Chris Huffins

Chris Huffins was a decathlete who won bronze medals at the 2000 Olympics and the 1999 World Championships. He was on the podium at the US Nationals for six straight years, 1995-2000, winning the title in 1998-99; finishing second in 1995, 1997, and 2000; and placing third in 1996. Huffins won the 1999 Pan American Games decathlon. He also competed at the World Championships in 1995, placing eighth, and the World Indoors heptathlon in 1997 and 2001.

Huffins started college at Purdue, but finished at U Cal Berkeley in 1993, winning the NCAA decathlon as a senior. He had previously competed in the long jump at the NCAAs, finishing 12th in 1991, and also won the triple jump at the 1991 Pac-10 meet. Huffins was known primarily as a sprinter / long jumper, and once held the decathlon world best for 100 metres with a time of 10.22, set at the 1996 US Olympic Trials, a mark which stood until broken by Ashton Eaton at the 2012 US Olympic Trials.

Huffins later went into coaching track & field. He started as an assistant at Wake Forest and then Georgia Tech, but then became head coach at U Cal Berkeley. He left Cal in 2007, and then coached at Boise State, Eastern Michigan University, Oklahoma University, Clemson, and finally back where he started college, at Purdue.

Personal Best: Dec – 8,695 (1998).