At 69, Bobby Kersee is track's 'mad scientist' and as influential as ever
LOS ANGELES — Four years ago, the man associated with speed more than any track and field coach in the world felt himself slowing down, and he did not know why.
Since he was born in Panama in 1954 to a Panamanian mother and U.S. Navy father, Bobby Kersee has always been restless, a self-described wanderer with energy that matched his athletes. But in 2019, feeling unusually sapped, he called his doctor in St. Louis. Blood tests produced results dangerously far beyond the norm. Pancreatitis kept him stuck in a hospital for four weeks.
Once discharged, Kersee gave up red meat and alcohol.
What he would not quit was track.
Forty years after coaching his first world champion Kersee, now 69, paced relentlessly for four hours on Thursday while watching his training group at West Los Angeles College.
"Everyone kind of says the same thing: You know, he's different in terms of he's basically a mad scientist," said Athing Mu, the 20-year-old reigning Olympic and world champion at 800 meters who switched to Kersee's coaching in September to expand her range. "He knows what he's doing."
Under cloudy skies at the track high above Culver City, nine athletes in his training group, dubbed Formula Kersee, ran tailored workouts and waited for his every word, from the barked "let's go!" to commands about mechanics he hollered to athletes mid-run. He lifted hurdles, held court with reporters and stopped only to film block starts with his iPhone.
At an age when he might have become anachronistic, Kersee and his methods still represent sprinting's gold standard, associates
