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Robert Chapman, who earned the 2005 Mideast Region Distance Coach of the Year, is in his eighth season as the distance coach for the IU Track and Field team. He also serves as the head men's cross country coach at Indiana University.
During his tenure at Indiana, Chapman has had much individual success in track, coaching four Big Ten Champions, an NCAA Champion (Sean Jefferson, indoor mile, 2004), a USA Track and Field Junior National Champion (Jeff Zeha, 3000m Steeplechase, 2000), and a USATF Senior National Champion (Tom Chorny, 3000m Steeplechase, 2001). In seven short years, student-athletes in his charge have earned a total of 15 NCAA All-American certificates. In addition, Chapman was awarded the 2005 Mideast Region Assistant Coach (distance) of the Year for his success in coaching the IU men's distance athletes.
During the 2004 cross country season, Chapman led the Hoosiers to their fourth top-25 NCAA Championship in five years when they tied for 18th overall. Chapman also mentored two-time All-American Sean Jefferson, who became just the fourth IU cross country athlete in school history to earn the accolade at least twice in his career when he placed 34th overall at the NCAA Championship. In addition, Chapman has guided IU to national rankings, as it has been ranked in the USCCCA Top 25 Poll every year for the past five years.
Chapman helped the men's cross country team to a 12th-place finish at the 2003 NCAA Championship, and coached he a pair of All-Americans in Sean Jefferson and Chris Powers. The 2003 team's finish was the best for an Indiana squad since the 1987 team took 10th. Sean Jefferson finished 19th overall, the best finish for a Hoosier since Bob Kennedy in 1992.
Chapman has long been a familiar face in Bloomington. His development began in the fall of 1991 as a graduate assistant for IU's cross country and track teams, where he was mentored by Sam Bell. Chapman earned his master of science in exercise physiology during this time, graduating in the spring of 1992.
He then left IU to be the head coach for men's and women's cross country at Sierra College in Rocklin, Calif. Having just turned 23 years old, Chapman held the honor of being the youngest collegiate head coach in America at the time.
At Sierra, Chapman's impact was felt immediately. Both the men's and women's cross country squads qualified for the 1992 California Cross Country Championship, the first time that feat had occurred at Sierra in nine years.
Chapman returned to Indiana in the fall of 1993 as a volunteer assistant coach. Just as important, Chapman spent his next three years working toward a Ph.D in human performance and exercise physiology. He earned his Ph.D in 1996, and took a position as a research fellow at the Institute for Exercise and Environmental Medicine in Dallas, Texas. While conducting research centered on limitations to performance in elite athletes, Chapman served as project coordinator for USATF and the U.S. Olympic Committee's funded research on the "live high-train low" altitude training model.
In 1997 Chapman recruited 27 of America's best-emerging distance athletes to participate in the most extensive research to date on the effects of altitude training on distance runners. The group was probably the most elite ever to gather for research on the limits of distance running performance since the 1970s. The results of the 1997 study helped to greatly impact the way top Americans and the world elite are training. Chapman's research on exercise physiology and limitations to performance has been published in top medical journals, such as the Journal of Applied Physiology, Respiration Physiology and Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise.
He has authored a chapter on altitude for the medical textbook Exercise and Sports Science, as well as a position paper on altitude training for USATF's Sports Science Committee. Considered as one of America's foremost authorities on altitude training and applied exercise science for the elite distance runner, Chapman has made formal presentations at a wide range of scientific meetings and coaching seminars. Chapman started his coaching career in 1990 with the girls cross country and track & field program at his high school alma mater, Boulder City High School (Nevada). In his two seasons, Boulder City was the class AA state champions in track in both 1990 and 1991.
A native of Boulder City, Nev., Chapman was class valedictorian with a 4.00 GPA at Boulder City and was the Nevada state runner-up in the 1,600m run. After running cross country and track for two seasons at the University of Nevada-Reno, he completed his bachelor's of science in secondary education-chemistry in 1991 from the University of Nevada-Las Vegas. Chapman, his wife Susan and their seven-year old son, Ben, reside in Bloomington.
