Utahn Conner Mantz, who qualified earlier this year to run the marathon in the 2024 Summer Games in Paris, is already spending time in a sauna daily to help prepare for the scorching conditions he’s likely to encounter in August along the 26.2 miles course that links the French capital and Versailles.

But Mantz said he was surprised to find out a few days ago that there won’t be air conditioners where athletes will be housed at the recently completed complex in a Paris suburb due to environmental concerns.

“I’m not looking forward to it. I know how terrible it is to sleep,” the 27-year-old who grew up in Smithfield and now lives in Provo said, recalling serving a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the west African nation of Ghana. “I didn’t have air conditioning in that weather. I didn’t live in great conditions for two years.”

Five steps to becoming a confident pluralist, according to Harvard prof. Danielle Allen in BYU Forum

Pluralism and constitutional democracy operates best when people hold human dignity sacred even when there are disagreements. That was the center of Harvard public policy and political philosophy professor Danielle Allen’s remarks on “How to Be a Confident Pluralist” delivered Tuesday to thousands of BYU students and faculty members.

Allen, director of the Allen Lab for Democracy Renovation at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Ash Center, said commitment to democracy and civic engagement is part of her family heritage. Her grandfather founded one of the first NAACP chapters in northern Florida and her maternal great-grandparents marched for women’s suffrage.

Allen laid out five steps to becoming a confident pluralist.

Read more about what Allen's five steps are.

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