Chisam Named to USA National Track and Field Team Staff

Matt Chisam will serve as an assistant coach in the decathlon at the 2011 Thorpe Cup (Harvard Athletic Communications).

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Matt Chisam, an assistant coach for the Harvard track and field and cross country teams, has been named to the coaching staff for team USA at the 2011 Thorpe Cup in Chula Vista, Calif., Aug. 13-14. Chisam will serve as the assistant coach for the USATF National decathlon squad at the event. Currently in his fifth season with Harvard, Chisam coaches the Crimson decathlon athletes as well as high hurdlers, high jumpers and pole vaulters. This is his first selection to a national team coaching staff in his career.  

Named after Olympian Jim Thorpe, the Thorpe Cup is an annual team scored multi-event between the National Decathlon and Heptathlon teams from Germany and the United States which began in 1993.  The coaches are nominated and selected by coaches and athletes involved in the USATF decathlon program. Chisam was an alternate as an athlete for the 2009 Thorpe Cup team, based upon his performance at the 2009 USATF Decathlon Championships.

"It is a huge honor to be selected to help coach a team that represents our country at the Thorpe Cup, which is even more special for me,” said Chisam. “In the U.S., we are known for our remarkable decathletes and making the Thorpe Cup team was always a goal of mine that I never quite reached as an athlete.  I am excited to be a part of it and humbled to be chosen to represent a county filled with fine multi-event coaches.  It's going to be a lot of fun working with such high-caliber athletes and we will see what we can do about taking the cup back from the Germans."