9. Mariami Kevkhishvili-Machavariani - USF Throws Coach - a podcast by Martin Maric

Mariami Kevkhishvili- Machavariani is a 2x Olympian, 5x NCAA Champion, University of Florida Hall-of-Famer, coach of multiple All-Americans, conference champions …. and the list goes on and on. Mariami will talk to us about University of South Florida, about what is she looking for when it comes to recruits, her coaching philosophy, how she got into throwing in the first place and many other things.

Coach Mariam’s coaching resume is outstanding. During the 2017-18 season as a member of the University of Connecticut coaching staff, coach Kevkhishvili-Machavariani coached sophomore Divine Oladipo to All-America status in the shotput. Oladipo finished 12 overall (16.55m (54-3¾)) at the 2018 Outdoor NCAA Championships and was tabbed a second team All-American. The sophomore also claimed Honorable Mention accolades in the discus after finishing 18th in the event. Oladipo concluded her stellar sophomore campaign by being named the 2018 Northeast Region Field Track Athlete of the Year on her way to rewriting the UConn record book in the shotput with a throw 17.37m (57-0).

Prior to her time with the Huskies, Kevkhishvili-Machavariani was an assistant coach at the University Mississippi, where she helped Ole Miss athletes produced some of the best marks in school history. Dempsey McGuigan set the school record in the hammer throw with a mark of 219-6 and was the 2015 SEC runner-up. Nathan Loe had the second-best in school history in the hammer throw (210-3), while Kevin Conway qualified for the NCAA Regionals in both the hammer throw (201-0) and weight throw (63-2). During the indoor season, Onyi Afoaku moved up to No. 2 in school history in both the shot put (57-9.75) and weight throw (63-2).

As an athlete, she competed in the shot put at the 2004 Athens Olympics and the 2008 Beijing Olympics for her native country of Georgia and she was a five-time national champion in the shot put while at the University of Florida.

Kevkhishvili-Machavariani graduated from Florida in 2011 with a bachelor’s degree in sociology. During her time in Gainesville, she became just the second athlete in NCAA history to claim five women’s shot put national championships (indoors and outdoors combined) and the second woman to claim both the NCAA indoor and outdoor women’s shot put titles in back-to-back seasons.

Check out coach Mariam at https://www.instagram.com/shotput777/

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