Three years ago, Courtney Wayment stood at the starting line of Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon, 3,000 meters away from realizing her lifelong Olympic dream.
Over the course of the next 9 1/2 minutes, she worked her way up through the pack of 14 runners competing in the women's steeplechase final. She ran her fastest race yet, shaving four seconds off the personal best she had set in the first round.
But it wasn't enough. She finished in fourth place at the 2021 Olympic trials — one spot shy of qualifying for the Olympics.
"I was so close to seeing it," she said of the Tokyo Games. "When you're an alternate, you do all the same process that the people that made the team get to do, but you don't get any of it. You don't get the gear, you don't get the flights, you don't get the opportunity, you don't get to go."
Memories of that summer stuck with Wayment over the past three years, fueling her NCAA championship steeplechase title win in 2022 and her performance in last month's Olympic trials.
"I was like, 'I've been that close. I will make sure I'm not that close again,'" she said. "When you're so close to achieving your lifelong dream and you watch it run away from you, that doesn't leave your soul."
At this year's Olympic trials, Wayment was a favorite, not a relative unknown. She led for a majority of the final race — until a pack of runners passed her in the final minute.
"For a moment there, some of the women had made their move, and I was back in the fourth position with only less than a minute left in the race. And I was like, 'I've been here before. I've watched this movie. I'm OK. I'm not doing that again,'" she said.
Wayment was able to come back from fourth place in the last lap to finish second behind Valerie Constien, the only former Olympian competing in the final, and set a new personal best of 9 minutes, 6.5 seconds, making her the fourth fastest American woman in the steeplechase ever.
Now, the former BYU Cougar is officially an Olympian.
"I'm representing myself, my community, my country and everything at the highest level that I possibly could ever in my passion, my talent and my work place," she said. "It's definitely something that I don't take lightly, and it's the highest honor that I could ever be given."
Wayment's time at last month's Olympic trials would have been enough to medal in the 2016 Rio Olympics and 2012 London Olympics, but she would have just missed the podium in Tokyo, coming in behind Uganda's Peruth Chemutai (9:01.45), American Courtney Frerichs (9:04.79) and Kenya's Hyvin Kiyeng (9:05.39).
But to medal this year, she may have to run sub-nine minutes. The top two ranked women steeplechasers — Chemutai and Beatrice Chepkoech — have times of 8:55.09 and 8:55.40, respectively, according to World Athletics . Constien's 9:03.22 in the final puts her at third.
The first-time Olympian believes she's capable of breaking the nine-minute barrier but is unsure if that time comes this year.
"I think the goal's at some point, yes. I mean, I don't want to put a ceiling or a cap as to what I can do. I think in order to perform the best that I can, that I know that I can, that my training shows that I can, the belief in myself that I can, I think I need to have peace and harmony in all areas of my life," she said.
Valerie Constien, from right, Courtney Wayment and Marisa Howard pose after the women's 3,000-meter steeplechase final during the U.S. Track and Field Olympic Team Trials, Thursday, June 27, 2024, in Eugene, Ore. | Charlie Neibergall
Believing in herself — starting in the first round — is key to her winning a medal, Wayment said.
"I think that's going to be the biggest and most influential thing, is believing in myself and being intentful with how I spend my time leading up to the trials," she said.
Wayment credits her support system, especially her college and pro coach Diljeet Taylor, for helping her gain such high confidence in herself.
But she also believes her roundabout path to athletic success has played a large role in gaining confidence. Wayment was always a good runner, but she didn't start off at BYU as one of the best.
In 2016 at the NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships, she finished 153rd as a freshman, and in 2017, she jumped up to 71st, still far from the top, she admits.
But by the time she left BYU, she was a four-time NCAA champion and eight-time All American.
"I think my journey has been so unique in the sense that I didn't have the immediate success that I know some other athletes have had, and I think that has contributed a lot to believing in myself and knowing that, 'Hey, I might not be there, but one day I will.' So if I don't get it now, I'm going to because that's who I am," she said. "I just have always innately believed that it may not be today, but I will."
Women's steeplechase is a relatively young Olympic sport, having made its debut in 2008 at the Beijing Olympics. In the four Olympics to include the event, an American woman has only medaled twice. Coburn was the first when she won bronze in 2016, and three years ago, Frerichs won silver. Both will miss this summer's Olympics due to injury.
Wayment could have a chance to do something no American woman has ever done before in the steeplechase: win gold at the Olympics. When the Deseret News asked if she ever allows herself to fantasize about accomplishing that feat, she said yes — but she also emphasized that it's not her focus.
"I will be truthful that, yes, I would love to do something that no other American woman has done in the steeplechase," she said. "I am chasing those things, but those aren't the focal points of what I'm chasing. I would like to rewrite the history books, and if I get those opportunities, then I'll try to make the most of them. If I don't, I'm still going to chase them down and see what the ceiling is and see where my limit is."
No matter the time or the finish, the Olympian knows her worth is not dependent on the results that happen at Stade de France — and she's bringing a precious reminder of that with her to Paris.
During a hard moment in Wayment's life, her mother gifted her a book of affirmations, titled "You Already Are." Wayment brings it to almost every race, and it's an essential for the Olympics.
"Whenever I get to Paris and whenever I line up, regardless of what happens, my worth as my own soul and my own person never changes, and it's not dependent on my success on or off the track. It's just dependent on who I am and how I choose to show up," she said of her takeaway from the book.
To understand who Wayment is, one must understand how important her faith is to her. Her love of God is so important to her that it's one of the three things she wants the world to know about her.
"I hope the world knows that I'm here to just spread love — that's my goal. ... I love my people. I love what I get to do, and I love my God," she said.
Wayment, a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, has been vocal about her faith and relationship with God, which is something she's relied on in moments of adversity.
"In the bad, I've really tried to make sure I look at God in faith through the little things. There's so many small wins, and they don't feel like wins in the moment, but they are wins," she said.
She acknowledged that it's easier to be grateful and credit God in the good moments in life than in the bad. But in those moments, she tries to remember where she came from, how God led her to that good moment and how he was there for her.
"Most importantly, it doesn't matter if I'm in a high or a low, that I'm always giving my love and my faith back to God, because anything that I've accomplished in life or on the track has come from God's tender mercies and his love for me," she said.
A key component to Wayment's running is prayer.
When Wayment takes the track for the first time in Paris on Aug. 4, she'll likely have already joined Taylor in prayer, like they do for every major race, and together, they will express their gratitude and love for God. Despite the two coming from different faiths, Taylor has been an example to Wayment "of giving gratitude back to God because he has led us here," Wayment said.
That will likely not be Wayment's only prayer before she crosses the finish line. Leading up to and during races, she often finds herself praying in her head.
"I'll pray a lot and just be like, 'Heavenly Father, I'mma need a little extra strength because I'm dead,'" she said.
While competing in her first Olympic race on a Sunday isn't ideal for Wayment — Latter-day Saints set Sunday aside as a day of worship and rest — she believes it's also fitting.
"I think you can share so much love on any day of the week, and why not use a Sunday as a day of love and a day of gratitude to God, of 'Hey, I'm competing in the Olympics,'" she said. "The talent that God has given me — let me return it with being grateful and showing up the best that I can with the talent that I have been given and developed through God on this day."
Wayment is no stranger to adversity. Injuries kept her off the track for two consecutive seasons before the COVID-19 pandemic shut the world down and put her collegiate career on hold.
But looking back now, Wayment has been able to find the good in those moments and can see God's hand in those back-to-back injuries.
"I felt like I had those injuries because they were ways to bring me back on my knees to Heavenly Father, to God," she said.
Now, Wayment is coming off a year in which she endured "a lot of emotional warfare outside of running and track."
Wayment didn't disclose the specifics of her recent personal struggles to the Deseret News, but she opened up about how she was able to overcome them, specifically the "so many incredible people" that carried her to the start line of the trials.
"I saw a lot of true colors of all the people around me that have so much love for me, and they want to see me succeed in life, and they want to see me succeed on the track," she said. "There were a lot of hard days, but those days were filled with so much love and light because I have so many people surrounding me with that. So I owe all of it to the people that I'm surrounded by: my family and my friends, and I'm very, very lucky to have the people in my life that I do."
Former BYU runners Whittni Morgan (5,000 meters) and Courtney Wayment (steeplechase), both of whom will be competing in the Summer Games, get in some training time with their coach Diljeet Taylor at BYU in Provo on Tuesday, July 16, 2024. Other runners with them were Anna Bennett, Meghan Hunter and Sadie Sargent. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News
The difficulties of last year have made this year's victories — achieving her lifelong dream of being an Olympian — even sweeter.
"I've had a lot of wins, and I've had a lot of success. But these ones are different, and these ones are more special," she said.
Wayment is an example of the good that can be waiting behind current adversity, and she has a message for anyone else who is enduring their own personal battles.
"My advice to someone struggling with adversity or hardship right now is know that there is always light and love around you. Sometimes it's in the smallest moments, and sometimes it's in the smallest ways that seem so minute and they seem so minuscule. But those tiny things add up to big things. The more you look for the good and look for the love and look for the light in your life, the more you'll see it, and the dark days, they do end at some point, and they might ebb and flow. But at some point they will end," she said. "Know that you're loved. You are loved beyond belief, and love is not reserved."
