Connie Price-Smith Hometown: St. Charles, Mo. Last College: SIU Position: Head Coach Experience: 8th season

Email Coach Connie Price-Smith

Updated Nov. 7, 2008

Connie Price-Smith enters her eighth year as the head coach for Salukis. Making this her fifth season as the director of track and field / cross country and head coach for both the men's and women's combined track and field program. She spent her first three years as head coach for the Saluki women's team.

A four-time Olympian, Price-Smith is one of the most decorated women's track and field athletes in SIU history, despite the fact she did not participate in the sport during her college career until she was a senior.

After her fourth and final season as a Saluki basketball player, Price-Smith turned her attention to track and field where she is currently ranked fifth all-time in the outdoor shot put (49' 11.5") and third all-time in the discus (165 1"). Not to mention, she won MVC indoor and outdoor championship titles, garnered all-conference honors in the shot and was named her team's most valuable player in 1985.

Although Price-Smith's stay at SIU was short, her collegiate success fueled an illustrious career which saw many milestones.

After graduating in 1985, Price-Smith became the first U.S. female athlete in 32 years to win both the shot put and discus at an Olympic Trials (1992). In the shot put alone, she finished first on four consecutive occasions at Olympic Trial Championship competitions between 1988 and 2000.

Although she did not medal at the Olympics, Price-Smith had the highest finish of a U.S. female shot putter since 1960 and narrowly missed the bronze medal by just four inches at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. She is also the first U.S. female to have a top ten world-ranking in the shot put for five consecutive years (1995-1999). And, she was the first U.S. female to win a medal in that event at a World Championship competition (1995).

Throughout her career, Price-Smith has been on 34 international squads.She was a member of four teams at the Pan-American Games, where she won a bronze medal in the discus in 1987; a silver in the shot put in 1991, and a gold in the shot put in both 1995 and 1999; she was a silver medalist at the World Indoor Championship, in Barcelona, Spain; a silver medalist at the Goodwill Games in 1998; and a bronze medalist at the World Cup in 1998. A member of two World University Games teams, Price-Smith placed fifth in the discus in 1987. In addition, she was on three Goodwill Games teams, participated in seven IAAF Grand Prix Finals and is a 25-time national champion in the shot put and discus. Price-Smith ends her athletic career with personal best in the shot put of 64' 3" and 212' 8" in the discus.

Retired from a 14+ year stint of competing, Price-Smith now stands on the other side as a coach.

Price-Smith was named 2005 MVC Women's Indoor Coach of the Year after guiding the Salukis to their first conference indoor title in 13 years. Since Price-Smith has taken over the helm of Saluki Track and Field, there have been over 30 school records broken.

Price-Smith had the honor and privilege to coach on the national level as well. She has served as the Assistant Coach for the USA National Team at the; IAAF World Junior Championships in Kingston, Jamaica 2004; IAAF World Indoor Championship in Budapest, Hungry 2005; IAAF World Cup Team in Athens, Greece 2006.

In 2007, Price-Smith was named head coach for the Pan American Games Team in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and has been named to the 2008 Olympic team coaching staff in Beijing, China as an assistant coach for the women's throws.

A native of St. Charles, Mo., Price-Smith was inducted into the SIU Sports Hall-of-Fame in 1990, received the school's Distinguished Alumni Award in 2001, and was honored as the Administrative/Professional Woman of Distinction in 2007.