UA hires one of ‘Fierce Five’
FAYETTEVILLE — The University of Arkansas decided to go young and splashy with its hiring of a gymnastics coach. Athletic Director Hunter Yurachek flew to Los Angeles on Wednesday with Razorbacks gymnasts Jessica Yamzon and Sarah Shaffer to bring 23-year-old Jordyn Wieber back to campus to head the program.
The former Olympic gold medalist will be formally
introduced at a news conference this afternoon at the Bev Lewis Center on campus. Yurachek posted a picture of Wieber having lunch with Shaffer, Yamzon and other UA personnel at an In-N-Out Burger in Los Angeles before the group flew back to Drake Field in Fayetteville.
Wieber, a member of USA Gymnastics’ 2012 gold medal-winning “Fierce Five” team, has been serving as a volunteer assistant coach for veteran UCLA Coach Valerie Kondos Field the past three years.
Yurachek was in Fort Worth conducting research and interviewing candidates during the NCAA championships last weekend, where the Bruins finished in third place behind national champion Oklahoma and LSU. Wieber coached the floor exercise for the Bruins, who were third in that event at the finals with a 49.3, led by a 9.95 from Katelyn Ohashi.
Wieber, who is from DeWitt, Mich., was a two-time U.S. all-around champion (2011, 2012) and the 2011 world all-around champion.
Wieber is 42 years younger than the man she will replace, Mark Cook. She will become only the second sole head coach the program has ever known, replacing Cook, who announced his retirement after the Razorbacks’ third-place finish at the NCAA Baton Rouge Regional earlier this month.
Mark and Rene Cook were the Razorbacks’ original co-coaches who began the program in 2001 before starting competition in 2003.
Wieber has risen through the ranks at UCLA, serving as team manager for three years prior to spending the past three as the volunteer assistant coach. She earned a degree in psychology from UCLA in 2017.
Wieber is a decorated star in the industry, having won the ESPY’s Arthur Ashe Courage Award in 2018 as part of the group of survivors of the USA Gymnastics’ sex abuse scandal for which physician Larry Nassar of Lansing, Mich., received a 60-year federal prison sentence in 2017.