After Sayon Cooper retired from his track and field career as a two-time Olympian, he found the starting line for his next calling in public health through Walden University.
As an athlete, Sayon Cooper’s mind and body always needed to be cared for and healthy to maintain the level of competition he consistently faced. At his peak, Cooper was a two-time Olympian sprinter for his native Liberia in 1996 and 2000.
Today, Cooper splits time as a family man, head coach of the Liberian track and field team competing in Paris, and a public health professional in the decade following his graduation from Walden University’s Master of Public Health program in 2014.
Public health strategies aim to promote overall health, prevent diseases, and ensure a high quality of life by educating communities on physical and mental health needs. Some 20 years after he stepped away from the track, Cooper finds himself striving to return to the global stage on a new platform.
From Home to the Track
Cooper was born in Liberia but relocated twice to the United States throughout his childhood. In 1989, when he was a teenager, the First Liberian Civil War began and forced many families to flee for safety.
His family settled in Maryland, where he was a standout soccer player in high school and once envisioned playing in the World Cup.
His speed on the soccer field translated immediately to the track, where Cooper finished his junior and senior years having won all but one race. He earned a full track scholarship to Central State University where he was coached by Joshua Culbreath, former U.S. Olympian and 1956 bronze medalist.
While competing for Central State from 1992-1995, he was recruited to run for Liberia by Kouty Mawenh, a fellow collegiate competitor already on the Liberian national team.
“For Liberia to be represented on the biggest global stage during their darkest time of the war, it gave people hope,” Cooper recalled. “Coming down that aisle during the opening ceremony, walking with our flag, it told the world we are here, and we are representing not a war-torn country, but a people of resilience. I never forget the goosebumps, and it started a bond that me and those athletes still carry on.”
From the Track to the Global Stage
Cooper’s first Olympics was in 1996 in Atlanta. He competed in the 100-meter, 200-meter, and 4x100-meter relay. He ran again in 2000 in Sydney, reaching the quarterfinals of the 100-meter.
His collegiate career continued immediately after running in Atlanta. In his first season after transferring from Central State to Abilene Christian University in 1996, Cooper won six NCAA Division II championships. Between and after his appearances as an Olympian, he represented Liberia in the International Amateur Athletic Federation World Championships three times from 1997-2001.
He retired from competition in 2005 and remained away from the national team for about five years before the Liberian Olympic Committee heard Cooper had picked up coaching a team in Atlanta. They called looking for a head coach with competitive experience and national pride.
He has been in the role since 2011.
From the Global Stage to Coaching
As head coach, Cooper has helped the Liberians return to the Olympics in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, 2021 in Tokyo, and has eight runners this year in Paris. He brought in Mawenh, his former teammate, to help build up the administrative side of the team’s operation.
Improved medical care has been one of the top priorities.
“Access to care has changed the performance level in track and field.”
“Back when I was competing, the top athletes had everything from their own chiropractor to a private masseuse—so I didn’t have one,” he says with a laugh. “But most of them did, and I wanted the best care for my team. We have a Liberian team doctor now who is there after every session, and it makes a huge difference physically and mentally to know that support is there.”
From Coaching to Educating
Along with his duties as the Liberian head coach, Cooper owns a youth club—Cooper Track Stars—that has produced national champions and all-Americans on the track. Off the track, Cooper has helped all of his senior runners earn scholarships to college.
Education, he believes, is one of the foundations to success. "I was fortunate to have a coach in high school who was committed to pursuing education, and he was one of the first to emphasize there's a life after track," he says.
After his competitive days were behind him, Cooper got his start in healthcare working at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta. He was always interested in health as a holistic approach to mental and physical care, so he knew he wanted to work and study something that brought those two together.
That brought him to public health, educating others, and Walden University, where Cooper gained the skills to protect communities from 21st-century health challenges.
He graduated with his master's in public health in 2014 and worked for Morehouse School of Medicine’s Satcher Health Leadership Institute for three years before moving to View Point Health, where comprehensive care and behavioral health services are provided to individuals needing mental health, intellectual and developmental disability (IDD), or substance use services.
Cooper serves communities throughout Georgia as director of the IDD program.
Bringing Education Home
With his wife, Tangi, and their five children, Georgia has been a second home since Cooper first arrived in Atlanta in 1996.
His first home will always be back in Liberia. When he isn’t coaching the nation’s top athletes, he envisions bringing back a better foundation for healthcare for Liberian youths.
“I am forever a representative of Liberia. One of the things they lack is reliable care for the general public, and being part of this discipline in public health is something I strive to bring to Liberia, then all West Africa.”
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