BYU has a nice profile of Jared Ward up on its website that tracks his rise from a JV runner in HS to top 10 at the Olympics. A few of our favorite quotes/excerpts.Ward on his current situation. “I tell students that running is my job and teaching is my hobby,” Ward said. Ward talks about how he thought about quitting the sport in college.
BYU wrote:
Ward red-shirted the first year after his mission, a period in which he got married, began his statistics program, and traveled with the team while recovering from a stress fracture. This busy time of his life proved to be overwhelming, and one day after practice he decided to tell Eyestone that he was going to quit running.
Instead of pressuring him to continue, Eyestone encouraged him to pray about the decision.
“I went home and I spent some time thinking about it, and spent some time praying about it,” Ward said. “And I remember feeling so strongly that I was supposed to be a runner. And so I was like, ‘If God wants me to run, then I’m going to run.’”.
Full article below..
https://universe.byu.edu/2020/11/11/jared-ward-the-olympic-marathoner-that-happens-to-be-a-byu-professor/