SAINT-DENIS, France — Bobby Kersee was in a taxi to the airport the night his current protégé, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, broke the world record in the 400-meter hurdles at the U.S. Olympic trials.
“I haven’t seen one of Sydney’s world records live yet,” Kersee says.
Once his athletes step on the track, Kersee considers his work done, and he quietly slips away from the stadium.
All perfectly fitting for the “mad scientist” — a coach whose presence at any of the world’s major track meets, including the Paris Olympics, is enormous whether he’s watching the action or not.
Many of America’s biggest track stars — Florence Griffith Joyner, Gail Devers, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Al Joyner, Allyson Felix and, these days, Athing Mu and McLaughlin-Levrone — have one thing in common: coached by Kersee.
“Bobby is the best ever,” said Al Joyner, who won the triple jump at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. “Because Bobby brings out the best in you. At the same time, he’s not a hold-your-hand coach.”
After the Paris Games end, the 70-year-old Kersee will have coached athletes in 12 Olympics and 47 U.S. championships. Those athletes have taken home at least one gold medal from every Olympics since the 1984 Summer Games. McLaughlin-Levrone is a favorite to keep that streak going in the 400-meter hurdles final on Aug. 8.
The method to Kersee’s madness?
He’ll never give away the Xs and Os, but during a wide-ranging interview with The Associated Press, he, at different times, compared his job to that of a baker, a chemist, a woodworker and a psychologist.
“If I can’t explain to them in detail why I want it done this way, and what the end result is going to be, then you shouldn’t trust in me,” Kersee said. “Because those that know the ‘why’ can beat those that know the ‘how.’”
Kersee helped McLaughlin-Levrone smash world records
McLaughlin-Levrone had already been to an Olympics at age 16 and had her career was on a fast track. But after losing a pair of races in 2019 to Dalilah Muhammad, who broke world records both times, she became frustrated.
One obvious fix was to see if Kersee would coach her.
It’s a decision that changed history — both for McLaughlin-Levrone and for track. A record that stood at 52.34 seconds for nearly 16 years before Muhammad broke it now belongs to McLaughlin-Levrone at 50.65. Many think sub-50 will come soon — maybe in this year’s Olympic final.
“Growing as a person and as an athlete, he challenges me and pushes me in ways I didn’t think were possible,” McLaughlin-Levrone said.
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At the practice track he calls his “lab,” Kersee has turned McLaughlin-Levrone into arguably the most indomitable force in track.
Yet, after she had lowered the record in the 400 hurdles for the fourth time in 2022, she became nearly invisible in her best event for two years. She raced in regular sprints at 200 and 400 meters and also in the short hurdles — 100 meters, and 60 meters indoors.
All of that wasn’t meant to prepare McLaughlin-Levrone for another event at the Olympics. Instead, it made her even better at her best event.
“When she started running the short hurdles, everyone started freaking out,” hurdling great Edwin Moses said. “All she was doing was learning how to perfect jumping off the opposite leg. Bobby knew what he was doing.”
Loves the NFL, the Yankees and NASCAR, too
Taking a cue from her coach, McLaughlin said she treats every race like a heavyweight bout. She views the hurdles as Joe Frazier and herself as Muhammad Ali.
It’s one of the many sports metaphors Kersee embeds in his runners’ minds.
He’s a diehard New York Yankees fan. He also watches NASCAR races and loved watching Dale Earnhardt navigate turns.
Kersee doesn’t limit his coaching to track athletes. He has worked with hockey greats Brett Hull and Grant Fuhr, and with NFL hall of famers Ty Law, Jerome Bettis and Marshall Faulk.
If life would have turned out exactly the way he planned, Kersee would have become the first Black NFL coach in the league’s modern era (That distinction belongs to Art Shell).
Instead, at the behest of his sisters, he ended up becoming a track coach, and he looked for tips wherever he went.
“(My high school biology teacher) told me, ‘If you want to be a coach, learn the body from the inside out,’” Kersee said.
So he did. He taught with heart. He made them believe.
His training group — called Formula Kersee — had some recent fun on Instagram. Athletes were asked to offer one go-to line that Kersee always uses:
— “Give me what you got!” McLaughlin-Levrone deadpanned.
— “All right, now,” Mu said.
— “I’ve been doing this for 40 years. I know what I’m doing now,” sprinter Chloe Abbott said.
From Flo-Jo to Allyson Felix
After the ‘80s and ’90s highlighted by Flo-Jo (who still holds the world records in the 100 and 200), Joyner-Kersee (Who Kersee married in 1986, then coached to three Olympic gold medals over the next six years), and Devers (Olympic champion in the 100 in ‘92 and ’96) — came Allyson Felix.
Felix retired in 2022 as the most decorated track and field athlete in history, with 20 world championship medals and 11 more at the Olympics, including seven golds. Rarely, when discussing the secret to her success. would the words “Bobby always tells me …” not start the conversation.
“If he tells you to do something, you believe it,” Felix said. “As hard as he is on his athletes, he’s a very compassionate person. I remember countless times, I didn’t even tell him there was something going on in my life, and he just shows up for you. He came to my grandma’s funeral. He just cares about you.”
Kersee rarely stuck around to watch Felix win most of her medals, either. He was usually back at the hotel or somewhere outside the stadium.
Kersee started leaving his athletes at the track 1984
Kersee developed his habit of not watching races at the 1984 Olympics when his athletes — Jeanette Bolden and Alice Brown in the 100 and Flo-Jo and Valerie Brisco-Hooks in the 200 — were going head-to-head in the finals.
“I said, ‘I can’t sit here and cheer,’” he said. “So, I just go across the street and wait for the race to be over, then come back and hear what the results are.”
Eventually, he started leaving the track and not returning. He has no plans to be in the Stade de France when McLaughlin-Levrone runs.
The results of his coaching have always shown up on the stopwatch, then the scoreboard — then, ultimately, on the medals stand and in the history books.
Devers recalled riding a bus to the stadium in 1992 in Barcelona and seeing Kersee on the street arguing with police.
“We get to the track and we start warming up,” Devers said. “It’s been like an hour, two hours, and they’re like, ‘Aren’t you guys concerned?’ Our comment was, ‘Hopefully, if they take Bobby to jail, they’ve got a TV so he can watch us win.’”
Critics say Kersee keeps his athletes out of too many races
One longstanding criticism has been that Kersee doesn’t race his athletes enough. He said it boils down to making sure everyone is at their best at the biggest meets.
Mu, the defending Olympic 800-meter champion, was dealing with a torn hamstring leading into this year’s Olympic trials. Kersee kept her off the track all season. When she finally appeared, she was tripped in the finals and didn’t earn her spot. Some thought Mu would land on the U.S. relay 4×400 relay team, as she had three years ago in Tokyo. Kersee didn’t press that issue, either, calling it a matter of fairness to other athletes, and common sense for Mu.
“To be honest, I would have to change her training to get more speed out of her, and in order to do that, then I’m maybe endangering her in trying to get her faster too early, to run a relay,” Kersee said.
Kersee’s got a different recipe for each athlete
Ask the coach what the secret is to his success, and he’ll talk about cake.
“A cake is a cake but there’s a different flavor in each cake,” Kersee explained. “It’s finding the formula for the right flavor in order to give that athlete the right taste they desire.”
He’ll talk about putting on his lab coat and getting to work.
“If it’s to call it a ‘mad scientist,’ so be it,” he said.
He’ll talk about one of his favorite hobbies — restoring furniture. Unplugging from the track now and then allows him to sometimes discover things in an unpolished athlete — or an imperfect piece of wood — that others might not.
“When you see me on the track, you see me on the track,” he said. “But off the track, I like working with my hands. As a coach, I’ve learned you have to turn that switch off.”
What brings it all together? He will not divulge that secret.
“Now why would I tell you that part of the recipe when we’re still racing?” Kersee said. “The cake is still rising. I can’t give you that yet.”
