Alysia Montaño (née Johnson) enters her first year on the Cal volunteer coaching staff in the 2021-22 season.
One of Cal track & field’s most decorated athletes in program history, Montaño was ranked first worldwide in four different years (2007, 2010, 2011, 2012) for the 800m run by Track & Field News.
Montaño had a prolific international competitive career after graduating from Cal. In 2010, she took the 800m bronze medal at the IAAF (World Athletics) Indoor Championships and the 800m gold medal at that year’s USA Track & Field (USATF) Outdoor Championships. The next year, she once again won the USATF competition and later placed fourth in that event at the IAAF World Outdoor Championships. In preparation for the 2012 Olympic Games, Montaño took first place in the 800m at the prestigious Prefontaine Classic, later finishing fifth at the Olympics and afterwards winning the USATF Outdoor Championship 800m race. She went on to win the 600m race at the 2013 Milrose Games, setting an American Indoor Record; later, at that year’s Penn Relays, she set an American Outdoor Record with the winning 4x800m relay squad. In the second half of 2013, she won the USATF Outdoor 800m Championships and placed third in the event at the IAAF World Championships. Montaño famously competed in the 2014 USATF Outdoor Championships while eight months pregnant, then took a brief maternity leave before returning to claim the 2015 USATF 800m crown, as well as a silver medal in the 800m and a gold in the 4x400m relay at that year’s Pan American Games.
At Cal, she achieved school records in the indoor and outdoor 800m run, the indoor and outdoor 4x400m relay and the sprint medley relay, as well as setting Big Meet records in the 400m and 600m races. She currently holds 13 spots on Cal’s Top 10 All-Time lists. Montaño accumulated six All-American nods from 2005-08, as well as winning the 800m gold in the 2006 North American, Central American and Caribbean Athletic Association (NACAC) U23 Championships and the 2007 USATF Outdoor Championships.
Born in New York, Montaño moved to California at the age of three and later ran for Canyon High School in Santa Clarita, winning the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) State 800m Championship in 2004, placing fourth at the prestigious Golden West Invitational, and reaching a high ranking of No. 10 in the nation.
