While in high school, Bruce Jenner demonstrated his versatility early, excelling in football, basketball and track, and winning New York State championships in the pole vault and high jump. He was awarded a football scholarship to small Graceland College in Iowa, but after injuring his knee on the gridiron, he directed his athletic prowess to the decathlon. With limited experience in the 10-event discipline, he qualified as the third man on the U.S. team for the 1972 Olympics and finished tenth at the Munich Games. Over the next four years he improved dramatically, winning the National AAU title in 1974, setting a world record in the USA-USSR-Poland meet in 1975, and winning the Pan-American Games title that same year. In 1976, he improved on his world record in winning the Olympic Trials decathlon, then capped his career with another world record performance at the Montreal Olympics. He parlayed his gold-medal triumph into a career in television, films and motivational speaking.
1972 Olympics: Decathlon (10th) 1976 Olympics: Decathlon - 8634 pts. (1st) 1975 Pan-Am Games: Decathlon (1st)
Actor Motivational speaker TV personality Author