the workout),” says Corrigan. “As soon as he stepped aside, I felt calm; I had done this before. I had envisioned the last 1,000 meters.
“I felt confident when I heard the split. It was one second under pace. I told myself, I’m going to the Olympics. Part of it was affirmation. With two laps to go, I saw the time and got real excited. Kenny (who was watching from the track) saw me smile with one lap to go. I couldn’t control how excited I was. I knew I could close in 65 seconds. I looked at the clock in the final straightaway.”
Michalski bear hugged him at the finish line and then Rooks and Eyestone swooped in to embrace him, as well.
Soaking it in
“When I saw the time, my mind was swirling,” Corrigan recalls. “I knew it was a school record and well within what I needed (to qualify). Someone said it was an American collegiate record and the No. 2 college time ever. I was trying to take in the implications of what just happened. I took pictures with everyone and soaked it up. It was just a great experience, to see how happy people were to be part of it. I just felt gratitude. It floored me how many people cared and made sacrifices.”
Corrigan was keenly aware of all that people had done to give him this opportunity — the coaches and agent who made the many phone calls to set it up, the booster who made a generous offer to Michalski to pace the race, the meet director who added the steeplechase to the meet program and the many fans who came to the meet simply to see his race against the clock.
“I never felt this much pressure going into a race,” Corrigan said. “Two days out, things set in. It was difficult to keep level-headed with all that was going into this. People were saying it’ll be OK, but I wanted them to feel it was worth it.
“I talked to Kenny about handling pressure, and I called my accountability partner, (senior All-American teammate) Casey Clinger, and asked him how to approach this. It made me emotional when I saw everyone show up (at the stadium). I felt so much joy that people would come out of their way and bring their families.
“Some came from a couple of hours away. There were little kids there with their flags. There were random local fans there cheering for me. From the gun, everyone was leaning on the rail and there were people on the field screaming and cheering me. I thought, I want to do this for their sake.”
It is weeks later now, and he is looking ahead more than he is looking behind. The first round of the Olympic steeplechase race is Aug. 5.
“My expectations have changed a lot,” he says. “I see the Olympics less as a participation event and more about how many can I beat. How competitive can I be? I want to do the best I can. It will be fun to be there, but I really don’t want to think of it as a fun vacation. I want to perform.”