Johnson Named to USA Track & Field Olympic Staff
July 15, 2015 | Men's Track & Field
INDIANAPOLIS - Boston University Director of Cross Country and Track & Field Robyne Johnson has been named an assistant coach of the 2016 USA Track & Field Olympic Team, the organization announced on Wednesday.
USA Track & Field named Johnson an assistant for the women's team that will compete at the 2016 Summer Olympics to be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
"This is a tremendous honor and I feel very blessed," said Johnson. "I am humbled by the nomination and happy to be named to the staff of the 2016 Olympic Team."
Johnson will join women's head coach Connie Price-Smith's five-person staff as an assistant coach for jumps and combined events. Johnson will travel to Eugene, Oregon, for the Olympic Trials next July before heading to Rio de Janeiro for training and the start of the 2016 Summer Olympics set to begin on Aug. 5.
Johnson will enter her 11th season as the director and head coach of BU's cross country and track & field teams in 2015-16. The Terriers have thrived under Johnson's guidance, claiming a total of eight conference championships in track & field and five conference titles in cross country. BU has been particularly dominant in its two years in the Patriot League, winning back-to-back women's cross country titles and sweeping the indoor and outdoor track & field championships in 2014.
The 29-year coaching veteran has been honored numerous times, most recently in 2014 when she was named the Northeast Region Indoor Track Women's Coach of the Year by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA). She also earned that distinction in 2008. Johnson is a two-time Patriot League Coach of the Year and seven-time America East Coach of the Year.
On the international stage, Johnson has been an assistant coach for the United States at the 2012 DecaNation meet in France, as well as the head women's track & field coach for Team USA at the 2011 World University Games in China. She was an assistant coach for the United States team that captured its first title at the 1998 World Cup in Johannesburg, South Africa. She is a member of the USA Track and Field Coaches Association and she also was an assistant coach for the 2003 Pan American Games.
The Oakland, Calif. native is a former American record holder in the triple jump and participated in four U.S. Olympic Trials. She competed at the 1991 World Championships in Seville, Spain, earning a ninth-place finish in the triple jump. She also competed in the 1993 USA vs. Great Britain, finishing fourth. As a high school student, Johnson made the 1980 Jr. Pan American team and finished fourth in the long jump.
Johnson was a five-time All-American in the triple jump at the University of Texas at Austin and was a key contributor to the Longhorns' first outdoor national championship squad in 1982. She was ranked in the top 10 in the nation in the triple jump for 10 years and is considered to be a member of the first group of elite triple jumpers of the United States.
In addition to a bachelor's degree in history from Texas, Johnson holds a masters of science degree in education from California State University Hayward.
