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WCU Represented in the 2012 London Olympics

August 8 , 2012

Two West Chester alumni and a faculty member in the College of Health Sciences are coaching and providing psychological support for Olympic U.S. competitors in men's swimming and women's basketball and for the 31 athletes representing Trinidad and Tobago.


Geno Auriemma

tempWCU '82 alumnus Geno Auriemma has redefined the meaning of success in women's college basketball in his 27 years as head coach of the University of Connecticut. In addition to being named head coach of the U.S. National team competing in London, he led Team USA to the FIBA World Championship in the summer of 2010 to guarantee the U.S. a spot in the 2012 Olympic Games.

Under his guidance, the UConn program has been transformed from a program with only one winning season, to its current state, which includes seven national titles, 13 Final Fours, four perfect seasons (1995, 2002, 2009, 2010) and 37 BIG EAST titles. He is the first coach in women's basketball history to guide a team to five consecutive Final Four appearances on two separate occasions. Auriemma is a seven-time national coach-of-the-year and has been named the BIG EAST coach-of-the-year 10 times. In all Auriemma has garnered a combined total of 24 National Coach of the Year honors.


Margaret Ottley

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Speed and agility made her a star field hockey player and an all-around athlete, but Margaret Ottley's career in sport psychology has taken her to the Olympics for the third time in a row.

A native of Trinidad, she first accompanied the Trinidad and Tobago teams as part of the sports medicine team to the Olympic Games in Greece in 2004 and the USA track and field team in Beijing in 2008.  This time, she is working with the athletes of Trinidad and Tobago in five sports: shooting, swimming, track and field, boxing and sailing.

An associate professor Kinesiology in WCU’s College of Health Sciences, Ottley is a member of the board of the Black Women in Sport Foundation and the Pennsylvania State Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance.


Tim Murphy

Coaching the 2012 Open Water Olympic team is Tim Murphy, 1979 West Chester graduate, who began his career as a swimming and diving coach at his alma mater in 1980.

tim murphy west chester university alumni

The winner of many accolades in his 30+ years of coaching, including ten years as a recipient of the American Coaches Association Certificate of Excellence, Murphy is currently the Ulen-Brooks Endowed Coach for Harvard's men's swimming and diving team, which has won six Eastern Intercollegiate Swimming League championships and holds a 113-11 record over 14 seasons.