University of North Carolina Athletics
Track & Field
- Title:
- Volunteer Assistant (Javelin)
Jeff Gorski, a 1977 Carolina graduate and three-time All-ACC performer in javelin, is a highly-respected javelin instructor around the world having worked with elite athletes from high school national champions to Olympians.
During his time as a volunteer assistant, Gorski has helped multiple Tar Heels find success on the runway. In 2019, Gorski coached Madison Wiltrout to a third-place finish at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in her first-ever competition season at UNC. Wiltrout also captured the ACC Championship title in the women's javelin with a school-record performance, throwing 182-5 (55.60 meters) for the gold. The year prior, Gorski developed Jared Martin, a swimmer-turned-javelin-thrower, into an All-ACC competitor in 2018. Less than a full year after picking up a javelin, Martin scored at the 2017 ACC Outdoor Championships and went on to place second at the 2018 conference meet with a mark of 220-10Â (67.31Â meters).
Prior to rejoining Carolina track & field, from 2011-17, Gorski was the javelin development chair for The National Scholastic Athletic Foundation, where he coached and trained some of the most talented high school javelin athletes in the country.Â
From 1999-03, Gorski served as the men’s javelin development chair for USA Track & Field (later the USATF High Performance program), the highest-ranking individual event position at the national level.Â
That opportunity followed his success as an independently-contracted coach, during which time he notably worked with six-time U.S. javelin champion and 1992 and 1996 Olympian Tom Pukstys. Under Gorski’s tutelage, Pukstys set six American records in the javelin and was ranked in the top 10 in the world for three years.
Gorski’s first opportunity to coach the javelin came at Carolina, where he periodically worked from 1981-91 as an assistant coach with stand-out student-athletes, including All-Americas Lynda Lipson, Sherrie MacKinney and Sean Murray. Gorski was also the throws coach for Meaders, who during his time at UNC won back-to-back ACC titles in the discus (1991-92), earned a conference crown in the weight throw in 1992, made the 1992 Olympic Trials and set a Carolina discus record that stood for 23 years.
He has coached elite javelin throwers from his Chapel Hill home since 1992, when Lipson and Murray came to him requesting additional training. Adding a weight room, 70’ javelin runway and other facilities, Gorski began to equip his property to serve and train top javelin high school, collegiate and post-collegiate athletes from around the U.S. In 2000, he founded Klub Keihas and began to officially run clinics and training camps for athletes and coaches to learn the basics of throws technique and training. The goal of Klub Keihas is to develop top athletes while teaching the skills and abilities to become future leaders and role models.
Gorski is a native of Clark, N.J., and has lived in Chapel Hill since 1981.
