Michael Norman - Track & Field Coach

Michael Norman

Title:
Volunteer Assistant Coach

Reigning USA 400m champion and 2020 Olympic gold medalist Michael Norman has joined the USC staff as a volunteer assistant coach for the 2021-22 season.

Norman joins the staff following winning a gold medal in the 4x400m relay for USA at the Tokyo Olympics in September of 2021, along with fellow Trojan and volunteer coach Rai Benjamin. Norman also placed fifth in the open 400m with a time of 44.31. Earlier in the summer Norman won the 2021 USA 400m title with a time of 44.07. Norman took second in the event at the 2019 USA Championships with a time of 43.79.

Norman’s final season at USC (2018) was a spectacular one winning the 400m dash and 4x400m relay titles at both the NCAA Outdoor and NCAA Indoor Championships. Norman won the outdoor 400m title with a collegiate-record time of 43.61 in a stocked field which had all eight participants run sub-45.00 to qualify. His time also broke the NCAA finals record of 44.00 set in 1992 by his coach and current USC Director of Track & Field Quincy Watts. His time was also the fastest by an American runner since Jeremy Wariner ran 43.45 in 2017. Norman also won the NCAA Indoor 400m title with a world-record time of 44.52. Norman also won and set collegiate records for USC in the 4x400m relay at both the outdoor (2:59.00) and indoor (3:00.77) championships. He helped lead the Trojans to a fourth-place finish at the 2018 NCAA Outdoor Championship and to second at the 2018 NCAA Indoor Championships.

Norman was the 2018 Bowerman winner as the top collegiate track and field athlete, the 2018 USTFCCCA Men’s Track Athlete of the Year, 2018 USTFCCCA Men’s Indoor Scholar Athlete of the Year and the 2018 T&F News collegiate indoor Track Athlete of the Year. In 2017 he placed fourth in the 400m at the NCAA Championships with a time of 44.88. He also finished the season with a USC freshman-record time of 44.60 which he ran in the USATF Championship semifinals, before finishing seventh in the finals with a time of 44.80.

Norman turned professional shortly after the 2018 NCAA Championships and graduated from USC in 2019 with a Communication degree.

Norman won the 2018 Paris Diamond League 200m title, was the 2019 Diamond League overall 400m champion, winning in Brussels, Eugene, Stockholm in the 400m and in Rome in the 200m. He also won the 2021 Doha 400m title and the 2021 Boston World Indoor Tour Gold 400m championship. In 2020, Norman ran his 100m PR of 10.86 to become one of three sprinters to have every run a sub-10 100m, sub-20 200m and sub-44 400m along with Wayde van Niekerk and Fred Kerley.

Norman graduated in 2016 from Vista Murrieta in Murrieta, Calif. He broke the NFHS record in the 400m with a time of 45.19 at the 2015 CIF California State Meet. Norman was named the 2015 and 2016 California Gatorade Men’s Track and Field Athlete of the Year. He became the first male sprinter to earn the honor before his senior season and was one of just 28 athletes all-time in all sports to earn the honor as a non-senior. He won the 200m with a meet-record time of 20.12 at the 2016 World U20 Championships.

Norman’s parents are Michael and Nobue Norman. His mother Nobue was born in Japan.