Even off the court, Kim Mulkey knows how to command attention. The LSU women’s basketball coach has built a coaching career that has spanned over 40 years, cementing herself as one of the greatest minds the sport has ever seen. That legacy makes it almost impossible to picture her anywhere other than a basketball court, let alone on a track and field starting line.
Yet that’s exactly where she showed up. Mulkey recently served as the honorary starter for an LSU track and field event held on April 25. And she didn’t just show up to wave from the sidelines. A video shared on Instagram showed her fully kitted out like other track officials around her, taking her role seriously as she carried out the starting duties; starting gun in hand, stance, and all.
The event in question was LSU’s “Fastest Student on Campus” race, held at the Alumni Gold track and field meet. Open to non-athlete students, it was a fun, campus-wide competition. The video showed Kim Mulkey front and center, firing the starting gun as students sprinted down a 50-yard dash to settle the bragging rights of who exactly is the fastest on campus.
Not many would have pictured Kim Mulkey in that role. After all, she is almost entirely defined by her legendary basketball career. But as it turns out, she’s no stranger to wearing different sporting hats.
Before narrowing her focus exclusively to basketball in high school, Mulkey was a remarkably versatile young athlete. She played organized baseball on boys’ teams for four years starting at age 12. She also competed in volleyball, softball, and gymnastics during her childhood. On top of all that, she spent seven years training in tap and ballet. So clearly, the starting line wasn’t entirely foreign territory for her.
Of course, that athletic versatility hasn’t extended into her coaching career. Basketball has been her sole domain there. But even within that lane, Kim Mulkey has carved out a place as a central figure in LSU’s broader sporting culture.
In the five seasons she’s been on campus, her impact has been felt well beyond her own program. Her immediate success, headlined by a national championship in just her second season in 2023, set a standard that raised expectations across every sport at LSU.
Right now, the LSU women’s basketball program is deep in its offseason. They’re coming off a 29-6 season that ended in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament. Preparations for the 2026/27 campaign are already underway, particularly as the program navigates some significant roster changes following high-profile departures to the WNBA and the transfer portal.
It’s a busy, consequential offseason by any measure. But in the middle of all that, squeezing in a little time as an honorary starter at a track meet? That probably didn’t hurt anyone. Or did it?
Of course, seeing Kim Mulkey not just on a track but officiating one was always going to spark reactions. And it did. Many fans couldn’t help but point to the fact that perhaps she’s better off staying in her lane, literally and figuratively.
The commentary was particularly on how quickly she fired that starting gun, with almost no hesitation after the set command. “Nah stick to bball coach😂,” one fan summed it up simply.
Others zeroed in on exactly that, Mulkey’s trigger-happy approach to the start. “She sprinting through the set time dang can you let them get set lol,” one fan wrote. Another also echoed the sentiment, noting “Oh noo they had a teeny bit of time to get set.”
Someone else took it a step further, joking that if any of the runners still managed to false start off that lightning-quick gun, they must have had some serious patience issues of their own.
Then there were the fans who leaned fully into sarcasm. “She strikes me as the last person you’d want to have a gun. Like Oscar Pistorius,” one fan quipped, making the obvious reference without spelling it out.
Another, perhaps thinking about what event would actually suit Mulkey’s style, offered a different take: “Please be the mile start. Lord knows the sprinters need 3 jumps and 2 mins of pretending to be calm before ‘set.'”
With the 2026/27 season not officially tipping off until November, Mulkey clearly still has some time on her hands to moonlight in other sports. On the roster-building front though, she hasn’t been idle.
She already secured two high-impact veteran guards in Jada Williams and Laila Reynolds ahead of next season. If the track and field community will have her back in the meantime, it sounds like she’ll fit right in.
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