The double Commonwealth Games champion in the hammer in 1982 and the discus in 1998 has been a leading coach in the United States for 20 years.

 

His roles there have included being the head coach for the US team that competed at the 2006 World Junior Championships in Beijing and the US throws coach at the 2005 and 2007 World Championships in Helsinki and Osaka respectively.

 

The 47-year-old Weir, who represented Britain at the Olympics in 1984, 1996 and 2000, where he was the team's captain, will join UK Athletics before the end of the year from Stanford University, where he has been in charge of the men's track and field programme for several years.

 

In 2001 and 2002 Stanford's men won the regional Pac-10 crowns, their first titles since 1927 and Weir was named the National Collegiate Athletic Association's West Regional Track and Field Coach of the Year in 2001.

 

Weir, who will be based in his native Birmingham, where he is a member of Birchfield Harriers, has been given the task of leading a focussed development programme in heavy throws - the shot put, discus and hammer - aimed at ensuring Britain have finalists in those events in 2012.

 

Van Commenee said: "I am delighted to have someone of Bob's calibre on board and his coaching experience will enable us to fast-track our young heavy throwers on the path to 2012.

 

"He has worked with Olympians in other sports and coached [2000] Olympic [silver] medallist Adam Nelson.

 

"Additionally Bob will work to ensure to long-term development of heavy throws in the UK as well as coach development in this area."

 

Weir said: "This is an amazing opportunity and a challenge.

 

"We are prepared to raise the level of our performances to really compete.

 

"There were just two heavy throwers in Beijing for GB and neither made the final and that has to change for London.

 

"We have seen that it possible to be successful at this level.

 

"We saw in Beijing that an unheralded Stephanie Brown Trafton [an American of English parentage] could give the performance of her life to win the Olympic discus title, so we must believe that that anything is possible in London 2012 and work towards giving that opportunity to our athletes."

 

But Weir faces a tough task in raising standards in this country.

 

The only Briton ever to win a medal in the events he will oversee was at the 1924 Olympics in Paris when a bronze was claimed in the hammer by Malcolm Noakes, who had earlier won a Military Cross during the First World War.

 

In addition, the country's best-ranked shot putter for several years, Carl Myerscough, is banned from competing in the 2012 Olympics after testing positive for a cocktail of banned anabolic steroids in 1999.

 

Weir has also made his mark in other sports besides athletics.

 

He also played for NFL clubs Miami Dolphins, San Francisco 49ers and Indianapolis Colts and in the Canadian Football League for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, Ottawa Rough Riders, Hamilton Tiger Cats and Toronto Argonauts.

 

In his career, Weir has also worked as a conditioning coach with competitors from a number of other sports, including swimmers Dara Torres, Jenny Thompson and Karen Pickering and the US women's rugby team.

 

Weir, an investment broker with Lehman Brothers in the 1990s, has also appeared in world's strongest man competitions.