Kathleen Moore | Times Union, Albany, NY
Saratoga Springs, NY — Seven weeks after famed track coach Art Kranick died, he and his wife, Linda, have been permanently banned from coaching by USA Track and Field.
Both were banned for “physical conduct” and “emotional conduct,” athletics’ national governing body announced. The decision came Tuesday, more than a month after Kranick’s death in early November and eight months after both coaches resigned.
For nearly four decades, Art Kranick has spearheaded one of the top high school running dynasties in the country. The Kranicks have mentored numerous championship runners and winning teams that have led runners to Nike Cross Nationals titles in 2019 and 2022. Together, their cross country teams have won more than 20 state championships and nearly 30 state meet titles.
But Art Kranick’s coaching methods have come under scrutiny in recent years, amid complaints that began almost immediately after he was hired in 1985.
USA Track & Field began investigating the Kranicks at least two years ago and obtained testimony from women coached by Art Kranick in the Saratoga Springs School District. But the organization did not rule on Kranick’s case more than a year after it told the women it had stopped collecting the information.
Meanwhile, school district officials have vehemently defended the Kranicks while admitting they knew about decades of complaints against them. Parents came to school board meetings to defend the coaches as well, saying that their tactics were needed to create winning runners.
The Kranicks let the students run every day, all year long. This is against state rules for high school sports, but they circumvented those rules by creating a club that ran on days when the track team did not run. Doctors have reported serious injuries due to overuse, and students have been threatened with being kicked off the team if they take time off to treat injuries, including broken bones.
Perhaps the most shocking moment came in 1988 when Art Kranick tied student Kristen Gunning to his truck during track practice in an attempt to force her to run faster. School records showed the superintendent learned of the incident almost immediately and advised Kranick not to do it again.
“It is unfortunate that it has taken 40 years for any organization to acknowledge what thousands of students have experienced, but this decision represents the first step in preventing emotional and physical misconduct in school sports,” Gunning said Friday.
Gunning is now president of Rise Beyond Control Inc., a New York-based nonprofit that wants to end “coercive control and abuse in school sports.” One of the nonprofit’s first goals is to push through the state’s Dignity for All Students Act by getting lawmakers to pass an amendment that would allow students to file civil lawsuits for violations of the law.
Now that the Kranicks have been disciplined, questions remain about how the school district supervised them.
Martin Greenberg, an attorney hired by local families to file a complaint against the Kranicks, said the athletic director and superintendent should resign.
“Now is the time for the administrators to be punished,” Greenberg said from his home in Florida. “They should resign immediately and apologize to the parents for the harm they have caused.”
Schools Superintendent Michael Patton did not immediately return a call for comment. Patton, who became superintendent in 2018, defended the Kranicks and rehired them annually. After former students went public with complaints, Patton said he would not fire a coach for tying a student to a truck. He also said the students chose to “train hard” and were not forced.
Greenberg said Patton ignored complaints of physical abuse because he wanted to maintain the district’s reputation as a track champion.
“This has been swept under the rug because winning is everything,” Greenberg said. “However, the school district failed to protect the student-athletes and violated the trust parents placed in them.”
On multiple occasions, according to school records, the Kranicks were told to stop distributing vitamins without parental consent, forced students to run daily and overtrained. On some occasions, district officials said the Kranicks had to pre-approve practice plans.
But the district did not enforce its rules, according to the Harris Beach law firm hired by the school board in 2024 to look into the Kranicks.
“These matters appear to have been properly discussed with the Kranicks, but the district has left the management (or remediation) of these matters to the Kranicks’ discretion,” the law firm said in a release. “For several of these complaints or complaints, the evidence reviewed by the investigative team indicates that the district’s review did not go far enough and/or the way the district handled the complaints or allegations lacked follow-up or oversight of the guidelines.”
The school board readmitted them after being reported.
But a year ago, Art Kranick suffered a serious illness. In April, Art and Linda Kranick resigned from their coaching jobs. On November 8, Art Kranick died.
Linda Kranick could not be reached for comment Friday.
USA Track & Field should have made the decision earlier, Greenberg said. He doesn’t want it to end.
“When we look at cases of abuse, there are two aspects of abuse. One is the perpetrators and the other is the administrators who allowed the abuse to happen,” he said. “We need to discipline the administrators to learn that they can’t let this continue. This is the worst case of abuse I’ve had in high schools in this country … and the administrators let it happen and did nothing to stop it.”
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