July 23, 2014
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Toby Stevenson, an Olympic Silver Medalist who also has credentials as an NCAA Champion coach and competitor will join the University of Kentucky track and field staff for the 2014-15 season.
Stevenson will work with the Wildcats’ vertical jumpers and multi-events competitors.
“I am thrilled to be coaching at the University of Kentucky,” Stevenson said. “It’s exciting to join Coach Floréal and the rest of his staff on this journey of raising Kentucky track and field more and more into the limelight. UK is an amazing university academically and has an unsurpassed athletic reputation. I look forward to bringing the same skill, education, passion and determination it took to win my Olympic medal into my coaching. I also look forward to the challenge of helping the University of Kentucky track and field team win at the highest level.”
Stevenson, who previously worked under Floréal at Stanford from 2010 until 2012 – when the head coach took over at Kentucky – has coached an NCAA Champion and multiple All-Americans over the course of his career.
He most recently worked in athletics while living in Sweden.
“Toby “Crash” Stevenson has a unique understanding of the marriage between high-level athletics and academics,” Floréal said. “He has achieved success on multiple levels, including at the highest stage as Toby owns an Olympic silver medal, multiple NCAA Championships and a degree from Stanford. Having coached and mentored him for more than 10 years I know he will strengthen our team and staff. He’s a proven coach as I have already watched him coach and mentor NCAA Pole Vault Champions of his own.”
During his time as a coach at Stanford, Stevenson most notably coached Katerina Stefanidi to the 2012 NCAA Championship in the pole vault and a spot on the Greek team at the Olympic Games after she achieved the “A Standard” soon after the collegiate season.
Stefanidi earned three Pac-12 titles, and four All-America honors under Stevenson’s direction between 2010-12.
As a professional pole vaulter, Stevenson won the 2004 Olympic Silver Medal and is one of only 15 people ever to clear the six-meter threshold (19-feet, 8.25 inches). At the time (2004), only 11 other men had ever gotten over the bar at 6m.
As an athlete at Stanford, Stevenson captured the 1998 NCAA Pole Vault Championship. Overall, he was a six-time All-American, earning honors both indoors and outdoors in the pole vault from 1998-2000.
During his senior season in 2000, Stevenson captured the Pac-10 title in the pole vault. His eight points helped lead the Cardinal to the 2000 NCAA title, Stanford’s first outdoor track & field title in 66 years.
Stevenson also remains the Stanford record holder in the pole vault with a mark of 18-9 ¼, which he established in 2000.
Stevenson coached for two seasons at Stanford – alongside Floréal, who was also an assistant at the time – following his collegiate career from 2001 and 2002. He was an assistant coach for the pole vault and multi-events for the Cardinal in 2001 and 2002. During that time, he coached Kathleen Donoghue to back-to-back All-America honors in the pole vault.
Stevenson is a 2000 graduate of Stanford with a BA degree in economics. He attended Permian High School in Texas, where he set 24 school records and was unbeaten during his senior season in 1996.
