INDIANAPOLIS, Ind., Aug. 24, 2010 – U.S. Olympic Training Center men’s resident program head coach Vitaly Marinitch of Colorado Springs, Colo., was named head coach for the U.S. Men’s Team that will compete in the 2010 World Championships, Oct. 17-24, in Rotterdam, Netherlands. Tom Meadows of Houston’s Cypress Academy was named the assistant coach. Both coaches were selected by the Men’s Program Committee.
“It is exciting for me to be named as the head coach,” said Marinitch, who has been the head coach for the USOTC Gymnastics Resident Program since 2001. “I did not expect it, and I am very humbled by the selection. It is going to be a great and exciting experience for the team in Rotterdam, and I just want to do the best I can so that the guys can do their best at these World Championships.”
Marinitch coaches Joey Hagerty, 2008 Olympic Team bronze medalist; Tim McNeill, 2009 World Championships all-around seventh place finisher, and Wes Haagensen, 2009 World Team member. He also coached Olympians Jason Gatson and Brett McClure, who won team silver medals at the 2004 Olympic Games, and John Macready, who competed at the 1996 Olympic Games.
A member of the gold-medal winning USSR Men’s Team at the 1989 World Championships, Marinitch moved to the United States in 1995, when he began coaching at the USOTC. He has been a permanent U.S. resident since 1997 and became a U.S. citizen in 2007.
Meadows coaches reigning U.S. all-around champion Jonathan Horton, the 2008 Olympic silver medalist on horizontal bar. He began coaching at Cypress Academy in 1995 and became the Boys’ Competitive Director in 2001. A member of the 1991 University of Oklahoma national championship team, Meadows won two Big 8 titles on still rings and earned all-American status on floor exercise. He was a member of the 2009 World Team coaching staff as a personal coach.