Centro de medios de NYRR

Conner Mantz made history last month, breaking an 18-year-old American record with a stunning 59:17 performance to finish second at the Houston Half Marathon. This performance came on the heels of a successful 2024 that included a sixth-place and top American finish at the TCS New York City Marathon, as well as an eighth-place finish at the Paris 2024 Olympic Marathon. In Paris more than 40 members of his family gathered at the finish area to cheer him on.

Mantz is a dominant force in American men’s marathoning, with back-to-back top American finishes at the Chicago Marathon in 2023 and 2022. In 2022, he debuted with a seventh-place finish, and in 2023, took sixth and clocked the fifth-fastest marathon ever by an American, meeting the Olympic qualifying standard. He also placed 11th at the 2023 Boston Marathon.

In addition to his 2024 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials victory, Mantz has two other national titles to his name, having won the 2021 USATF Half Marathon Championships and 2022 USATF 20K Championships. He competed in the U.S. Olympic Trials on the track in both 2024 and 2020.

While attending Brigham Young University, Mantz claimed back-to-back NCAA Division I Cross Country titles in 2020 and 2021, becoming the first American to win the event since Galen Rupp did in 2008.

Between high school and college Mantz took a break from competitive running to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Ghana. He was limited to 30 minutes of exercise a day and spent much of his time teaching and studying.