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.
- published: 13 Feb 2014
- views: 165148