Barely out of North Carolina's Hoke County High School, Kathy McMillan set an American record to win the women's long jump on June 12 at the 1976 AAU Championships, spanning 6.78m/22-3 to add more than seven inches to the existing national record. A week later she won the Olympic Trials with a mark that matched her record leap, albeit with an illegal aiding wind. In fact, all three of her legal jumps would have been good enough to win. The 18-year-old wunderkind had even more magic when she made her first Olympic appearance just over a month later at Montreal. Easing into the final after placing tenth in the qualifying round, McMillan opened with a foul and then steadily improved on her next four attempts, going 6.66m/21-10.25 in round five to grab the silver, less than three inches away from gold. A precocious talent, McMillan made her first international appearance for Team USA as a high schooler at the 1975 Pan American Games, where she earned bronze. She improved that to gold in 1979 and added a bronze at the IAAF World Cup. McMillan would have made her second Olympic trip in 1980 after placing second at the Trials but was thwarted by the U.S. boycott. In 1983, she picked up her second straight Pan Am Games gold to close out an illustrious international career. Domestically, McMillan won two AAU outdoor golds (1976 & 1979) and two AAU indoor golds (1977 & 1979).