Mac WILKINS

After displaying steady progress in his early career as a discus thrower, which had seen him win his first USA national title in 1973, Mac Wilkins burst on to the international scene on 24 April 1976 when he set a new world record of 69.18m. One week later, at San Jose, he sensationally broke his own world record three times, hurling the discus successively 69.80m, 70.24m, and 70.86m on his first three throws. Never before had a discus thrower improved the world record three times at one meet. The only possible threat to Wilkins winning the gold medal at that year's Olympic Games in Montreal appeared to come from Wolfgang Schmidt (East Germany) who had produced a personal best of 68.60m on 21 May.

At Montreal, Wilkins set a new Olympic record of 68.28m in the qualifying round on 24 July, however his first throw in the final the following day was only 61.78m. Wilkins quickly atoned for this poor effort with his second round throw, heaving the discus 67.50m to take the lead. Schmidt responded with a 66.22m effort in the final round, but it was only good enough for second place behind Wilkins' earlier throw. These two rivals were again the best two throwers the following year, with Wilkins reaching 69.20m when he won the USA national title, and Schmidt winning the Weltklasse meet in Zurich with 68.26m. Schmidt narrowly defeated Wilkins at an early season meet at Berlin in June, but their big showdown occurred at the World Cup in Dusseldorf on 2 September. Wilkins (see photo above) led from the first round, and seemed destined for victory, until Schmidt upstaged him with his final throw to snatch the gold medal. The two met again in the following World Cup at Montreal in 1979, where once again Mac had to settle for second place behind Schmidt. (Ron Casey)

In 1976, Mac Wilkins had won the discus throw at the USA Olympic trials and then gone on to win the gold medal at the Olympic Games in Montreal. Wilkins repeated his win at the USA Olympic trials in 1980, but was prevented from defending his Olympic title due to the USA boycott of the Moscow Olympics. It was no doubt little consolation to Wilkins that his 68.68m effort at the USA Trials was over two metres further than the mark which won the Olympic gold medal. Wilkins' next major international championships was the 1983 World Championships in Helsinki. Wilkins was one of six athletes at Helsinki who had recorded a throw over 70 metres earlier in that season, and was considered one of the favourites. However, Mac (see photo above) was sadly off his form in the Helsinki final on 14 August, finishing 10th with a best throw of only 61.46m.

Wilkins bounced back to form in 1984, finishing second to John Powell at both the USA national titles and Olympic trials. With the absence of the top eastern European and Cuban throwers due to the Soviet Union-led boycott of the Los Angeles Olympics, the three USA throwers were favoured to make a clean sweep of the medals. Wilkins assumed the lead with his first round throw of 65.96m, but this was bettered in round four by a 66.60m throw from unheralded Rolf Danneberg (West Germany). Mac improved to 66.30m in round five but had to settle for the silver medal behind Danneberg with Powell claiming third place. Wilkins went into semi-retirement after 1984 but came back strongly in 1988 to win at the USA Olympic trials and make his fourth Olympic team. Competing in his last Olympic Games at Seoul, Wilkins briefly held third position with his fifth round effort of 65.90m, but eventually slipped to fifth place at the finish. (Ron Casey)