Most successful coach

[EME1980]

Does anybody know who is the most successful coach in track and field is? I'm thinking in terms of who has coached the most Olympic gold medal winning athletes?

[az2004]

probably some one from east germany??

[balzonia]

Re: Most successful coach

Does anybody know who is the most successful coach in track and field is? I'm thinking in terms of who has coached the most Olympic gold medal winning athletes?

There are many problems with the question:

1. Many athletes, especially the gold medallists (and especially since 1976) are trained by coaching teams. It is very rarely one coach responsible for an elite athlete's development.
2. Athletes change coaches all the time. I know he hasn't won a gold medal but let's look at Adam Nelson as one quick example. He's been coached by his HS coach, the Dartmouth staff, Robert Weir, Don Babbitt, himself and Carrie Lane. If he wins the Gold medal, who gets the credit? Only the one or two who are coaching him at the moment? Likely, he'll end up on all their resumes.
3. The appointed head coach of any country's Olympic team has a leg up on any individual. Who was the head coach of the country that won the most Olympic Golds in any Olympiad? I think there's your technical answer. Though I'm sure there has been a coach who headed a national team more than once.

If you are asking who has developed the most individuals into gold medallists from scratch, that's likely impossible to determine...

[polevaultpower]

Vitaly Petrov coached the male and female pole vault world record holders, I think that counts for something!

[Smoke]

I am saying Bobby Kersee has this distinction. I think.

[twinpeeks]

Yes, his athletes always show up.

I am saying Bobby Kersee has this distinction. I think.

[eldrick]

tom tellez was coach of Carl, deloach & marsh

that's quite a few individual golds there to his credit

he coached 3 successive 200m golds

he coached 4 successive lj golds

i also note he coached stanley floyd who was favorite for '80 gold

not inconceivable tellez couda coached 3 consecutive 100m golds ( maybe even 4 if Carl hadn't been ill in '92 trials ) !!!

he shoud be up in top 3 of all time coaches

[Smoke]

tom has a nice resume but a limited number of people from what I recal.

Bobby has
Valerie BH - first person to pull the 2/4 double
FloJo who won her first medal in 1984 in the 400
JJK
Joanna Hayes
Gail Devers
Andre Phillips in 1988
Dannette Young
janeene vickers
Greg Foster
dawn harper
allyson felix
kerron clement

and those are just the folks i know off the top of my head.

[dj]

Hard to omit Dean Cromwell (USC head coach 1909-1913, 1916-1948) from the conversation:

OG golds (CAPS are individual events, lower case are relays)
Charley Paddock (1G, 2S, 1g)
Mel Patton (1G, 1g)
Frank Wykoff (3g)
Charley Borah (1g)
Foy Draper (1g)
Ed Ablowich (1g)
Fred Kelly (1G)
Earl Thomson (1G)
Duncan McNaughton (1G)
Bob Van Osdel (1S)
Lee Barnes (1G, Cromwell coached him after his OG medal)
Earle Meadows (1G)
Bud Houser (3G)
Wilbur Thompson (1G)
Ken Carpenter (1G)

[dj]

tom tellez was coach of Carl, deloach & marsh
. . .

i also note he coached stanley floyd who was favorite for '80 gold

not inconceivable tellez couda coached 3 consecutive 100m golds ( maybe even 4 if Carl hadn't been ill in '92 trials ) !!!

Just to note that Floyd was coached by Mel Rosen at Auburn in '80.

[twinpeeks]

Kersee coach Shawn Crawford in Beijing

tom has a nice resume but a limited number of people from what I recal.

Bobby has
Valerie BH - first person to pull the 2/4 double
FloJo who won her first medal in 1984 in the 400
JJK
Joanna Hayes
Gail Devers
Andre Phillips in 1988
Dannette Young
janeene vickers
Greg Foster
dawn harper
allyson felix
kerron clement

and those are just the folks i know off the top of my head.

[eldrick]

tom tellez was coach of Carl, deloach & marsh
. . .

i also note he coached stanley floyd who was favorite for '80 gold

not inconceivable tellez couda coached 3 consecutive 100m golds ( maybe even 4 if Carl hadn't been ill in '92 trials ) !!!

Just to note that Floyd was coached by Mel Rosen at Auburn in '80.

apologies

this article says he "tutored" floyd :

http://uhcougars.cstv.com/sports/c-trac ... tom00.html

[eldrick]

tom has a nice resume but a limited number of people from what I recal

yes, but tellez retired from head coaching by '98 & appears just to do an occasional bit know ( may even be fully retired )

if he'd been coaching full-time as head lead in past 10y, there's little doubt he wouda attracted other talent & possibly added 2 or more individual golds to his resume

besides, if you were coaching Carl full-time for 15y, you don't really need any other proteges !

[dj]

tom tellez was coach of Carl, deloach & marsh
. . .

i also note he coached stanley floyd who was favorite for '80 gold

not inconceivable tellez couda coached 3 consecutive 100m golds ( maybe even 4 if Carl hadn't been ill in '92 trials ) !!!

Just to note that Floyd was coached by Mel Rosen at Auburn in '80.

apologies

this article says he "tutored" floyd :

http://uhcougars.cstv.com/sports/c-trac ... tom00.html

No apologies necessary. Just noting that Floyd was with Rosen at Auburn in '80. He transferred to Houston, where he redshirted in '81, then ran for Houston in '82. He trained with Tellez/Mike Takaha while at Houston.

[NormZylstra]

Dr. Anatoly Bondarchuk

HT
- Yuri Sedych 86.74m
- Sergey Litvinov 86.14m
- Andrey Abduvalyev 83.60m
- Yuri Tamm 84.40m
- Oleksandr Krykun 79.98m

SP
Aleksandr Baryshnikov (not until after he set the world record) 22.00m
B. Stepansky 20.89m
A. Samolik 20.52m
D. Kovzun 19.35m
E. Koslova 19.99m
S. Butova 18.56m

DT
D. Kovzun 68.62m.
A. Mandyk 62.84m.

C. Savinkova 73.26m
S. Suchova 66.50m