COLUMBIA, S.C. – The South Carolina track and field program announced Wednesday that Hadrien Choukroun will join the full-time staff as an assistant coach for sprints and hurdles. Choukroun has been with the program since 2013, and spent last season as a graduate assistant.

“I love to see people pay the price, know the system, understand what being a part of a team is all about, and being rewarded for paying the price,” said head coach Curtis Frye, who is entering his 20th season at the helm. “He was a volunteer coach, then from a volunteer to a grad assistant, and now he’s a full-time employee with all rights and privileges of a member of the staff. From writing up programs, filming, and moving hurdles and equipment at practices and meets, he paid the price.”

Prior to coming to work for the Gamecocks, Hadrien worked down the road at Benedict College, where he was responsible for the hurdle, jump, throw and multi-event athletes. Before Benedict, he was an Assistant Coach during three seasons at Lille Track & Field Club in his native country of France. With the club, Choukroun was in charge of development and succeeded in qualifying several of his athletes for the Youth National Championships.

He joined the Gamecocks in the Spring of 2013, focusing on sprints and hurdles as well as assisting the cross country program. As the team’s graduate assistant, his day-to-day duties included video breakdown, marketing and advertising efforts, home meet management and recruiting.

In his time with the program, Carolina has crowned 11 All-Americans (five men, six women) in the sprint and hurdle events, including three men in the 60-meter hurdles this past indoor season.

“He understands what I want and what I need as a head coach. Right now, we have a great staff and we needed someone who would buy in to what we’re doing,” Frye said. “We knew he’d buy in because he’s been here with us for so long. He’s seeing what we’ve done, now he’s helping to execute what we’re going to do moving forward.”

In addition to his work at Carolina, he has worked these past three seasons as a coach for Speed Elite, a professional athlete group, designing workouts and managing practices.

Choukroun is a member of USATF association and is certified by the USATF Level 1 and by the FFA (French Federation of Track and Field) National Supervisor.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in Physical Education at the Université Lille 2 in France, he also received a master’s degree in Conditioning, Training and Mental Preparation from Lille. In 2011, Choukroun earned a second bachelor’s degree, this time in psychology at Benedict College, and recently earned a MBA from Claflin University.

Currently, he is pursuing a doctorate in Philosophy (Foundations of Education) from South Carolina.