The following is excerpted from the Church News. To read the full article, CLICK HERE.
It was in the Stade de France stadium on both the purple track and the rugby pitch where Olympic aspirations reached the medals podium for three athletes connected to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
From the purple track to the basketball court to the shooting range, more than a dozen athletes connected to the Church competed in the 2024 Paris Olympics — most making their Olympic debuts.
Here’s how they did.
- USA’s Kenneth Rooks sprinted from behind to win silver in the 3,000 meters steeplechase final with a time of 8 minutes, 6.41 seconds, a personal best. The 7.5-lap race has multiple barriers and a water obstacle on each lap. The first-time Olympian was near the back of the pack for the first several laps and began moving to the front. On the last lap, he surged ahead of the other runners as Soufiane El Bakkali of Morocco caught up with him to win his second straight gold in the event. Abraham Kibiwot of Kenya, who won bronze, was six hundredths of a second behind Rooks.
Rooks, 24, of Washington state, is a returned missionary who served in Uganda and also Orem, Utah, and is a former NCAA champion at BYU. He won the 3,000-meter steeplechase in the U.S. Olympic trials. During the 2023 USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships, he fell in the finals and came from behind to win the race.
- Ponipate “Poni” Loganimasi, 26, was part of Fiji’s rugby sevens team that won the silver medal. It’s the first Olympics for the returned missionary. He scored a try in the pool game against Uruguay. Fiji won all three pool matches against Uruguay, the U.S. and France. It played Ireland in the quarterfinals and Australia in the semifinals. It was a rematch against France in the finals, with France winning gold. (Fiji had won gold in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 2016, and in Tokyo, Japan, in 2021.)
- Stephanie “Steph” Rovetti, 32, was part of USA’s historic bronze-medal winning rugby sevens team, helping to secure the ball that led to the winning try. The United States finished fifth when the sport debuted at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 2016, and sixth in Tokyo, Japan, in 2021. This year, the team won its pool games against Japan and Brazil and lost to France. With a win against Great Britain, it advanced to the semifinals. After a loss to New Zealand, which won gold, the U.S. women faced Australia in the bronze-medal match. Rovetti played in every match and was a starter against Brazil, France and New Zealand. The former BYU women’s basketball player was born in Reno, Nevada, and lives in San Diego, California. She is a scrumhalf on the U.S. team, and Paris is her first Olympics.
To read the full article, CLICK HERE.
