UO Associate Athletic Director Vin Lananna is going to Rio de Janeiro.

The celebrated track and field coach has been selected to lead the U.S. men’s team in the 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil, the U.S. Olympic Committee announced. Lanana also serves as president of TrackTown USA and helped establish the UO and Hayward Field as the center of American track and field.

“I am both humbled and honored to serve as head coach of the men’s Olympic track and field team,” Lananna said in an announcement by the Olympic Committee. “It will be a pleasure to work with the athletes who comprise the world’s No. 1 team.”

Lananna, a native of New York, has served on multiple coaching staffs for Team USA at the global level. He was head coach of the U.S. men’s track and field team at the 2011 IAAF World Championships in Daegu, South Korea; men’s distance coach at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece; and U.S. distance coach at the 1999 IAAF World Championships in Seville, Spain.

Lananna also welcomed the IAAF to this country by hosting the highly acclaimed 2014 IAAF World Junior Championships at Hayward Field last summer. As the local organizing committee, TrackTown USA will build on those international relationships over the next several years, beginning with the 2016 IAAF World Indoor Championships in Portland next March, and for the first time on U.S. soil, the 2021 IAAF World Championships.

For the full story, see “Lanana to coach U.S. Olympic team” on goducks.com and a separate story at TrackTown USA.