Bob Larsen

Education

San Diego State University.

Career

Larsen is currently a coach at the Mammoth Lakes Mammoth Track Club high altitude training camp. Previous to that Larsen coached the University of California, Los Angeles Cross Country and then Track teams between 1979 and his retirement in 1999. Larsen"s coaching career has spanned successful programs at the High School, Junior College, University and Open divisions.

After graduating from San Diego State College in 1961, Larsen started in the 1960s at Grossmont College, Larsen led the Griffins (now defunct) team to seven state titles and nine consecutive conference titles.

During that tenure his distance runners set 11 national community college records. Larsen was elected to the California Community College Cross Country and Track Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 1996.

At Monte Vista High School in Spring Valley, California, Larsen"s team went undefeated for three years. Starting with a lackluster University of California, Los Angeles Cross Country program, his first season in 1979 was the first time University of California, Los Angeles had ever qualified for the National Collegiate Athletic Association National Championships.

Larsen was selected National Coach of the year 1980, the first of four such selections.

In 1984, Larsen succeeded Jim Bush as University of California, Los Angeles Head Track and Field Coach. He perpetuated the University of California, Los Angeles winning ways with two consecutive National Collegiate Athletic Association Men"s Outdoor Track and Field Championships in 1987 and 1988, along with 9 conference championships. Among the athletes on those championship teams were Olympic Gold Medalists: Steve Lewis, Danny Everett and Kevin Young.

Other athletes on Larsen"s teams included Ato Bolden, John Godina, Henry Thomas, Michael Granville and Keflezighi.

University of California, Los Angeles also finished a close second place in 1995. In 2003 he joined the Hall of Fame for that same organization.

On August 5, 2010, Larsen was named co-chairman of the USATF Coaches Registry Task Force. "Being a USATF Registered Coach provides a designation to coaches around the country that will identify them as among the most ethical and respected in their field, and will carry with it certain rights and privileges not available to those who are not registered coaches.

Background screenings and acceptance of a Code of Ethics are critical components of the Coaches Registry."

Larsen is the subject of a full length documentary, "City Slickers Can"t Stay with Maine, the Coach Bob Larsen Story" released April 19, 2015.

Achievements

• His most notable athlete is Mebrahtom Keflezighi, the 2004 Olympic Silver medalist in the Marathon, an accomplishment that ended a 20-year drought in United States of America distance running medals at the Olympic level (28 years for male athletes). Building on that success, Keflezighi won the men"s division of the 2009 New York Marathon, the first American athlete to accomplish that feat since Alberto Salazar did it 27 years before in 1982, and the 2014 Boston Marathon. At the same time, Larsen formed and coached the Jamul Toads running team, which won the Amateur Athletic Union National Cross Country Championship in 1976. Under Larsen, University of California, Los Angeles won two Pac-10 Men"s Cross Country titles and made six appearance at the National Collegiate Athletic Association Championships. In 1995 he was named the Coach of the Year by the United States Track Coaches Association. In 2005, Larsen was given the Bill Bowerman Award from the National Distance Running Hall of Fame, sponsored by Nike. On December 5, 2009 Larsen was awarded the Robert Giegengack Award, signifying the person who has "made an outstanding contribution to the development and success of United States of America Track & Field and the larger community of the sport.".