Focused On Personal Strengths
By the time he started high school Jenner’s family had moved to Newtown, Connecticut. At Newtown High Jenner was on the basketball, football, and track teams. He was also a three-time water skiing champion in the Eastern States competition, and was New York‘s all-state pole vault and high-jump champion. His all-around talent, however, was viewed as a liability by some. Jenner told Greg Garber of the Hartford Courant that he once overheard his football coach saying, “He’s the best punter, but he’s also the best center. How’s he going to snap it to himself?” The praise felt good, Jenner said, but the comment also turned him off from team sports. “Teams could only let you down. In individual sports, it was just me.”
Although Jenner’s grades were not very good, he was eager to go to college. The Vietnam War was raging and, as he told Garber, “I was getting kind of scared. In those days, you got drafted if you didn’t go to college.” At the last minute, he received a football scholarship to Graceland College in Iowa, and accepted it. However, he wasn’t able to play after an injury his freshman year put him on the sidelines while blocking a punt, he tore the medial collateral ligament in his knee, had surgery, and was put in a cast. “I thought sports were over for me,” he later told Garber.
Speaking Out For Transgender Rights
Following her sex reassignment surgery, Caitlyn Jenner quietly became involved in the political arena, lobbying for transgender rights. In particular, she spent time lobbying Washington, D.C. legislators to put a stop to the military’s ban on transgender service members while also putting protections in place for members of the transgender community who serve the country.
Caitlyn Jenner The Athlete: 5 Fast Facts You Need To Know
Caitlyn Jenner was quite the athlete. Growing up, Jenner played a number of sports, but she is best known for her success at track and field during the Olympic games. Recently, Jenners athletic career has been highlighted after ESPN announced that Caitlyn Jenner would be awarded the Authur Ashe Courage Award at the 2015 ESPYS.
ESPYs co-producer Maura Mandt recently spoke about the decision:
I think Caitlyns decision to publicly come out as a transgender woman and live as Caitlyn Jenner displayed enormous courage and self-acceptance. Bruce Jenner could have easily gone off into the sunset as this American hero and never have dealt with this publicly. Doing so took enormous courage. He was one of the greatest athletes of our time.
Here are some of the highlights of Caitlyn Jenners career:
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Tbt: Remember When Bruce Jenner Won The 1976 Olympic Decathlon
BruceJenner.jpg
Bruce Jenner won the 1976 decathlon in the Montreal Olympics.
The 2016 Rio Olympics will crown a decathlon champion on Thursday, when American Ashton Eaton attempts to defend his gold medal in the 10-event competition and be labeled “the world’s greatest athlete.”
And while Eaton may go down in history as one of the best decathlon athletes ever, chances are that most Americans think of Bruce Jenner when they think of the decathlon.
Jenner–who is now Caitlyn Jenner, after transitioning to female–discovered the decathlon while in college, and first made it onto the Olympic team for the 1972 Games in Munich. He came in 10th place.
According to the Washington Post, in 1976 Jenner wasn’t the favorite to win in Montreal. Instead, everyone expected the defending Soviet gold medalist Nikolai Avilov to win.
But then, Jenner had the event of his life.
During the 100-meter dash, Jenner broke his personal record. Then he broke his records in the next four events — long jump, shot put, high jump, 400-meter sprint. By the time the Jenner raced in the final 1,500 meter run, t was obvious he would easily win the gold.
Jenner went on to be an American hero, and an Olympic icon. He appeared on the Wheaties cereal box and was the AP Male Athlete of the Year for 1976.
Check out video of the 400 meter from the 1976 Olympics:
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How Caitlyn Jenner Won Bruce Jenners Olympic Medals
Wikipedia thought so. By Tuesday evening, the ubiquitous crowdsourced encyclopedia was redirecting its Bruce Jenner page to Caitlyn Jenner and using the pronoun she.Example: At the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Canada, she won the gold medal in the decathlon, setting a world record of 8,616 points, beating her own world record set at the Olympic Trials, the Caitlyn Jenner Wikipedia page read at 11:24 p.m. EST on June 1. This sentence was a bit jarring: Jenner was also the Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year in 1976. Even the Wikipedia page for Cant Stop the Music, a poorly received and pretty darn obscure film featuring the Village People that Jenner appeared in in 1980, lists Caitlyn Jenner as a star.
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Jenner Trailed After The First Day Of The Decathlon
Despite three personal bests on the first day of the decathlon at the 1976 Games, Jenner went to bed that night 35 points behind the leader, Guido Kratschmer of West Germany. Jenner, however, knew he had won the gold when he left the Olympic Stadium that night.
“The second day has all my good events,” Jenner told ABC after the first day. “If everything works out all right, we should be ahead after it’s all over.”
In the decathlon, points are earned based off the performance in each event, not on the position finished. Jenner was strong as expected in discus, pole vault and javelin on the second day, all but clinching the gold medal heading into the final event, the 1,500-meter run. But he wasn’t content with that. After falling well behind event favorite Leonid Litvinenko of the Soviet Union, Jenner made a strong surge to close the gap. He couldn’t catch Litvinenko, but his personal-best time of 4:12.61 put an exclamation point on his performance and pushed his point total to a record 8,618.
Related Biography: Decathlete Daley Thompson
Daley Thompson is one of the best decathletes in history. Born Francis Ayodele Thompson in London, England in 1958, Thompson was interested in sports and highly competitive from early childhood. He entered his first meet at the age of 14, in 1973, and by 1976, was good enough to make the Olympic team. He came in eighteenth, but gold medal decathlete Bruce Jenner predicted that Thompson would one day win gold in the event.
Jenner was right. Thompson won the gold medal at the 1980 Olympics, held in Moscow, and was prevented from setting a new world record only by foul weather. He did set an Olympic record, with a point total of 8,798, which was not broken until 1996. Thompson won another gold medal at the 1984 Olympics, but his dream of winning three Olympic gold medals was crushed when he broke his pole during the pole vault, injuring his adductor muscle.
After retiring from competition, Thompson continued to work as a coach and trainer.
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When Did Bruce Jenner Retire From The Olympics
Jenner intended to retire after the 1976 Olympics, and he even left his vaulting poles at the Olympic stadium since he had already chosen not to compete again. In 1976, Jenner was voted Associated Press Athlete of the Year, as well as the Sullivan Award for greatest amateur athlete in the United States. He is also a two-time Olympian who has won multiple medals including gold.
However, he changed his mind and decided to continue competing. He went on to win three more gold medals at the 1980 Moscow Games before retiring for good with 17 gold medals and one silver medal . He remains the most decorated American Olympian of all time.
In 2015, Jenner came out as transgender and announced that he now identifies as a woman named Caitlyn Jenner. She has been praised for her courage and bravery, and has received many awards including the Arthur Ashe Courage Award from the National LGBT Center in 2007 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama in 2013.
Caitlyn has said that she believes that if she had known how far the transgender movement would go, she might have considered becoming a female years earlier. She has also commented on how different life was back then compared to today’s youth, saying that there were no online communities for transgender people to find support and information about life as an isolated individual.
About Article Author
Selected Writings By Jenner:
Prentice-Hall, 1977.
Bruce and Chrystie Jenner’s Guide to Family Fitness, Grosset, 1978.
Bruce Jenner’s Guide to the Olympics, Andrews and McMeel, 1979.
The Olympics and Me, Doubleday, 1980.
Bruce Jenner’s The Athletic Body: A Complete Fitness Guide for Teenagers: Sports, Strength, Health, Agility, Simon and Schuster, 1984.
Bruce Jenner’s Guide to the 1984 Summer Olympics, Andrews, McMeel and Parker, 1984.
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Thompson Has Played Soccer And Competed In Motorsport Since Retiring
A persistent hamstring injury saw Thompson retire from athletics in 1992 but not from all sport.
In his retirement, he has played soccer for Mansfield Town reserves, Stevenage and Ilkeston, entered the 1994 Ford Credit Fiesta Challenge Championship, and become fitness coach for Reading Football Club.
He was asked to be an ambassador for the London 2012 Summer Olympics and opened his own gym in 2015.
Now He’s Swapped The Track For The Links
Since retiring from athletics, Sebrle has picked up his golf clubs and gone pro.
Ranked 1,889th in the world, Sebrle has played 17 pro events, but has never made the cut.
When he’s not on the links, Sebrle works as a news anchor at Czech Television Prima.
Speaking to the Huffington Post in 2017, Serble said: “When I was down, it was difficult to cope with my situation, but then I decided to retire from the decathlon. It was not an easy decision. I had done decathlons for a very long time, even until I was thirty-eight years old.
“Then, producers from Czech Television Prima asked me to join their news team. I seized the opportunity. It was a very interesting offer, and I had never done it before, so I gave it a try.
“Working in television broadcasting is so different from athletics. In the first six months, it was very difficult for me to adjust to the new job, and I’ve worked hard to accumulate experience and acquire skills. I hope to improve better day by day.”
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Encountered Difficulties In School
While Jenner’s innate athletic talent led to success on the playground, classroom work came far less easily to him because he was dyslexic. People with this learning disability have trouble reading, spelling, and expressing themselves. Jenner explained to the Ability interviewer that while coping with this disability was hard enough, what made school even harder was that he felt that everyone else was so much better at it than he was. “My biggest fear was going to school,” he recalled. “I was afraid the teacher was going tomake me read in front of the class, and I was going to look bad. I lost enthusiasm for school and I flunked second grade.”
Fortunately, in fifth grade Jenner discovered something he was good at. His teacher had all the students run, and timed them to see who was fastest. Jenner was the fastest student in the school. He liked the positive response he got. Because he could excel in sports, “Sports became my little niche in life.”
Jenner Competed In The 1972 Olympics
The seeds for Jenner’s record-breaking performance in 1976 were planted four years earlier in Munich. Jenner had surprisingly qualified for the 1972 Olympics despite having competed in the decathlon for only two years. He wasn’t expected to win, but he set a personal goal of finishing in the top ten and was happy when he finished 10th. But Jenner’s outlook on the decathlon and life changed after he watched Avilov win gold for the Soviet Union.
“For the first time, I knew what I wanted out of life and that was it, and this guy has it,” Jenner said. “I literally started training that night in midnight, running through the streets of Munich, Germany, training for the Games. I trained that day on through the 1976 Games, 6-8 hours a day, every day, 365 days a year.”
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Who Is Bruce Jenner
Born in Mount Kisco, New York on October 18, 1949, Bruce Jenner was the second of four children of William Jenner, a tree surgeon, and Estelle Jenner. It would be no surprise to Jenner’s parents that their son would excel at athletics William Jenner had competed in the U.S. Army Olympics in Nuremberg, Germany, in 1945, and won a silver medal in the 100-yard dash. Jenner’s grandfather had run in the Boston Marathon several times. Jenner told an interviewer in Ability magazine, “By the time I turned two, I’d already developed a big chest, wide shoulders, and boundless energy.”
Who Are Bruce Jenner Parents
William Jenner
Date of birth: Feb 7, 1923
Date of death: Dec 28, 2000
Bruce Jenner sports phenomenon was possible only due to his father. He supported his sons interest in American football and stood by his hand after he got a knee injury and had to change the flow of his career to the decathlon.
William was born in Canada. He was married to Esther McGuire and had two sons and two daughters with her. He earned his living as a tree surgeon. He died on the last days of 2000 in his house in Carnelian Bay, CA.
Esther McGuire Jenner
Date of birth: 1946
A mother of 4 kids, Esther is in great terms with her son-turned-daughter Bruce. In one of her interviews, the woman told, that she is proud of her famous kid even more, that when he took home gold medals. Nevertheless, she still names him Bruce, not Caitlyn. His mother confessed that as a teen Bruce liked to put on some items from her wardrobe.
In 2015 Esther fell down and broke her hips. She was taken to a hospital after that.
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California Gubernatorial Recall Election
In early April 2021, it was reported that Jenner was considering running for Governor of California in the 2021 recall gubernatorial election as a Republican. Later in the month on April 23, Jenner announced her run for governor.
In May 2021, during her run, Jenner stated in an interview with TMZ that trans girls should not be allowed to compete in girls’ sports at school, backing Republican Party views on transgender people in sports. Jenner reiterated her views on the next day, stating that “it’s an issue of fairness and we need to protect girls’ sports in our schools.” She has been criticized by many transgender rights advocates who do not see her as an asset to their cause.
In her pitch to voters, Jenner has likened herself to Donald Trump, calling herself a “disrupter” like Trump.
During the campaign, Jenner left the United States, going to Australia in order to compete on that country’s television series Big Brother VIP. Although invited to take part in candidate debates, she did not participate. Jenner fought Governor Gavin Newsom in court to prevent the California Secretary of State from placing Newson’s party affiliation on the ballot, and won the legal battle.
Jenner ended up in 13th place with 75,215 votes, which was 1% of the votes cast for replacement candidates.
Bruce Jenner At The 1976 Summer Olympics
Walter Iooss Jr.
Neil Leifer
Walter Iooss Jr.
The decathlon in Montreal was almost anticlimactic. Three of Jenners best eventsthe pole vault, javelin and the 1,500came at the end. He struggled briefly in the high jump, but Stones yelled to him from the stands, Arms! to get Jenner to engage his upper body more he then cleared a personal best of 6’8″. When Jenner ran a PB of 47.51 in the 400 at the close of the first dayBruce always went all out in the 400 and died, says Samara. In the Olympics he didnt diehe trailed leader Guido Kratschmer of West Germany by 35 points and Avilov by 17. In essence the competition was over. After Jenner cleared his opening height in the pole vault, the eighth event, another decathlete approached him and said, So Bruce, now you are a millionaire.
From the Vault : Bruce Jenner is living out our fantasies for us
At a party that night Jenner was introduced to an ABC executive, whom Jenner then introduced to Wallach. Now he had an agent. Looking back, Jenner says she had no real plans for the future. A few days before the decathlon, Jenner told SIs Frank Deford, Im scared to say anything. Everybody is ready to be reminded of Spitz . If I mention one thing about what Im considering, everybodyll say, Hey, the kids just in it for the money. So Jenner was considering somethingbut not track and field. No more mountains to climb, says Caitlyn today. Also, no money on the table.
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Erki Nool Became A National Hero With Victory In 2000
The turn of the millennium saw the remarkable story of Estonian Erki Nool.
Growing up with the backdrop of a crumbling Soviet Union, it was not until he was 13 and his father sent him to a sports-focused boarding school that Nool started having three meals a day.
When Estonia gained independence in 1991, Nool declared his desire to be a part of the Olympic team and competed at Barcelona 1992, but had to pull out during the games.
Eight years later, he had developed into one of the world’s top decathletes and, despite not winning a single event, he took gold at Sydney 2000, becoming a national hero in the process.
