U.S. Olympic sprint champion Maurice Greene was named relay coordinator for Nigeria’s track and field team Thursday, according to African reports.
Greene’s contract reportedly begins later this month and includes the IAAF World Relay Championships in the Bahamas in May, the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland, in July and August and the African Championships in Morocco in August.
Greene, the 2000 Olympic 100m champion who has done TV work for Eurosport in retirement, was the anchor of the U.S. 4x100m relay teams at the 2000 and 2004 Olympics.
The 2000 Olympic relay team won gold and was criticized for its posing and preening celebration. The 2004 team won silver with Greene making up some but not all of a deficit to Great Britain, which won by .01 of a second.
The Nigerian Athletics Federation recently banned 1968 U.S. Olympic 400m champion Lee Evans from coaching for giving a youth athlete performance-enhancing drugs. Evans was working as a consultant to the Lagos State Government.