INDIANAPOLIS — Four-time Olympian and Southern Illinois head coach Connie Price-Smith and TrackTown USA president and University of Oregon associate athletic director Vin Lananna will serve as the respective women’s and men’s head coaches for Team USA at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, USATF announced Wednesday. Marsha Horan and Tracy Sundlun will serve as head managers.
The Team USA staff also includes women’s assistant coaches Bonnie Edmondson, Robyne Johnson, Rose Monday and LaTanya Sheffield, and men’s assistant coaches Troy Engle, Curtis Frye, Cliff Rovelto and Mario Sategna. Medical and other additional officials will be announced later this summer.
Experienced coach, athlete
Price-Smith recently completed her 14th season as head coach at her alma mater. After spending her first three years as the head women’s coach, Price-Smith took over the combined men’s and women’s program in 2004-05 and has since kept SIU track and field among the top programs in the Missouri Valley Conference.
Under Price-Smith, a 1990 Saluki Hall of Fame inductee, SIU’s women’s team has won five conference titles and finished a program-best ninth in the nation at the 2010 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships — the third-best finish of either gender in SIU history. The SIU men’s team recently ended a 23-year drought with their first conference title since 1992. A five-time MVC Coach of the Year, Price-Smith has coached SIU athletes to a combined 184 MVC individual titles, 51 All-American honors and eight individual NCAA champions during her time as both the head women’s coach and at the helm of the combined program.
A 25-time national champion in the shot put and discus, and a member of 34 international U.S. squads as an athlete, Price-Smith is an experienced member of national team staffs. She was the head women’s coach for Team USA at the 2011 IAAF World Championships and the 2007 Pan American Games. She served as an assistant coach at the 2008 Olympic Games, as well as the 2004 World Junior Championships in Kingston, Jamaica, the 2005 World Indoor Championship in Budapest, Hungary and with the U.S. 2006 World Cup Team in Athens, Greece.
From TrackTown to Rio
Lananna has enjoyed tremendous success as a coach and administrator. In a coaching career that spanned 35 years, Lananna led teams to 11 NCAA titles and 42 conference crowns, while nearly 60 NCAA individual titles were awarded to athletes under his guidance. Lananna was named to the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) Hall of Fame in 2012.
Lananna served as an assistant coach for Team USA at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, and was head coach at the 2011 IAAF World Championships in Daegu, South Korea. He was an assistant coach at the 1999 IAAF World Championships, head coach for Team USA at the 1990 and 1996 IAAF World Cross Country Championships, and head junior team coach at the 1994 IAAF World Cross Country Championships.
As the president and visionary of TrackTown USA, Lananna has led the local organizing committee that secured the NCAA Outdoor Championships through 2021, as well as the 2014 IAAF World Junior Championships, 2016 IAAF World Indoor Championships and the 2021 IAAF World Championships. The 2016 U.S. Olympic Trials – Track & Field will be held in Eugene, following in the footsteps of 2012 and 2008.
Fans are invited to join the conversation by following USATF on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook and use the hashtag #Rio2016.
Women’s Staff
Robyne Johnson , Assistant Coach – Jumps/Combined Events
The Director of Cross Country and Track & Field at Boston University, Robyne Johnson is a former American record holder in the triple jump and participated in four U.S. Olympic Trials. She ranked in the top ten for ten years and was considered to be one of the first elite triple jumpers in the U.S. Her track and field career started at a young age with a trip to the 1980 Junior Pan American Games, where she finished fourth in the long jump.
Rose Monday, Assistant Coach – Distance
Monday, who most recently coached at the University of Texas-San Antonio, is nationally known as one of the top minds in middle distance and distance running. In 2003, she was appointed USATF Development chair for women’s distance events. She was an assistant coach for the U.S. team at the 2005 World University Games in Izmir, Turkey, and served as head women’s coach for Team USA at the 2006 IAAF World Junior Championships in Beijing, China. She most recently served as the assistant coach for women’s distance for the U.S. women’s team at the Olympic Games in London, and has served as the Team USA women’s distance coach at the IAAF World Relays in 2014 and 2015, as well as the head women’s coach for the 2015 Pan American Games.
LaTanya Sheffield, Assistant Coach – Sprints/Hurdles
LaTanya Sheffield is a retired Olympic hurdler and American record holder. She was a standout hurdler at San Diego State, where she was a two time all-American and a 1985 NCAA champion. 1985 was also the year Sheffield ran an American record in the 400m hurdles with a time of 54.64. Sheffield was an Olympic finalist in 1988 and again represented the U.S. at the World Championships in 1987. Over the course of her career, she won two 400mH gold medals at the Olympic Sports Festival and a bronze 400mH medal at the 1987 Pan American Games. Upon retirement in 2000, Sheffield went over to the coaching side and eventually coached national teams at numerous international events, including the World Championships and Pan American Games. Currently, Sheffield is an assistant coach at Long Beach State, working with the sprints, hurdles and relays.
Bonnie Edmondson, Assistant Coach – Throws
Bonnie Edmondson is a two-time national champion in the hammer throw. As an athlete, she was ranked in the top ten in the world and in the top five in the country. Edmondson has coached at all levels, including high school, college and Team USA. An assistant coach at the 1998 World Junior Championships, she was Team USA’s throwing events coach 2012 and 2014 IAAF World Indoor Championships. She is currently the Assistant Men’s and Women’s Indoor and Outdoor Track and Field Coach at Trinity College.
Marsha Horan, Women’s Head Manager
Horan is a 17-year veteran coach who has served on the Team USA staff as a manager for 12 international junior and senior teams, including the last two IAAF World Championships. Horan was also the head manager for Team USA at the inaugural IAAF World Relays in 2014 and is currently the assistant track and field coach at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida, joining the IMG Academy staff in November 2013. Horan represents women’s track & field on the USATF High Performance Development Committee.
