Bruce Jenner.

Bruce Jenner. Bruce Jenner, born in 1949, American track-and-field athlete, who won the Olympic decathlon event at the 1976 Olympic Games in Montréal, Québec, Canada. Jenner became one of the first athletes to use his Olympic success as a springboard to wealth and celebrity. William Bruce Jenner was born in Mount Kisco, New York. He competed in football, basketball, track and field, and water skiing while in high school. He later attended Graceland College (now Graceland University), in Lamoni, Iowa, on a football scholarship, but a knee injury his freshman year changed his athletic career. He began competing in the decathlon in 1971. At the 1972 United States Olympic trials he placed 3rd, and at the games later that year in Munich, West Germany, he finished 10th. Jenner devoted the next four years to one goal: winning the Olympic gold medal. He won the decathlon event at the U.S. national championships in 1974 and 1976 and at the 1975 Pan American Games in Mexico City. At the 1976 Olympics Jenner overwhelmed the rest of the decathlon field, winning the gold medal and setting a new world record. After the Olympics he retired from track-and-field competition. Jenner later became a television commentator and advertising spokesperson. He was inducted into the National Track & Field Hall of Fame in 1980 and into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame in 1986. Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.