Why Connor Mantz Knees Don’t Hurt Even Though it Looks Like They Should

October 13, 2025•3 min read

Why Connor Mantz Knees Don’t Hurt Even Though it Looks Like They Should

So if you haven’t seen him run go ahead give it a quick Google. The guy is a spectacle. He just set the American marathon record at Chicago in 2:04.

But one thing that has always stood out to me with him is how unique and awful looking his form is at first glance. Anyone could see it. Looks like his knees have magnets pulling them together. But at second glance I noticed a few specific things.

Although he looks to have a crazy amount of valgus (knees going inwards), he is also pigeon-toed throughout the whole gait cycle on both feet.

This is honestly just not that common among runners, much less the best to ever do it as an American.

What this actually means is that he has a hip abnormality causing his comfortable position to be more internally rotated (or turned inwards a bit) than most people. This means that his normal alignment is a little different in the hips and is going to cause an inward looking knee and foot below.

If Connor had the knee going inwards as much as it does but his foot turned outwards there would be a ton of shear forces in the knee and tension based problems in the hip and ankle. Red flag. But because the knee and the foot stay in line with what the hip is doing he is still in a very comfortable and safe alignment in the knee and ankle. Green flag.

And I’m sure there has been countless people tell him that he must have super weak hips and it’s only a matter of time before your knees start hurting with that form. But to be honest, as long as his hips are in a comfortable position his knees and ankles are good to go.

At the end of the day, everyone’s form is different and knowing the nuance in how people can accomplish the same task differently with success while avoiding injury is the ultimate goal.

If you have questions about running form, struggling with overuse injuries, or not sure how to break out of the rut you are in hit us up! We work on these things day in and day out.

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