PULLMAN, Wash. -- Two-time Canadian Olympian Angela Whyte has joined the Washington State University track and field coaching staff, Wayne Phipps, Director of Cross Country/Track & Field, announced Friday. Whyte will assist with coaching the hurdles, sprints and jumps at WSU.
Whyte, 34, was born in Edmonton, Alberta. She was a member of Team Canada at the 2004 and 2008 Olympic Games. At the 2004 Athens Games she finished sixth in the 100m hurdles final. Whyte has consistently ranked among the world’s top 100m hurdlers. She is one of just two women in the world to qualify for the IAAF World Championships in the 100m hurdles every year since 2001. Her 100m hurdles time of 12.66 seconds was ranked ninth-best in the 2013 world rankings. She won a silver and a bronze medal at the Pan-Am Games.
She is currently training for the 2015 World Championships this August in Beijing, and for the 2016 Rio Olympic Games. Whyte has not decided to compete in the hurdles or in the heptathlon.
She was a four-time NCAA All-American and five-time Big West champion while competing for Idaho. She led the Vandal women’s teams to the 2001 and 2003 Big West team titles, earning Female Athlete of the Year honors in 2001 and Women’s Track Athlete of the Year in 2003 after scoring 46 points in the championship meet. She tallied 13 school records during her Idaho career and scored 81.5 points in conference meets in her two years at Idaho, surpassing any all other athletes including those who competed four years.
Whyte began her collegiate track career at the University of New Mexico and in two seasons tallied five school records and earned All-Mountain West Conference honors in the 100m hurdles in 2000.
Whyte is a 2003 Idaho graduate with a degree in crime and justice studies. She was inducted in the Vandal Athletics Hall of Fame in 2010. Whyte served as an assistant coach at the University of Idaho for six years, working with the sprints, hurdles and multi-events.
“Angela is a very personable and very humble person for a world class athletes. She’s done nearly all events and she can coach just about all events,” Phipps said. “Some of the training she does for the hurdles involves multi-events and benefit her hurdles races. And that matches her personality. She wants to be world class in a number of events.
“Angela was a quality high school athlete but she wasn’t winning national titles and wasn’t the most recruited athlete. (Her success shows) if you are willing to put in the work and make the sacrifices then amazing things can be accomplished. And there is no reason your career has to be done when you’re in your 20s. In track there are quite a few who have continued to compete well in their 30s. Or 40s, look at Bernard Lagat!”
