Leon Coleman

Leonard "Leon" Coleman (born September 1, 1944 in Birmingham , Alabama ) is a retired American hurdler , Olympian , physical education instructor and coach .

Life

Coleman's parents moved to Boston , where Leon attended Boston Trade High School until 1964 . Because of his excellence as a hurdler, he was awarded a scholarship to Winston-Salem State University , where he studied physical education and health education. He was in the finals of the American championships over 110 meter hurdles every year from 1966 to 1969, qualified for the 1968 Olympic Games , where he came fourth in the finals . 1969 was his best year, with 13.3 s (electrical 13.42 s) he ran an excellent best time, with which he became American champion at the same time and also equaled the world best time for the year. Since his scholarship ended after four years, but he was still missing individual courses, he moved to Los Angeles and started for the Southern California Striders and completed his studies at California State University Long Beach . He tried again in 1972 to qualify for the Olympic Games, but did not succeed. From 1972 to 1976 he started as a professional runner for the International Track Association . 1977-1983 he worked as national coach and sports director for Nigeria in Lagos . From 1983 to 1990 he was an assistant coach at West Los Angeles Community College and a physical education teacher / trainer in the Compton Unified School District. From 1990 to 1993 he was a physical education teacher / trainer at Parker Middle School in Rocky before becoming program coordinator for the Lucy Ann Boddie Brewer Boys and Girls Club until 1996 . From 1997 to 2001 he was the track and field coach for the University of Massachusetts - Boston Campus before returning to Rocky for a year to lead the sports program for high risk youth. From 2002 to 2006 he was the women's athletics coach for Mississippi Valley State University . Until his retirement in 2009, he was a physical education teacher at Rocky Mountains Senior High School . From 1990 until today (2006) he also advised the athletics program at St. Augustine College , Raleigh , North Carolina .

Footnotes

1. ↑ Photo signature at digitalforsyth.org (last accessed on May 18, 2020)
2. ↑ Results US Championships ( Memento from November 3, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) on trackandfieldnews.com (last accessed on May 18, 2020)
3. ↑ Leon Coleman in the database of Sports-Reference (English; archived from the original ) (last accessed on May 18, 2020)
4. ^ Arnd Krüger : American sport between isolationism and internationalism. Competitive sport. 18: 1, pp. 43-47 (1988) ; 2, pp. 47–50 (accessed June 7, 2016)
5. ↑ ( Page no longer available , search in web archives: Leon Coleman on bark.com ) (accessed June 7, 2016)