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2013 Track and Field Media Guide
26 Olympians Produced
15 Individual National Champions
5
5
World Indoor Championships and the 2006 World Cup.
Price-Smith served as Team USA’s head coach at the 2007
Pan American Games before serving on her first Olympics
coaching staff the following year as an assistant women’s
coach for throws at the 2008 Beijing Games. She has also
been selected as head women’s coach for Team USA at the
2011 IAAF World Championships and the assistant women’s
coach for throws at the 2012 London Olympics.
Price-Smith began her coaching career as a volunteer assistant
coach at Ohio State after retiring from a successful 14-year ca-
reer as a world-class thrower. In addition to competing in the
Olympics in 2000 (Sydney), 1996 (Atlanta), 1992 (Barcelona)
and 1988 (Seoul), Price-Smith is a 25-time national champion
in the shot put and discus.
All told, Price-Smith won 18 outdoor national titles, six in-
door titles and five Olympic trials championship titles during
her post-collegiate career. Her world rankings in the shot put
in 1995 (6th), 1996 (5th), 1997 (6th), 1998 (3rd) and 1999
(7th) made her the first U.S. woman to be world-ranked in the
shot put for five consecutive seasons.
In 1992, Price-Smith became the first woman to win both the
shot put and discus at an Olympic trial in 32 years. In 1995,
she became the first U.S. woman in 35 years to win a World
Championship medal in the shot put. Though Price-Smith
never won an Olympic medal, her fifth-place finish in the shot
put at the 1996 Atlanta Games is the highest finish by a U.S.
woman in the event since 1960.
Ironically, Price-Smith only competed for the Saluki track and
field team for one season after wrapping up a successful four-
year basketball career at SIU. From 1980-84, Price-Smith was
a center for the Salukis under coach Cindy Scott.
A two-time All-Gateway Conference selection, Price-Smith
scored 1,271 points and pulled down 744 rebounds during her
basketball career. She still ranks in the top 10 in school history
in career scoring, rebounding, rebound average, field goal
percentage, free throws made and free throws attempted.
Price-Smith threw the shot put for the first time as a senior at
the urging of former SIU track and field standout John Smith,
whom she married in 1990 and now coaches alongside. She
quickly became dominant in the shot put and discus, winning
MVC indoor and outdoor titles in the shot put in 1985. She
ranks fifth in SIU history in the discus, eighth in the outdoor
shot put and ninth in the indoor shot put.
In addition to being inducted into the SIU Hall of Fame
in 1990, Price-Smith also received the SIU Distinguished
Alumni Award in 2001 and was named the Administrative/
Professional Woman of Distinction in 2007. She was also
selected for induction to the Missouri Valley Conference Hall
of Fame in 2012 as an Institutional Great.
Head Coach Connie Price-Smith
Coach Price-Smith At A Glance:
• 1990 inductee of the SIU Hall of Fame; 2012 inductee of
MVC Hall of Fame.
• Assistant women’s throws coach for Team USA at Beijing
(2008) and London (2012) Summer Olympic Games.
• Four-time Olympian (Seoul, 1988; Barcelona, 1992;
Atlanta, 1996; Sydney, 2000).
• Five MVC Team Championships (four women, one men).
• Four-time MVC Coach of the Year.
• 51 All-Americans coached.
• 148 MVC Individual Champions coached.
• 14 MVC Most Valuable Players coached.
• Five individual national champions coached, two within the
2012 season.