Bob Larsen

Bob Larsen (born c. 1939) is a Hall of Fame Track and field athletics coach, known largely for coaching distance runners, though he has had success coaching across a full range of events. Larsen is currently a coach at the Mammoth Lakes Mammoth Track Club high altitude training camp. 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 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. Previous to that Larsen coached the UCLA 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 the same time, Larsen formed and coached the Jamul Toads running team, which won the AAU National Cross Country Championship in 1976. At Monte Vista High School in Spring Valley, CA, Larsen's team went undefeated for three years.

Starting with a lackluster UCLA Cross Country program, his first season in 1979 was the first time UCLA had ever qualified for the NCAA National Championships. Larsen was selected National Coach of the year 1980, the first of four such selections. Under Larsen, UCLA won two Pac-10 Men's Cross Country titles and made six appearance at the NCAA Championships.

...
Wikipedia