Former Olympic champion Jamie Staff has been given an expanded role at USA Cycling which will see him oversee the sprint track program along with the BMX team.
The 44-year-old, who won gold for Great Britain in the men’s team sprint at Beijing 2008, is now officially the BMX and sprint track performance director.
He had previously been USA Cycling’s director of BMX, a discipline which Staff won a World Championship gold in 1996.
At the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, the United States won five cycling medals, including golds for Connor Fields in the men’s BMX and Kristin Armstrong topping the women’s road time trial.
Alise Post also won a BMX medal for the US as she claimed silver in the women’s contest.
Staff had previously been the team’s sprint coach at London 2012, where the US won two silver medals inside the velodrome with Sarah Hammer coming second in the women’s omnium and the women’s team coming behind Britain in the pursuit.
“I am thrilled to take on this expanded role and be involved in sprint track again,” Staff said.
“USA Cycling had a great Olympics in Rio, but we want to do even better in Tokyo and beyond.
“Helping to develop a world-class sprint track program is going to be an exciting challenge.”
Derek Bouchard-Hall, the organization’s chief executive, said the governing body is in the process of making several structural changes and he was pleased to have Staff involved.
“We are very fortunate to have one of the most talented and successful cycling coaches in the world on our team, who has remarkable experience in both BMX and sprint track,” he said.
“I’m thrilled we have been able to expand Jamie’s role to utilize his expertise more widely for the good of American track cycling.”
In March, USA Cycling dismissed women’s team pursuit coach Andy Sparks following a complaint about his conduct which was said to have breached the governing body’s SafeSport program and employment policies.
By George Thorpe
Republished with permission from insidethegames.biz.