Mark Talbott
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Mark Talbott is a squash coach and former professional squash player from the United States. He is widely considered to be one of the all-time great players of hardball squash (a North American variant of squash played with a faster-moving ball and on slightly smaller courts than the international "softball" squash game).
Talbott was ranked as the World No. 1 hardball squash player for 13 years from 1983-1995. He won 70% of the tournaments he entered during that period. He was named the Player of the Year on the North American hardball squash circuit eight times, and an Olympic Athlete of the Year on three occasions. He captained the first US team to compete in the Pan American Games in 1995, earned the Sharif Khan Award for Sportsmanship in 1991, and won the United States Squash Racquets Association (USSRA) President's Cup in 1989. He was inducted into the USSRA Hall of Fame in 2000.
Since retiring as a player, Talbott has worked as a squash coach. The Talbott Squash Academy, a well-respected summer camp for juniors and adults, was established in 1991 and is currently held at St. George's School in Newport, Rhode Island. In 1998, he was appointed the head coach of the Yale University women's team, joining his brother David Talbott who had been the men's coach at Yale for fifteen years. After being ranked sixth upon Talbott's arrival, the Yale women unseated the reigning champions, Trinity College, in 2004. Later that year, Talbott resigned from his position at Yale and moved to California to become the Director of Squash at Stanford University where he is working to help expand squash on the West Coast. He currently resides in Palo Alto, California with his wife and two children.
