Three-time Olympian Robert Weir Named Throws Coach

Courtesy: GoDucks.com
Release: 08/16/2010

EUGENE, Ore. -- Three-time Olympian Robert Weir has been named assistant track and field coach, Oregon Associate Athletic Director Vin Lananna announced Monday. Weir will oversee the five men’s and women’s throws: the shot put, discus, hammer, javelin and indoor weight throw.

"Coach Weir joins our staff as a renowned competitor on the international stage, as one of the most successful collegiate coaches in the NCAA, as a tenacious recruiter, and as one of the most respected developers of talent in the world," said Lananna. "He is respected for his integrity, technical knowledge of all the throwing events, and his tremendous connection with the athletes that he coaches."

Weir has accumulated a remarkable record as both a competitor and a coach.

On the international level, Weir was the throws coach for Team USA at both the 2007 IAAF World Championships in Osaka, Japan, and the 2005 IAAF World Championships in Helsinki, Finland. He was also the U.S. head men’s coach at the 2006 World Junior Championships in Beijing, and in 2009, served as the national shot put, discus and hammer coach for Great Britain.

As a competitor, he is a 12-time Great Britain national champion in the discus and a member of that country’s World Championship Team. He also competed in the 1984, 1996 and 2000 Summer Olympics. At the Sydney Games in 2000, Weir was named captain of the Great Britain track and field team. Weir’s additional international experience includes six IAAF World Championships, and he won four medals as a Commonwealth Games competitor in 1982, 1994, 1998 and 2002.

As a collegiate coach, in addition to the numerous All-Americans coached by Weir during his 16 years as an assistant and head coach at Stanford (1993-2008), he guided Adam Nelson to the 2000 U.S. national title and an Olympic Silver Medal in the shot put. He also coached Michael Robertson to the 2005 NCAA title in the discus with a Stanford school record throw of 202-5 (61.70m). Robertson became the first Stanford athlete in 40 years to win the discus at the NCAA Championship.

"Associate head coaches Robert Johnson and Andy Powell were instrumental in this very important hire," said Lananna, who worked with Weir at Stanford from 1993-2003. "We need a coach with proven university experience, but also a clear understanding of the great tradition of throwing in the Pac-10 Conference. We plan a firm commitment to an exciting throws program within a well-balanced and combined program for men and women."

Weir, 49, was named the NCAA West Regional Men’s Assistant Coach of the Year in 2001. Additionally, Stanford’s men’s track and field team won Pac-10 crowns in 2001 and 2002, the school’s first titles since 1927. Weir first joined the Stanford staff in 1993 as a part-time assistant coach, before becoming an assistant coach in 1994, associate coach in 1997 and associate head coach in 2001. He was then promoted to Stanford’s men’s head coach in 2004.

Some of Weir’s other proteges at Stanford include seven-time All-American Jillian Camarena, who was the 2004 runner-up in the shot put at the NCAA Indoor Championships and went on to win the Pac-10 title and finish third at the U.S. Olympic Trials that season. Camarena set a school record in the shot put with a throw of 59-6.75 (18.15m), the second farthest throw in Pac-10 history.

In 2001, Maureen Onyeagbako broke the school record in the women’s hammer, only to have Jessica Pluth erase that mark a year later. Then came Sarah Hopping, who in 2006 crushed the school record by over four feet (219-8/66.95m).

In 2000, Summer Pierson, a participant at the 2004 U.S. Olympic Trials, gained All-America honors in the discus. A year earlier, Allison Beatty broke the javelin school record and later that season gained All-America honors at the NCAA Championships.

On the men’s side, Omer Inan was named an All-American in the men’s discus from 2001-03. Under Weir’s guidance, Inan broke the school record in the discus in 2002, and Chad Wassink broke the javelin school record in 2001.

From 1995-2000, Weir successfully coached several of the nation’s top U.S. collegiate men’s hammer throwers at Stanford. The list includes Dave Popejoy, a 1996 United States Olympian and current school record holder (240-10/73.40m), Justin Strand, a former Stanford football player who later became a three-time All-American hammer thrower (1996-98) and Adam Connolly, who in 1998, finished as an All-American in both the indoor 35-pound weight throw and the hammer.

Prior to his stint at Stanford, Weir was an assistant coach at Brown from 1985-88.

Weir, a native of Birmingham, England, received his undergraduate degree from Southern Methodist in 1985. While with the Mustangs, he won three NCAA individual titles. The 10-time All-American set the collegiate record in the hammer throw and the world record in the indoor 35-pound weight throw while at SMU.

His personal best discus throw, 213-6/65.08m, came in August of 2000 in Bedford, England. That was the fifth-best all-time among English discus throwers.

Weir also played professional football in the Canadian Football League for six seasons between 1986 and 1992 and competed in the 1997 World’s Strongest Man competition.

Weir takes over for long-time assistant Lance Deal, who will remain on staff and assume the coordination of Hayward Field facilities. Deal, entering his ninth year with the University, was tasked with the improvement and maintenance of Hayward Field by Lananna prior to the 2008 Olympic Trials, and the new assignment will allow him to concentrate full-time on the well-being of the nation’s most storied track and field stadium.

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