[3] A native of Boston, Massachusetts, Coe competed for the University of Oxford and became the shot put champion of England in 1901 and 1902.

He returned to the United States in 1902 and won the silver medal in the shot put at the 1904 Summer Olympics held in St. Louis, Missouri.

As a member of the Michigan Wolverines men's track and field team, he won the 1906 national intercollegiate championship in the shot put and placed second in the discus.

[7][8] He was also the first American athlete to be awarded a "blue" after he led Oxford to victory over Cambridge University with wins in both the shot put and hammer throw.

[10] Two months after the meet in Sommerville, Coe competed for the United States in the 1904 Summer Olympics held in St Louis, Missouri.

The 1904 Olympics began a period of intense and widely covered competition between Coe and Ralph Rose for supremacy in the shot put event.

"[12] In February 1905, a large crowd was drawn to watch Coe at the indoor games of the Lawrence Light Guard Athletic Association held in the armory at Medford, Massachusetts.

As Coe prepared for his final throw, Rose said, "Come on now, old boy, you are in grand form this evening, and with just a little more power on your next put, you ought to place my mark well in the shade.

The padded shot was carefully poised in his right hand, a firm grip was secured and then, with a lightning-like hop and spring, he drove the ball down the half.

The Oakland Tribune reported: Christie asserts that, out of his own knowledge, the young shot-putter has already been connected with five preparatory schools and four universities, including Oxford, Princeton, Harvard and Yale.

Christie says that young Coe is an 'athletic vagrant,' attending one university as long as he can and while his credit holds out, and then jumping to the next college where the 'inducements' suit him.

Coe's rival, Ralph Rose, had attended the University of Michigan but had been recently been deemed ineligible by the school's athletic authority.

The Detroit Free Press wrote: "In a review of the athletic performances of the year, first place on the list of Yankee record-smashers must be conceded to Wesley W. Coe, at present a student at the University of Michigan, who journeyed all the way from his home in Somerville, Mass., to Portland, Ore., in order to get a chance to compete against Ralph Rose, who at that time held the world's record.

[18][19] While the conference considered the eligibility challenge, Coe was permitted to compete for Michigan in the national championship meet in April 1906.

[23] In February 1907, while competing for the B.A.A., Coe set a new world record in the 8-pound shot put with a distance of 63 feet, 1-7/8 inches, at armory in Medford, Massachusetts, during the annual indoor meet of the Lawrence Light Guard Athletic Association.

Coe's throw hit the crossbeam on the ceiling of the armory 20 feet above the ground and still exceeded the existing world record by nearly five inches.

[32] At the time of the 1920 United States Census, Coe was living on Beacon Street in Boston with his wife, Evelyn, and their daughter, Jane.

[33] In a 1920 U.S. Passport application, he indicated he was employed as a chemist in the dye business and wished to travel to England for purposes of "protection of my patents".

Letters submitted in support of the application indicated that Coe was in business with his father and had successes in "inventing dyes and by-products from waste materials" and was required to travel to England to protect pending patent rights.