Ready for Rio
After missing her chance as an Olympic athlete, alumna Robyne Johnson will coach the U.S. Women’s Track & Field team at the 2016 games in Brazil
Robyne Johnson’s success as an athlete started as a Hayward youngster, who ran track for the Berkeley East Bay Track Club, and then followed in the footsteps of her father and aunt, both track and field athletes at then-Cal State Hayward. “I’ve been around Cal State my entire life,” Johnson says. “My father (Sylvester Johnson) worked there after he went to school, and then I grew up around my aunt (Lessie Johnson) and all her friends, including Olympians Marilyn (King, BS ’73, Physical Education) and Maren (Seidler, ’72). And my coach from Berkeley High (Coach Willie White) went on to Cal State and had a lot of success there. I pretty much knew everyone who was there during that (top-Division II) era.”