Bruce Jenner: Track and Field Sports Documentary

• published: 13 Feb 2014
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Bruce Jenner: Track and Field Sports Documentary Sports Documentary on legendary decathlete Bruce Jenner. William Bruce Jenner (born October 28, 1949) is a former U.S. track and field athlete, motivational speaker, socialite, television personality and businessman. He won the gold medal for decathlon in the Montreal 1976 Summer Olympics. Following his Olympic win and the related recognition, he married Kris Kardashian, and his professional career evolved into being a television celebrity. By 1981, he had starred in several made-for-TV movies and was Erik Estrada's replacement on the top rated TV series CHiPs. He has six children: Burt, Casey, Brandon, Brody, Kendall and Kylie. Since his 1991 marriage to Kris Jenner, he is the stepfather to Kourtney, Kim, Khloe and Rob Kardashian. Since 2007, he has appeared with his blended family on Keeping Up with the Kardashians. Jenner was born in Mount Kisco, New York, the son of Esther R. and William Hugh Jenner. He attended Newtown High School in Newtown, Connecticut, after spending a year at Sleepy Hollow High School in Sleepy Hollow, New York. Jenner earned a football scholarship and attended Graceland College (now Graceland University) in Iowa, but a knee injury forced him to stop playing football and he switched to the decathlon. He was mentored by Graceland's track coach L. D. Weldon, who was the first to recognize Jenner's potential and encouraged him to pursue the decathlon. Jenner debuted in the decathlon at the Drake Relays in 1970, placing fifth. Jenner placed third in the decathlon at the 1972 U.S. Olympic trials and finished in tenth place at the 1972 Munich games. His success prompted him to devote himself to an intense training regimen, while also selling insurance outside training hours. He acknowledged that he was supported and subsidized by his then wife, Chrystie Crownover, who worked as an airline stewardess. In the era before professionalism was allowed in athletics this kind of training was unheard of. During that period he spent eight hours a day at the San Jose City College track. Centered around Bert Bonanno, the coach at SJCC, San Jose at the time was a hotbed for training aspiring Olympic athletes, including Jenner, along with Millard Hampton, Andre Phillips, John Powell, Mac Wilkins, Al Feuerbach and others. In 1974 and 1976, Jenner was the American champion in the event. At the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, he won the gold medal in the Decathlon, setting the world record of 8,616 points. The world record was broken by just 4 points by Daley Thompson in 1980. In 1985, the IAAF Decathlon scoring table was changed, so Jenner's winning score has been reevaluated against that table and reported as 8634 for comparative purposes. As of 2011, Jenner is #25 on the world all-time list and the #9 American. As a result of winning the Olympic decathlon, Jenner was a national hero. He was the 1976 recipient of the James E. Sullivan Award as the top amateur athlete in the United States. Jenner was also the Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year in 1976. He was inducted into the Olympic Hall of Fame in 1986 and the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame, the Connecticut Sports Hall of Fame in 1994 and the United States National Track and Field Hall of Fame in 1980. He was inducted into the San Jose Sports Hall of Fame in 2010. San Jose City College hosted the "Bruce Jenner Invitational" (frequently shortened to "Jenner") as a televised, annual stop on the United States Track and Field Circuit (a meet equivalent in stature to the Prefontaine Classic) for the better part of two decades. Records were set at the meet, with Jenner frequently hosting the telecasts.