“We can’t fail,” Long Beach State track and field head coach LaTanya Sheffield said.
Sheffield was recently announced to be at the helm of the USA women’s track and field team at the 2024 Olympics and is already in a winning mindset.
She has extensive experience when it comes to coaching at the Olympic Games, as she was an assistant coach in charge of the sprint and hurdle teams in Rio in 2016 and Tokyo in 2020, but made the jump to head coach for these games.
“I can say that it’s really super exciting to be able to be at the helm of the ultimate competition for track and field,” Sheffield said. “I’m certainly prepared.”
The move from assistant coach to head coach has not put any added pressure on Sheffield, but she said that it is an added responsibility now to be in charge of all events as opposed to just sprints and hurdles.
As a runner, Sheffield was a finalist for the USA in the 400-meter loop hurdles at the 1988 games in Seoul, so she has felt the pressure of having the USA letters on her uniform before.
“The pressures of representing your country in such a momentous manner on the world stage, that’s a huge deal,” she said.
One of the athletes who will be representing her country this year under Sheffield is Sha’Carri Richardson. The track superstar most recently took home gold in the 100 meters and the 4×100 relay at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest.
Sheffield said that Richardson carries the load of the country on her back, but many talented athletes alongside her will also make the USA proud.
“She is an amazing athlete that will represent our country very well. She is an athlete that is very resilient [and] is strong and confident, so she actually makes my job even easier,” she said.
Sheffield revealed the incredible amount of logistics that go into operating an Olympic team, like traveling, the acclimation period that coincides with traveling and a nutrition regimen that fuels athletes daily to prep for the competition.
Her goal is not to fail the people in charge of things like this and is double and tripling with support.
When it comes to coaching at The Beach, Sheffield says she receives athletes that come from all walks of life and learning to coach those athletes has been a perk and prepared her for coaching the Olympic athletes.
“It’s [coaching] a multitasking career and being able to juggle, manage, mitigate some of the things that happened here on the campus will be very helpful for me as we go onto Paris, France,” said the Long Beach State sprints, hurdles and relays head coach.
One of those athletes is senior sprinter Kaitlyn Williams, who holds the second-best 60-meter time in program history with a 7.40.
“As a captain, I feel like she put me in a leadership role that taught me things and how to go through life,” Williams said.
When Williams found out that Sheffield was named the head coach for the Olympics, she was shocked and proud that her coach would be operating on this huge platform and said that she deserved it.
Williams gets to work closely with her every day at practice and said one of her best qualities is making everything fun while still preparing athletes mentally and physically for a race.
“It’s a very inspirational thing to be working close with her,” Williams said.
Looking ahead to the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, Sheffield is “looking forward to watching the 2028 games from the stands.”
Sheffield and the USA women’s track team will be fighting for track domination at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris starting on July 26.