Ep. 248 - Family Footsteps: A Father’s Pursuit Of The Olympic Glory | Rory Linkletter and Bryan Ward

Welcome to a new episode of The Dad Up Podcast. I’m excited to share another episode with this guest and the exciting journey he is about to embark on this summer. Paris would be Summer Games debut for 27-year-old Calgary-born runner. Rory Linkletter is only the 2nd Canadian to hit the Olympic qualifying standard in the men's marathon for Paris this summer. The 27-year-old set a personal-best time of two hours eight minutes one second at the Sevilla Marathon in Spain. Rory ran nine seconds under the 2:08:10 standard and posted the third-fastest finish all-time among Canadian men behind Cam Levins (2:05.36 and 2:07.09). Rory Linkletter moved from Canada to the United States at age six and became a U.S. citizen in 2020. He holds dual citizenship. Coached by American marathon record holder Ryan Hall, he starred for five years at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, where Rory earned six All-American citations. Rory is a distance runner who first represented Canada internationally at the 2015 IAAF World Cross Country Championships in the U20 division. He subsequently went on to compete at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships in both 2017 and 2019. He finished second in 10,000m at the 2017 NCAA Championships. During his college running career, he earned six All-American citations while competing for Brigham Young University, where he majored in political science and minored in communications. Rory set a new Canadian record at the Houston Half-Marathon in January 2022. Rory lowered Jeff Schiebler’s 23-year-old Canadian half-marathon record of 61:28, crossing the finish line in 61:08 for eighth place. However, before he laces up his everyday to train for his upcoming Olympic debut, Rory is a family man with a very supportive wife and two amazing kids. In our conversation, Rory not only shares his journey to get to the Olympic stage, but also how much he loves being a dad. If you would like to learn more about Rory Linkletter, please see the links below in the show notes. Also, don’t forget to watch Rory compete in the marathon at the Paris Olympics. Dad Up! Dad Up Instagram: https://instagram.com/daduppodcast Dad Up YouTube: https://youtube.com/c/DadUpPodcast Dad Up Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dad-up-podcast/id1486764562 Dad Up LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/Daduptribe Rory Linkletter Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rory_linkletter Rory Linkletter LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rory-linkletter Rory Linkletter YouTube: https://youtube.com/@linkletterrory?si=-FC-xJMkNvw1RpuI