Randy Huntington

Randy Huntington brings over four decades of experience coaching professional and amateur athletes and is currently National Coach for Chinese Athletics. Arriving in China in November 2013, Huntington started to implement the strategies necessary to develop Chinese athletes and coaches with his long term goal to leave a legacy of coaches to help China achieve greatness in the future. His athlete-centered approach was difficult at first to implement, but common understanding and cooperation has now brought a better focus within Athletics of this philosophy of coaching and the results are starting to be seen in a variety of different events.

Starting in 2013, Huntington focused on the Long Jump and Triple Jump while cooperating when he could with other events, such as Wei Yongli the former Chinese record holder in 60m and Dong Bin in the triple jump. Since 2013, Chinese long jump athletes have moved to top 3 all time in Chinese history and he has coached 5 of the top 10 Chinese long jump indoor and outdoor. He has coached Chinese record holders in indoor 60m for both men and women and the Chinese and Asian record holders in Men’s 100m and 60m.

His success in the long jump was immediate, when in 2014 Li Jinzhe broke the Chinese national record with a jump of 8.47m. In 2014, Wang Jinan won the World Junior Championships in Eugene and in 2015 the Chinese long jumpers made history by putting 3 jumpers in the finals of the IAAF World Outdoor Championships with Wang winning the bronze medal.

In 2016, Huang Changzhou won a Bronze medal at the World Indoor Championships in Portland, which was another first. In Rio 2016, two Chinese long jumpers made it to finals finishing 5th and 6th. Dong Bin, who Huntington helped develop in 2014 and continued cooperating with his Chinese coach Hu Shusen, won the Gold Medal in the triple jump and went on that year to celebrate a bronze medal in the triple jump in Rio 2016.

In 2016, Shi Yuhao had started his journey to being one of China’s greatest long jumpers by jumping by jumping 8.30m in Ordos and then in 2017 in Beijing he jumped 8.31m. In 2017, in the London IAAF World Outdoor Championships, again two Chinese Long Jumpers made it to final finishing 6th and 7th.

2018 was a great year for Chinese sprints and jumps. Wei Yongli and Xie Zhenye moved to Holland to be coached by Huntington’s student, Coach Rana Reider, and they had great seasons with both getting PB’s in the 100m. In 2018, Huntington started coaching Su Bingtian, the great Chinese sprinter who was coming off an injury in the 2017 National games. Huntington’s group continued to grow and succeed. Additional event athletes were added in women’s triple jump, men’s triple jump, and sprints. Shi Yuhao won the Asian Indoor Championships, setting 2018 off to a good start. In the Shanghai Diamond league meeting, he jumped 8.43 to move to second on China’s all-time list. In 2018 Su Bingtian made history for China by setting new Asian 60m record at 6.42 seconds and winning the first medal for a Chinese sprinter in a Major International Competition with a silver in the 60m in Birmingham at the IAAF Indoor World Championships. This moved Su to World number 5 all time in the 60m. In the summer of 2018 Su broke the Chinese and Asian records twice running 9.91s in Madrid and Paris. At the 2018 Asian Games, Su and Wang won Gold medals in the 100m and the long Jump both setting meet records. Xu Xiaoling in her first Asian Games won the bronze in the women’s long jump.

Huntington is rated as a USATF Master Coach in the jumps (1 of 9). He has been the coach for many world-class athletes over the years, including 37 Olympians and World Championship Team members. Mike Powell and Willie Banks set world records in the long jump and triple jump, respectively, while under his tutelage. Seven of his athletes have been in the U.S. all-time top ten in their respective events.

Huntington coached Powell to the Olympic Games in 1988, 1992, and 1996, where Powell won a pair of silver medals in the long jump. On August 30, 1991 in Tokyo, Powell broke Bob Beamon's 23-year-old long jump record that was expected to never be broken, leaping 29-4 1/2 (8.95m)—a record that still stands. Willie Banks, who Huntington coached to the 1988 Olympics, broke the world triple jump record with a mark of 58-11 1/2 (17.97m), June 16, 1985 in Indianapolis, and under Huntington's coaching twice jumped over 18 meters, which was the longest all conditions mark in American history until Christian Taylor’s mark of 18.21m in 2015 in Beijing.

Huntington also coached Olympians Joe Greene (long jump bronze medal in 1992), Sheila Hudson (former American indoor and outdoor record-holder in the triple jump), Al Joyner, Darren Plab, Tony Nai, and Sharon Couch. At least one of his athletes has competed in every summer Olympic Games since 1984. Powell, Greene, Hudson, Couch and Nai were all World Championship team members, along with Kathy Rounds, Kenta Bell, Soonok Jung, Shakeema Walker.

Huntington has worked with professional athletes in other sports, notably football. He worked as a conditioning and/or speed consultant for several teams, including Indianapolis, St. Louis, Miami, Denver, Philadelphia and Cincinnati, and worked with numerous individual players including Trace Armstrong, Terry Kirby, Henry Ellard and Ed McCaffrey. He has also worked with college football programs at Florida, Oklahoma and Notre Dame, including training for the NFL combine, working with athletes such as Kyle Turley and Grant Wistrom.

Huntington trained athletes in other sports, including such notable performers as hockey's Wayne Gretzky, baseball's Gary Carter and Rex Hudler and tennis' Michael Chang.

From April of 2002 to November of 2003, Huntington was USA Track & Field's first ever Sport Science Technical Coordinator—Master Coach for Horizontal Jumps for the ARCO Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, California, and Head Coach at ARCO. He also served recently as Director of Sports Performance for Bellingham Athletic Club and for Gold Medal Management. He served as a research coordinator and training specialist for Keiser Corporation for 6 years, responsible for emphasis in strength training for the aging and use of Keiser in the training of elite athletes, and still assists Keiser to this day.

Huntington is currently the owner of Kaizen Sports Performance (KSP), a sports performance and consulting business that he established in 1987. KSP was created to meet the specific training needs of the elite post-collegiate club and professional athlete. KSP supports athletes in the areas of track and field, hockey, football, baseball, auto racing and tennis. During his 20 years as owner of Kaizen Sports Performance, he has functioned as a consultant for product PR and marketing strategies and/or facility development for the following companies: Omegawave, Woodway Treadmills, Keiser, Balance Designs, Ultra Slide, Scifit Inc, Softride, The BELT, Hydroworx, Int., Bioflex Magnets, Hydro-tone, Speedquest, Kytec, IMG, IPI, Athlete’s Performance, Shuttle MVP, Bellingham Athletic Club, Liberty Sports, Monad, Intracell, Train your Frame, and The Hetrick Center.