From college teammates to the top 10 in the world: Conner Mantz and Clayton Young put on impressive races at the Olympic Marathon in Paris on Saturday.
Mantz finished eighth with a time of 2:08:12 and Young finished one place behind in ninth with a time of 2:08:44. Leonard Korir, the third American in the field, ran a time of 2:18:45 for 63rd place.
The course was hilly and the weather hot, but Mantz and Young ran fearlessly, running with the lead group for the first 27 kilometers before race winner Tamirat Tola broke the field apart with a hard attack on the steepest hill on the course. The two training partners high-fived just before the grueling hill.
Mantz finished 1:46 behind the leader and Young was 2:18 behind Tola’s Olympic record time of 2:06:26.
And although they were happy about the top 10, both said they wanted more. They had hoped for medals.
Mantz decided to join Tola on the course’s first big hill at mile 9. “When Tola started going, I thought, ‘This is the guy. I have to go with him,'” Mantz said, but ultimately wondered if he had covered Tola’s first move too closely and should have waited for the second move later in the race.
Young fell a bit behind but was able to rejoin the lead group before the second big hill at mile 17. He let the group pass him again on that climb, but as the course flattened out in the final 10k, he had more energy than he expected so late in the race.
“I was surprised at how good I felt with 4km to go. I was getting into a good swing and honestly just had too much left in the tank,” he said. Both Mantz and Young ran negative splits (1:04:52 and 1:03:20 for Mantz; 1:04:59 and 1:03:45 for Young).
Fans lined both sides of the route, giving the marathon the feel of the Tour de France.
“Man, the crowds were wild,” Young said. “It was deafening the entire way. And, you know, you just have to soak up that energy, but almost ignore it. Because you can get too excited too soon. I kept telling myself to relax, relax, just because the crowds were deafening. Still, it was super exciting.”
Mantz and Young, who both attended Brigham Young University and are coached by two-time Olympic marathoner Ed Eyestone, train together in Provo, Utah. The duo took the top two places at the Olympic Marathon Qualifiers in Orlando, Florida, in February.
Mantz, 27, has been one of the top U.S. marathon runners since his debut with a 26.2 in 2022. At BYU, Mantz won two NCAA cross-country titles and earned a reputation as a tenacious elite runner.
His attitude translated well to the marathon. He ran the second fastest debut marathon by an American when he finished seventh in the Chicago Marathon with a time of 2:08:16. The following year he improved his personal best to 2:07:47 in Chicago, meeting the Olympic standard.
Young, 30, had a slow start to his pro career – partly due to injuries – but has developed into a top distance talent. He won the NCAA 10,000-meter title at BYU in 2019, but his first breakout as a pro didn’t come until 2023, when he finished seventh in the 2023 Chicago Marathon with a time of 2:08:00. Young ran a patient race at the Trials, where he placed second, crossing the finish line alongside Mantz.
“I went from 2:29 to 2:16, 2:11, 2:08, top three at the Trials and top 10 at the Olympics,” Young said of his progress in the marathon. “The progression is incredible.”
For Leonard Korir, this was his second Olympic Games after qualifying for the 10,000 meters at the 2016 Games, where he finished 14th. The 37-year-old had a long, uncertain road to the start line in Paris. He finished third at the U.S. Trials with a time of 2:09:47, but did not run under the Olympic standard of 2:08:00 during the qualifying period.
Instead, he had to hope his world ranking was high enough. In early June, he was finally informed that he would be selected for the team, after being pushed out of the world rankings for a while by universal spots. (We explain the confusing qualification process in detail here.)
The U.S. men have had historical success in the Olympic marathon, although most of their 10 medals were won in the first decades of the 20th century. More recently, Galen Rupp won bronze at the 2016 Games and Meb Keflezighi took the silver medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics.
Theo Kahler is news editor at Runners world. He is a former all-conference college runner based in Easton, PA. He previously worked as a newsletter editor at Runners world, Ride a bikeAnd Popular mechanics.
