Connie Price-Smith

Price-Smith is a four-time Olympian and is one of the most decorated women's track and field athletes in SIU history,[4] despite the fact she did not participate in the sport during her college career until she was a senior. She was also on the school's women's basketball team before she became a member of the Saluki Track & Field team. She is currently ranked fifth all-time in the outdoor shot put (49' 11.5") and third all-time in the discus (165 1"). Furthermore, she won MVC indoor and outdoor championship titles, garnered all-conference honors in the shot and was named her team's most valuable player in 1985.[4] Price-Smith became the first U.S. female athlete in 32 years to win both the shot put and discus at an Olympic Trials (1992). In the shot put alone, she finished first on four consecutive occasions at Olympic Trial Championship competitions between 1988 and 2000.[4] In addition, the silver medal she won in the World Indoor shot in 1995 is the highest medal ever won by an American woman in the event and the first OG/WC medal won since 1960.[5]

Even though she did not medal at the Olympics, Price-Smith had the highest finish of a U.S. female shot putter since 1960 [4] and narrowly missed the bronze medal by just four inches at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. She is also the first U.S. female to have a top ten world-ranking in the shot put for five consecutive years (1995–1999). Price-Smith was also the first U.S. female to win a medal in that event at a World Championship competition (1995).[4] Price-Smith has been on 34 international squads, and has been a member of four teams at the Pan-American Games, where she won a bronze medal in the discus in 1987; a silver in the shot put in 1991, and a gold in the shot put in both 1995 and 1999; she was a silver medalist at the World Indoor Championship, in Barcelona, Spain; a silver medalist at the Goodwill Games in 1998; and a bronze medalist at the World Cup in 1998.[4] She was also a member of two World University Games teams, Price-Smith placed fifth in the discus in 1987. In addition, she was on three Goodwill Games teams, participated in seven IAAF Grand Prix Finals and is a 25-time national champion in the shot put and discus. Price-Smith ends her athletic career with personal best in the shot put of 64' 3" (19.58m) and 212' 8" (64.82m) in the discus.[4]

She was the head coach of the Saluki Track and Field team at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale, and the program greatly improved when she coached at the university.[4] She has also served as the Assistant Coach for the USA National Team at the; IAAF World Junior Championships in Kingston, Jamaica 2004; IAAF World Indoor Championships in Budapest, Hungary 2005; IAAF World Cup Team in Athens, Greece 2006. In 2007, Price-Smith was named head coach for the Pan American Games Team in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and was named to the 2008 Olympic track & field team coaching staff in Beijing, China as an assistant coach for the women's throws. A native of St. Charles, Missouri, Price-Smith was inducted into the SIU Sports Hall-of-Fame in 1990, received the school's Distinguished Alumni Award in 2001, and was honored as the Administrative/Professional Woman of Distinction in 2007.[4] Price-Smith was also named to the 2012 Olympic track & field team coach staff in London, United Kingdom. On July 21, 2015, she started her tenure as the head coach at the University of Mississippi. She was named women's head coach for the United States team at the 2016 Summer Olympics, again in Rio de Janeiro.

In 2016, she was elected into the National Track and Field Hall of Fame.[6]

Year	Competition	Venue	Position	Notes
Representing the  United States
1987	Pan American Games	Indianapolis, United States	3rd	Discus
	World Championships	Rome, Italy	NM^	Discus
1988	Olympic Games	Seoul, South Korea	16th (q)	Discus
			18th (q)	Shot put
1989	World Indoor Championships	Budapest, Hungary	10th	Shot put
	IAAF World Cup	Barcelona, Spain	7th	Discus
1991	World Indoor Championships	Seville, Spain	7th	Shot put
	World Championships	Tokyo, Japan	11th	Shot put
	Pan American Games	Havana, Cuba	2nd	Shot put
1992	Olympic Games	Barcelona, Spain	20th (q)	Discus
	IAAF World Cup	Havana, Cuba	4th	Shot put
			7th	Discus
1993	World Indoor Championships	Toronto, Canada	9th	Shot put
1994	World Cup	London, United Kingdom	8th	Discus
1995	World Indoor Championships	Barcelona, Spain	2nd	Shot put
	World Championships	Gothenburg, Sweden	9th	Shot put
	Pan American Games	Mar del Plata, Argentina	1st	Shot put
1996	Olympic Games	Atlanta, United States	5th	Shot put
1997	World Indoor Championships	Paris, France	6th	Shot put
	World Championships	Athens, Greece	5th	Shot put
1998	IAAF World Cup	Johannesburg, South Africa	3rd	Shot put
	Goodwill Games	Uniondale, United States	2nd	Shot put
1999	World Indoor Championships	Maebashi, Japan	4th	Shot put
	World Championships	Seville, Spain	11th	Shot put
	Pan American Games	Winnipeg, Canada	1st	Shot put
2000	Olympic Games	Sydney, Australia	16th (q)	Shot put
2001	World Indoor Championships	Lisbon, Portugal	10th	Shot put

• ^ Reached the 1987 World Championship Final at discus but failed to register a distance.
• Note: Results with a Q, indicate overall position in qualifying round.

• Connie Price-Smith at World Athletics
• Connie Price-Smith at USA Track & Field
• Connie Price-Smith at the International Olympic Committee