Shawn Olmstead begins his third season as the assistant track & field coach for sprints and hurdles. Joining Flagler in 2022, Olmstead has had the luxury of molding the sprints program during its beginning seasons in the PBC.
Under Olmstead's coaching, the men's side earned their first PBC all-conference in a sprints event. The program now sits at six all-conference athletes in sprinting and throws.
Olmstead has spent the last two seasons (2020-21) as a volunteer assistant coach at his alma mater, Georgia College. Although he may have had the title of volunteer assistant, Olmstead performed the everyday duties as a head coach. Last year, he coached the men’s cross country team to a third-place finish, and the women to a fifth-place finish, at the Peach Belt Conference Championships. Under Olmstead’s guidance, two men’s runners, and one on the women’s side, earned all-conference honors in 2021. Georgia College did not compete in 2020 due to the COVID pandemic.
He competed on the cross country and track teams at Georgia College all four years. In 2017, Olmstead earned all-conference accolades after finishing in 12th place at the conference meet. Olmstead was selected as the PBC Runner of the Week and was selected as the program’s most valuable runner in the same year. He earned the PBC’s Elite 15 Award in consecutive seasons (2018 and 2019) and was a three-time academic all-conference honoree. Olmstead also earned spots on the United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association’s (USTFCCA) All-Academic Teams in 2016 and 2018. He was a three-time PBC Presidential Honor Roll Gold Scholar.
The Buford, Georgia native graduated magna cum laude from Georgia College with a bachelor’s in exercise science in 2020 and earned his master’s in health and human performance in 2022 from the same school.Â
