BOISE, Idaho — Two athletes with Idaho ties opened competition at the Paris Games on Sunday morning with the first round of the women's 3,000-meter steeplechase.
Former Boise State All-American Marisa Howard's 2024 Olympic campaign came to a close after finishing seventh in her steeplechase heat with a time of 9:24.78 at the Stade de France.
Howard, who is set to join the Bronco staff as an assistant coach, was 7.39 seconds shy of fifth place. Sunday's first round featured three heats and 36 runners, with the top-five runners from each heat advancing to the final.
Lizzie Bird of Team Great Britain claimed a spot in the Olympic steeplechase final, finishing fourth in her respective heat with a time of 9:16.46.
Both Bird and Howard are coached by Pat McCurry, the head coach of the Boise State track and field and cross country teams. Sunday's opener marked Bird's second Olympic appearance.
The native of St. Albans Herts, England, will compete for the podium in the women's 3,000-meter steeplechase final at 1:14 p.m. MT Tuesday, Aug. 6, on KTVB Channel 7 and NBC.
Click here to watch a full replay of Sunday morning's event at the Paris Olympics. Full results from the first round of the women's 3,000-meter steeplechase can be found by clicking here.
After falling two spots shy of a trip to Tokyo in 2021, Howard became the first female Boise State alum to ever claim a spot on the United States Olympic track and field team in June.
She finished third in the steeplechase final at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials with a time of 9:07.14, the eighth-fastest mark in the world and a personal best. Howard currently runs for Idaho Afoot, a team of athletes trained by McCurry.
The three-time Mountain West champion represented the United States alongside Valerie Constien and Courtney Wayment in Paris.
Constien finished third in the second heat, one spot ahead of Bird, with a time of 9:16.33 to advance to the Olympic finale. Wayment gave Team USA its second qualifier for Tuesday's race with a time of 9:10.72, good for fourth place in the opening heat.
Bird graduated from Princeton and earned a master's in international studies from the University of San Francisco, where McCurry was the head coach from 2018 to 2021. She finished ninth in the event at the 2021 Tokyo Games.
She posted a winning time of 9:29.67 at the 2024 UK Championships in June to secure her spot in Paris. Bird then ran a 9:09.07 on July 7 at the Meeting De Paris.
Bird was a two-time national champion at Princeton and owns a pair of European Championship bronze medals, in addition to a Commonwealth Games silver medal. She is one of 11 Team Idaho athletes KTVB is tracking at the Paris Olympics.
