Rory Linkletter: Rising Star
When he broke the Canadian record in the half-marathon last winter, Rory Linkletter started to reveal the potential—and the ambition—that drive him
Born in Calgary but living in the U.S. from a young age, Rory Linkletter may not be as familiar to Canadian marathon fans as some of our other top-level athletes. That all changed when he switched coaches and ran 1:01:08 to break the Canadian half-marathon record earlier this year. The future looks bright for Linkletter, who was justifiably proud to represent Canada in the marathon at this year’s World Championships, where he clocked a two-minute personal best.
On a clear day in the summer of 2012, Connor Jones, a high-school junior in Herriman, Utah, was with his teammates at a summer training camp in Lava Hot Springs, Idaho, ahead of the cross country season. As the temperature swelled to 32 C, the time approached for the team’s nine-mile tempo run. All summer, Jones heard the same phrase over and over again:
We will win. We will win.
It was a mantra devised by Herriman High School’s cross country coach, James Barnes. A year earlier, in the fall of 2011, Herriman was projected to win the Utah 4A high-school cross country championships. Jones, a sophomore, was ready. The Mustangs were ready to take the state title and prove that although they were still a new school, established in 2010, they would be a force to be reckoned with.
We will win.
But on the day of the race, the plan didn’t come together. The Mustangs finished fifth. Afterward, Barnes brought the team into a huddle. “Hey, you didn’t perform like you needed to,” he said. “But let’s use this failure, learn from this, and win next year.”
Individually, Jones placed 21st in the state—second highest on the team. Their fifth runner, Rory Linkletter, finished 39th. But Jones saw something else few people noticed at the time. Linkletter was coming.
Standing five feet tall and weighing 90 pounds, Linkletter was starting to get taller and stronger; his body was finally starting to catch up to his rock-hard mental toughness, and his endurance and his love of running were growing.
That day in Idaho, the tempo started downhill, in a shaded area, but the boys were scheduled to run from camp into a nearby town—on blacktop.
The sun’s rays shimmered over the surface of the road as sweat streamed from their bodies. Linkletter always pushed the downhills. The pace dropped to 6:30 per mile, then 6:00 flat, then sub-6. We will win.
The run finished on a flat stretch of road between farmers’ fields. Safe on the flats, Jones made a move. On this day, Linkletter couldn’t respond, and Jones finished the workout looking back at his teammate.
He would never beat Linkletter again.
Linkletter sits in his office, his frost-coloured eyes framed by strawberry-blond hair. It’s a little after 7:30 p.m., and he has just returned from a walk with his wife, Jill, and their infant son, Jason. An orange hue radiates above his laptop screen, while a ceiling fan whirs, and he reflects on his young career.
Still only 25, Linkletter first represented Canada seven years ago, and he is still barely scratching the surface of his running potential.
Linkletter got married in 2018, at 22, and had his first child last year. He met Jill (a fellow student, and a gymnast) on his first day at Brigham Young University. He says she is the reason he’s been able to have a professional running career—a pursuit that requires a fine balance of daily training, sleep and nutrition. “Obviously, now that we have a kid, she has to take on a lot of roles to help me with my selfish endeavours,” he says. “She helps steer the ship of our lives.”
He represented Canada on the international stage again in 2017 and 2019, signed with a professional running club, left two years later, and managed to snag the Canadian record in the half-marathon in January (a record that had stood for 23 years), mere weeks after joining forces with his new coach, Ryan Hall. “I have had good years, bad years, great years and stagnant years,” Linkletter says, “and through it all, I’ve always still enjoyed showing up every day to train.”
Despite his long resumé, as a kid, Linkletter never stood out. His parents, who were both from Calgary, divorced when he was very young, and he moved to Utah with his mom. His goal was to play sports at the high-school varsity level—any sport—but he wasn’t tall
On this day, Linkletter couldn’t respond, and Jones finished the workout looking back at his teammate. He would never beat Linkletter again
or big enough for basketball or football. On the first day of summer training, Jones persuaded Linkletter to try cross country.
That first day of practice did little to convince him that running would be his varsity sport. In fact, at the time, running at the collegiate level seemed well out of reach. “He was slower than the varsity girls team,” Jones says. “I’m not kidding. I think he was, like, a 25-minute 5k-er his freshman year.”
Linkletter never got discouraged; he developed a love for the process of gradually improving, and the breakthroughs came. In his freshman track season, he ran the 3,200m in 10:40. It wasn’t a time that would attract attention from college coaches, but a year earlier, he could barely have run that pace for a mile. When the next track season rolled around, he finished fifth in the state, improving his 3,200m time by more than a minute.
“Within that first season of cross country, I wasn’t doing great,” he says. “It just blossomed into this appreciation for the fact that the sport rewards hard work. You can see your progress. You can see that what you put in, you get out.”
By the end of his senior year in 2014, he had finished all-state twice in cross country and four times on the track, making him one of the best runners in Utah.
When it came to choosing a university, Linkletter considered what he could afford and which team would set him up for a successful post-collegiate career. He settled on byu in Provo—a perennial cross country and track powerhouse that has produced some very successful runners, such as American Olympic marathoners Ed Eyestone and Jared Ward.
“I tasted a bit of success in high school,” Linkletter says, “but I knew I wanted to be a great collegiate athlete, not just be on a collegiate team. I was surrounded by people who cared about me, who were invested in my success, from athletic trainers to strength and conditioning coaches to our head coach.”
His first big moment in the spotlight came in his junior year, when he finished second overall in the 10,000m at the ncaa track and field championships. The race transformed him from a relative unknown from Utah into the next big thing.
“I remember that year he came second, and I was like, ‘ Oh my God, that was an amazing performance,’” says Kitchener, Ont.’s Ben Flanagan, who is a year older than Linkletter, and who would go on to win the ncaa 10,000m, competing for the University of Michigan, the following year. “He closed in a 55-second last 400.”
Later that summer, riding a hot streak, Linkletter made headlines again by running a world record in the blue jean mile at altitude in Utah. His time, 4:16.00, was equivalent to a 4:11 at sea level.
After Linkletter got those glimpses of success, he expected his career to continue skyward. “I was chasing that feeling,” he says. “It’s elation. You only get it now and then, because every time you achieve it, it becomes harder to get again.”
Growing up in Utah, Linkletter and Jones were inseparable. The two were neighbours on Callander Drive, a roughly 500-metre slice of road in south Herriman. With a fenced backyard, Linkletter’s home was their favourite hangout. They didn’t have to worry about a basketball rolling down the highway, or looking both ways for
After Linkletter got a taste of success, he expected his career to continue skyward. “I was chasing that feeling again,” he says
cars. They tossed footballs and shot hoops, passed hockey pucks and double-bounced each other on the trampoline. After playing, they would lie on the tramp and stare at the sky, dreaming of what they wanted to be when they grew up. “I wanted to be a pro football player,” says Jones.
Despite his small frame, Linkletter told Jones he wanted to be a professional athlete—but he was realistic enough to also consider broadcasting or sports marketing. But in middle school and early high school, Linkletter was a troublemaker. He never had run-ins with the law, but he was mischievous, and sought attention. Cross country gave him direction and provided an outlet for his energy. “I was causing trouble,” Linkletter says. “Then I found running, and running gave me something to put my efforts toward and keep me focused.”
Barnes, his childhood coach, recognized early that Linkletter had potential. He also noticed that he had a big mouth. “He had that little man’s personality of like, ‘I’m tougher than you,’ but [he was] this little tiny guy,” Barnes said. “I think running was one of those things that saved him.”
Linkletter always had a tendency to go big. In his sophomore year of high school, when he ran a one-minute personal best in the 3,200m, he had first place in his sights. With two laps to go, he started kicking. He passed his competitors, crossed the finish line and stopped, forgetting he still had a lap to go. Although he miscounted the laps, he finished the race and still ran around 9:30, impressing his head coach. “He had this personality where he had to fall on his face,” Barnes says. “Once he fell on his face a couple of times, he could pick himself back up.”
When the starter called the runners to the line, Linkletter crouched, waiting for the crack of the gun to tackle 25 laps of the track. All he could think of was how he would rather be anywhere else in the world. A year after finishing second in the ncaa 10,000m, Linkletter felt the need to repeat this in 2018. He was a senior. His blond hair freshly buzzed, he thought there was only one way to top the previous triumph: by winning. Linkletter put so much pressure on himself that he was mentally exhausted by the time the race started, and out of 24 competitors, he finished last. “I remember getting a mile into the 10k and being like, Yep, I’m done. I’ve got nothing left,” he says.
Despite the low moment, Linkletter graduated from byu and signed a pro contract with hoka naz Elite in 2019. He stayed with the club until the end of 2021, when he left to be coached, unsponsored, by American half-marathon record holder Ryan Hall. “Leaving naz was purely [because] I was losing faith in myself, and
His childhood coach recognized early that Linkletter had potential. He also noticed he had a big mouth