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Bruce Jenner started his US College career on a football scholarship,
but following a knee injury, he switched his sporting energies to track
and field. In 1972, Jenner qualified as the third member of the USA
decathlon team to the Munich Olympic Games, where he finished tenth
behind Nikolay Avilov (Soviet Union) with a score of 7722 points.
Jenner improved rapidly after that, and in 1974 topped 8000 points for
the first time, producing the year's best three decathlon scores of 8240
points in April, followed by 8245 points in June, and culminating with a
tally of 8308 points in August.
On 9-10 August 1975, a decathlon
international match was held at Eugene, between the USA, Poland and the
Soviet Union, the three decathlon super powers of the time. Jenner led
the USA to victory, with a total of 8524 points, not only defeating
Avilov, but breaking his world record as well. In 1976 Jenner returned
to Eugene for the US Olympic trials, which he won easily, breaking his
own world record with a score of 8538 points. At the Olympic Games in
Montreal on 29-30 July, Jenner was clearly in a class of his own. Not
content with just winning the gold medal, Bruce completely annihilated
his opposition, setting a number of personal bests, including a shot put
of 15.35m (see photo above). By the end of the competition,
Jenner had compiled his third world record of 8618 points, over 200
points clear of his nearest rival.
Although Jenner retired after the
Olympics, his decathlon win brought him a number of honours and
opportunities. He won the 1976 Sullivan award, and in 1979 became one
of the few athletes to have a track meet named after them, with the
holding of the inaugural Bruce Jenner Classic in San Jose. (Ron Casey).
Text below is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License;
Following his Olympic victory and the related recognition, his professional career led to new success in television. By 1981, he had starred in several made-for-TV movies and was Erik Estrada's replacement briefly on the top-rated TV series CHiPs. In 1991, he married Kris Jenner (née Houghton, previously Kardashian).
Since the 2007 debut of the cable television reality series Keeping Up with the Kardashians, he is seen as the stepfather of the Kardashian siblings: Kourtney, Kim, Khloe, and Rob Kardashian as well as the father of Burt, Casey, Brandon, Brody, Kendall, and Kylie Jenner.
Bruce was a successful race car driver in the IMSA Camel GT series (International Motor Sports Association) in the 1980s. His first victory came in the 1986 12 hours of Sebring in the IMSA GTO class driving the 7-Eleven Roush Racing Ford Mustang with co-driver Scott Pruett, not only winning their class but finishing 4th overall in the 12-hour endurance race. His most successful year was also 1986, when he finished second in the championship to Pruett. "I was a lot more bad as a runner than I was a driver.” —Jenner (August 2013)
IN JUNE 2015 (AGED 65) HE BECAME CAITLYN JENNER.
In an April 24, 2015, 20/20 interview with Diane Sawyer, Jenner came out as a trans woman saying she had dealt with gender dysphoria since her youth, and that, for all intents and purposes, "I’m a woman."
PERSONAL BESTS - OUTDOOR
100 Metres 10.94 Montréal 29 JUL 1976
400 Metres 47.51 Montréal 29 JUL 1976
1500 Metres 4:12.61 Montréal 30 JUL 1976
110 MH 14.57 Eugene, OR 26 JUN 1976
High Jump 2.03 Montréal 29 JUL 1976
Pole Vault 4.80 Montréal 30 JUL 1976
Long Jump 7.22 Montréal 29 JUL 1976
Shot Put 15.35 Montréal 29 JUL 1976
Discus Throw 51.68 Eugene, OR 26 JUN 1976
Decathlon 8634 Montréal
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