Former BYU athlete to advances to 5,000 meter run final

PARIS — Former Brigham Young University distance runner Whittni Morgan will advance to the 2024 Paris Games Women’s 5,000-meter run final.

On Friday afternoon, the BYU alums maintained a steady pace in heat two of the 5,000-meter race. She stayed in the middle of the pack for most of the 15-minute race – and then turned it up with less than a mile left.

“I just usually don’t feel that good in certain laps, like at the end, I’m not usually like, oh, I can kick it in right here, so when I felt that, I was really excited. I was like, I’m going to make it,” Whittni Morgan told KSL TV.

During the race, Whittni Morgan started to break from the pack, crossing the finish line at 15:02:14, enough to advance to the finals in sixth place.

Her family cheered her on in the stadium. They wore t-shirts designed by Matt and Genny Houston from Panguitch which sold to raise money for her family to make the trip to Paris.

Her dream of making it this far seemed distant after undergoing knee surgery in December.

“We kind of scratched the Olympics off the list because she wasn’t really expecting to do it. A lot of miracles. A lot of help from God for sure,” said Mason Morgan, Whittni Morgan’s husband.

“I just want to make sure that I share my story in a way that uplifts people and helps them believe that they can do it too. Because I don’t believe I did this alone,” Whittni Morgan added.

Whittni Morgan placed fifth at the Olympic trials, but only the top three go to the Olympics. When the winner dropped out to focus on another event, Morgan was named to the U.S. Olympic Team.

She will race in the finals on Monday.

There are a total of nine Olympians representing BYU in Paris at the Olympics.