Emma Coburn Leaves Mark Wetmore And Heather Burroughs

Emma Coburn Leaves Mark Wetmore And Heather Burroughs

Olympic steeplechase bronze medalist Emma Coburn is leaving longtime coaches Mark Wetmore and Heather Burroughs.

Dec 2, 2016 by Dennis Young
Emma Coburn Leaves Mark Wetmore And Heather Burroughs
After a banner year that included a steeplechase American record and an Olympic bronze medal, Emma Coburn is leaving longtime coaches Mark Wetmore and Heather Burroughs. In a tweet, Coburn said that she would remain in Boulder, Colorado, and be coached by her fiancé and former Colorado athlete Joe Bosshard.


On one level, it's surprising that Coburn is leaving the fold. She's more or less continually improved since her freshman year at Colorado in 2008, and 2016 was the single best year an American steeplechaser had ever had. Her 9:07.63 at the Olympics makes her the No. 8 steepler in world history; she now has nine of the top ten American times ever run in the event, with five of those marks coming in 2016; and her bronze was the first Olympic medal ever won by an American woman in the event.  

On another, it makes total sense. Most of Wetmore's most prominent professional athletes are Colorado alums who have left and come back. Kara and Adam Goucher and Jenny Simpson have all left Wetmore for other coaches at some point. In an interview with Wetmore last year, he said that Simpson needed to leave him in order to get better, that "she may be as good as she is today because she had that time to explore that autonomy."

This will be the first time that Coburn has been coached by someone other than Wetmore and Burroughs since high school. Per her tweet, she'll start her indoor season at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix in Boston.