Richard Brown

Richard L. Brown, PhD, is a veteran coach and exercise physiologist. He has mentored championship runners at all ages, from high school to masters, and at all levels, from novice runners to Olympic athletes and world champions.

Brown has served as a personal coach to an impressive list of world-class athletes, including Shelly Steely, Suzy Favor Hamilton, Vicki Huber, and Mary Decker Slaney. He is particularly known for guiding Slaney to her double gold medals at the 1983 Helsinki World Championships. He is one of few people to have coached athletes in both the Summer and Winter Olympic Games as well as the Paralympics. He has coached athletes in six recent Olympic Games and Olympic Trials.

Brown began his career in 1963 as a three-sport coach at Bullis Preparatory School in Maryland. He continued at the United States Naval Academy, at Mt. Blue High School in Maine, and then with the Athletics West track team as a director and exercise physiologist. In 1983, Brown was head coach of the U.S. World Championship cross country team, and he has been coaching independently ever since. He has been recognized by USA Track and Field as a master coach.

Brown earned his doctorate in exercise and movement sciences from the University of Oregon in 1992. In addition to serving as lead author of two previous editions of Fitness Running, he has been published in multiple peer-reviewed journals on health and fitness. He is in demand as a speaker and clinician on issues related to running and fitness.

In 2001, Brown founded the Eugene Health and Performance Foundation to promote fitness and running performance internationally. He continues to be associated with that foundation while living in Eugene, Oregon.