Olympic 800m champion Athing Mu is moving from Texas to Los Angeles to be coached by Bobby Kersee, who already coaches fellow Olympic track gold medalist Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone.
“Coach Kersee has the ability to further enhance my running skills and implement the tools needed to reach my potential,” Mu, 20, posted on social media.
Mu’s partner, 800m runner Brandon Miller, also announced he’s moving from Texas to Los Angeles to train under Kersee, turning professional after his sophomore year at Texas A&M.
In Tokyo, Mu won the Olympic 800m in an American record 1:55.21. She became the youngest U.S. woman to win individual Olympic track and field gold since Wyomia Tyus in the 100m at the 1964 Tokyo Games.
This past summer, Mu won the world title in the 800m. She became the youngest woman in history to own Olympic and world titles in an individual track and field event. Kirani James of Grenada was the only man to do it at a younger age.
Kersee has coached Olympic gold medalists in every women’s track event that is one lap and shorter -- 100m, 200m, 400m, 100m hurdles and 400m hurdles -- plus wife Jackie Joyner-Kersee, a two-time gold medalist in the heptathlon, which includes the 800m.
McLaughlin-Levrone said earlier this fall that she wants to add the flat 400m to her program after winning Olympic and world titles in the 400m hurdles, plus breaking the world record four times.
Mu is in a similar position to McLaughlin-Levrone in that she is one of the world’s best 400m runners, even though she has never raced it at a major championship.
Like McLaughlin-Levrone, Mu has a bye onto the 2023 World Championships team in her primary event, so that she doesn’t have to race it at the 2023 USA Track and Field Outdoor Championships. That provides the opportunity to race another event, such as the 400m, at USATF Outdoors, and potentially qualify for the world team in two individual events.
At the 2023 Worlds, the first round of the women’s 800m starts 11 and a half hours before the women’s 400m final.
OlympicTalk is on Apple News. Favorite us!
ready to work 💃🏿 pic.twitter.com/XvU46SfTmF
— Athing Mu (@athiiing) November 2, 2022
