Bruce Jenner
| BOSTON
At the Montreal Olympic Games in 1976, Bruce Jenner won the gold medal in the decathlon and the admiration of the world.
Mr. Jenner's original calling was football. He accepted a football scholarship for $250 a year from Graceland College in Lamoni, Iowa, but was sidelined his freshman year. So he took up the decathlon. In his first meet, he set a school record with 6,991 points and "got such a kick out of it" he decided to focus exclusively on that event.
So intense was his competitive fire that he put a hurdle in his living room, which he crossed more than 25 times a day. Between 1973 and 1976, Jenner won the decathlon in all but one of the 13 meets he competed in.
Jenner, whose face once graced the Wheaties box, now lives in California with his wife and 10 children. (He received "Father of the Year" honors in 1986.) He is a commercially rated pilot and a racecar driver. He gives motivational speeches and has appeared on TV shows, in commercials, and in films. Jenner was also a guest host on "Good Morning America."
He now hosts his own international track meet each year.
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