Track and Field
Lawrence Johnson
- Title:
- Assistant Coach/Multi Events & Pole Vault
- Email:
- lj2654@columbia.edu
Lawrence “LoJo” Johnson joined Columbia Track & Field in the fall of 2024 and oversees the Lions’ pole vault and multi-event athletes, with coaching work extending across the vertical jumps and speed-power development.
Jessica Thompson has emerged as one of the leading women’s pole vaulters in Columbia history. After clearing 3.81m during the 2025 indoor season and 3.92m outdoors, Thompson elevated the program standard again in 2026, clearing a school-record 4.10m indoors at the Dr. Sander Scorcher and a program-record 4.05m outdoors at the Penn Relays. Her 4.10m performance ranked No. 37 nationally at the time.
The men’s vertical jumps have also made immediate record-book gains. Liam Wright cleared 4.94m during his freshman indoor season, at the time the third-best pole vault in Columbia history, after entering college with a high-school best around 4.72m. He followed with a 4.75m outdoor season best.
Collin Moore cleared 2.06m / 6-9 during his first collegiate outdoor season, establishing a Columbia first-year record and moving to No. 2 on the program’s all-time high jump list.
In 2026, first-year pole vaulter Gavin Holcombe cleared 4.75m to win the Metropolitan Outdoor Championship, while Johnson’s combined-event group produced two personal-best championship scores at the Ivy League Outdoor Heptagonal Championships: Adam Jaros scored 5,966 points to finish sixth in the decathlon, and first-year Zayna Flynn totaled 3,385 points in the heptathlon. Jaros also won the decathlon 1500m in 4:35.91 and finished third in the 400m in 50.95.
Johnson’s Columbia work combines event-specific technical development with speed and power training, competition strategy, athlete-readiness monitoring and individualized performance analysis. His approach emphasizes not simply an athlete’s peak performance, but the development of a repeatable competitive model capable of holding under championship conditions.
COACHING CAREER
From 2008-11, he served as an assistant coach at the University of South Carolina, where his pole vault group produced one NCAA champion, two SEC champions, five NCAA All-Americans and more than 20 NCAA qualifiers, along with additions to the Gamecocks’ men’s and women’s school record lists.
Among Johnson’s South Carolina athletes was Elliott Haynie, who developed from approximately 5.20m / 17-0¾ to 5.45m / 17-10½, establishing a South Carolina school record and advancing to the NCAA Championships.
Johnson has also coached extensively through private training, clinics and Team Vault Assault, developing high-school national finalists and qualifiers, more than 10 state champions and numerous school-record holders.
During the 2023-24 Olympic cycle, Johnson relocated to Puerto Rico to work with decathlete Ayden Owens-Delerme in preparation for the Paris Olympic Games. During that cycle, Owens-Delerme produced a world-leading 8,732-point decathlon, establishing Puerto Rican and Caribbean records and qualifying for the 2024 Olympics.
A two-time high-school national champion from Great Bridge High School in Chesapeake, Virginia, Johnson arrived at the University of Tennessee with an unusual multi-event range. As an 18-year-old freshman, he won the 1993 SEC decathlon championship with 7,576 points.
He went on to become one of the most accomplished pole vaulters in collegiate and American history.
Johnson won four NCAA championships and seven SEC titles at Tennessee. On May 25, 1996, he cleared 5.98m / 19-7½, breaking the American record and establishing a collegiate record that stood for nearly a quarter century. He was named the 1996 SEC Outdoor Athlete of the Year.
Johnson later won seven U.S. national pole vault championships and represented the United States at two Olympic Games. He placed eighth at Atlanta 1996 before clearing 5.90m to win the silver medal at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, becoming the first Black pole vaulter to earn an Olympic medal.
One year later, Johnson captured the 2001 World Indoor Championship in Lisbon with a 5.95m clearance. He also earned silver at the 1997 World Indoor Championships and held the American indoor record at 5.96m.
Johnson earned his degree in Sport Management from the University of Tennessee.
His coaching continues to draw from all three stages of that career: the athlete who competed at the highest level, the coach responsible for developing someone else, and the performance builder searching for better ways to connect speed, power, rhythm, technical execution and individual readiness.
BY THE NUMBERS
- Olympic Silver Medalist — Sydney 2000
- 2001 World Indoor Champion
- 2-Time Olympian
- 7-Time U.S. National Champion
- 4-Time NCAA Champion
- 7-Time SEC Champion
- 5.98m / 19-7½ Collegiate Record
- 1996 SEC Outdoor Athlete of the Year
- 2 SEC Champions and 5 All-Americans coached at South Carolina
- 10+ NCAA qualifiers coached at South Carolina
AT COLUMBIA
Johnson’s first two seasons at Columbia have already produced significant movement on the program record board.Jessica Thompson has emerged as one of the leading women’s pole vaulters in Columbia history. After clearing 3.81m during the 2025 indoor season and 3.92m outdoors, Thompson elevated the program standard again in 2026, clearing a school-record 4.10m indoors at the Dr. Sander Scorcher and a program-record 4.05m outdoors at the Penn Relays. Her 4.10m performance ranked No. 37 nationally at the time.
The men’s vertical jumps have also made immediate record-book gains. Liam Wright cleared 4.94m during his freshman indoor season, at the time the third-best pole vault in Columbia history, after entering college with a high-school best around 4.72m. He followed with a 4.75m outdoor season best.
Collin Moore cleared 2.06m / 6-9 during his first collegiate outdoor season, establishing a Columbia first-year record and moving to No. 2 on the program’s all-time high jump list.
In 2026, first-year pole vaulter Gavin Holcombe cleared 4.75m to win the Metropolitan Outdoor Championship, while Johnson’s combined-event group produced two personal-best championship scores at the Ivy League Outdoor Heptagonal Championships: Adam Jaros scored 5,966 points to finish sixth in the decathlon, and first-year Zayna Flynn totaled 3,385 points in the heptathlon. Jaros also won the decathlon 1500m in 4:35.91 and finished third in the 400m in 50.95.
Johnson’s Columbia work combines event-specific technical development with speed and power training, competition strategy, athlete-readiness monitoring and individualized performance analysis. His approach emphasizes not simply an athlete’s peak performance, but the development of a repeatable competitive model capable of holding under championship conditions.
COACHING CAREER
Before arriving at Columbia, Johnson coached athletes from the developmental level through the Olympic Games.
From 2008-11, he served as an assistant coach at the University of South Carolina, where his pole vault group produced one NCAA champion, two SEC champions, five NCAA All-Americans and more than 20 NCAA qualifiers, along with additions to the Gamecocks’ men’s and women’s school record lists.Among Johnson’s South Carolina athletes was Elliott Haynie, who developed from approximately 5.20m / 17-0¾ to 5.45m / 17-10½, establishing a South Carolina school record and advancing to the NCAA Championships.
Johnson has also coached extensively through private training, clinics and Team Vault Assault, developing high-school national finalists and qualifiers, more than 10 state champions and numerous school-record holders.
During the 2023-24 Olympic cycle, Johnson relocated to Puerto Rico to work with decathlete Ayden Owens-Delerme in preparation for the Paris Olympic Games. During that cycle, Owens-Delerme produced a world-leading 8,732-point decathlon, establishing Puerto Rican and Caribbean records and qualifying for the 2024 Olympics.
ELITE PERFORMANCE EXPERIENCE
Long before Johnson coached elite athletes, he was one.
A two-time high-school national champion from Great Bridge High School in Chesapeake, Virginia, Johnson arrived at the University of Tennessee with an unusual multi-event range. As an 18-year-old freshman, he won the 1993 SEC decathlon championship with 7,576 points.He went on to become one of the most accomplished pole vaulters in collegiate and American history.
Johnson won four NCAA championships and seven SEC titles at Tennessee. On May 25, 1996, he cleared 5.98m / 19-7½, breaking the American record and establishing a collegiate record that stood for nearly a quarter century. He was named the 1996 SEC Outdoor Athlete of the Year.
Johnson later won seven U.S. national pole vault championships and represented the United States at two Olympic Games. He placed eighth at Atlanta 1996 before clearing 5.90m to win the silver medal at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, becoming the first Black pole vaulter to earn an Olympic medal.
One year later, Johnson captured the 2001 World Indoor Championship in Lisbon with a 5.95m clearance. He also earned silver at the 1997 World Indoor Championships and held the American indoor record at 5.96m.
Johnson earned his degree in Sport Management from the University of Tennessee.
His coaching continues to draw from all three stages of that career: the athlete who competed at the highest level, the coach responsible for developing someone else, and the performance builder searching for better ways to connect speed, power, rhythm, technical execution and individual readiness.
Friday, February 28
Tuesday, February 18
Sunday, February 25
Sunday, May 07
