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Caitlyn Jenner: 40 years since becoming the 'World's Greatest Athlete'
Former Olympic champion turned TV personality Caitlyn Jenner poses as she arrives to the 2016 Vanity Fair Oscar Party in Beverly Hills, California on February 28, 2016. ADRIAN SANCHEZ-GONZALEZ/AFP/Getty Images

Caitlyn Jenner: 40 years since becoming the 'World's Greatest Athlete'

1976 lives in a special part of the American psyche. The United States celebrated its bicentennial, Apple was formed as a company, football was dominated by the Black and Gold and the Black and Silver, the ABA and the NBA combined forces, and Caitlyn Jenner took the 1976 Olympics and the world by storm.

The Vietnam War had officially ended about a year before the 1976 Olympiad and America needed something or someone to be excited about after being down trodden in a long, costly war. The conflict in Vietnam came at a steep price - $168 billion ($950 billion by 2011’s numbers) and over three million lives lost while the Cold War grew even more oppressive as the arms race against the Soviets continued full speed ahead.

Given the sadness and frustration of the era, the American public was more than ready to band together and cheer for the red, white, and blue as the growing country celebrated its 200th birthday. The United States public needed a distraction, a victory from all the issues facing the world at the time – a winner that could take home the Gold in the decathlon, earn the moniker ‘The World's Greatest Athlete' and could be rewarded with an iconic Wheaties box cover.

Jenner had competed in the 1972 Olympics in Munich, Germany, but did not have nearly the success she achieved in Montreal, Canada in 1976. In Munich, she settled for a 10th place finish in a field of 22 finishers in the men’s decathlon. She was also the second place finisher from a United States perspective with teammate Jeff Bennett finishing fourth and Jeff Bannister finishing 21st.

Jenner went to work over the next four years. She married Chrystie Crownover and moved to San Jose, CA. Jenner sold insurance on the side, bit she mostly trained. While finishing 10th in the 1972 Munich Games was a respectable finish for Jenner, it also gave her the motivation to train even harder for 1976, later saying, “I literally started training that night in midnight, running through the streets of Munich, Germany, training for the Games. I trained that day on through the 1976 Games, 6-8 hours a day, every day, 365 days a year."

She trained at San Jose City College with other members of the track and field team and would often train long after everyone else went home. Jenner became obsessed with winning, not just for the sake of winning, but because she felt it would help her escape the feelings she had as a transgender woman by proving she was masculine and could dominate other athletes.

At the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, Jenner set a world record in the decathlon with a score of 8,616. Jenner broke her own personal best in the 100-meter dash and then followed up by setting new personal records in the high jump, shot put, long jump, and 400-meter sprint. Nikolay Avilov, winner of the gold at the 1972 Munich Games, took three of the ten events from Jenner, but she dominated the discus in day two and finished second in the 1500 meter run. By the end of the decathlon, Jenner had set personal bests in several events in addition to the aforementioned world record for the event as a whole. She had restored the order of the U.S. men’s decathlon dominating the podium and done so in a way the world had never seen.

And while the previous Summer Games had been a great motivator for Jenner personally to best her rival Avilov, with the Cold War at the looming over any international event, the Olympics were not just a place of sports. For everyone else it was another East vs. West showdown, an opportunity to prove which countries had citizens of better physical prowess, where the best athletes were trained, which to the Soviets, proved everything one needed to know about dominance and who was the superior nation.

There might not be any U.S. Olympic memory greater than Jenner running with the American flag clutched in her hand, smile wide across her face, with fans elated in the stands and at home. Jenner seemingly beat the Soviet machine by herself and paved the way for the Miracle on Ice team, one athlete could do it; if we banded together a team could do it, an entire country standing together and beating the U.S.S.R.  

Michael Phelps may be taking that memory over for today’s generation, partly due to his absolute dominance and partly to do with a recency bias. Phelps, draped in the American flag, has won Olympic gold 23 times throughout his career. This is the most recent version of U.S. dominance that can be drawn upon and Phelps makes it look easy, but in an era dominated by the Cold War, Olympic boycotts, and the games being used to aid in political maneuvers, Jenner taking a victory lap holding the flag was much more than just another gold medal at the Olympics; it was a statement: We will not lose.

Endorsement deals followed Jenner’s success throughout the 1980's. Along with a long career of public speaking engagements, sports analyst positions, and a television show based on her marriage to the Kardashian family. Jenner has not been starved from the limelight and has certainly done well for herself, capitalizing on her success as an Olympian and parlaying it into a lifetime of success, telling Esquire magazine in 2012, “Being a celebrity is a business. That's how you have to look at this, and by that measure, this is a very successful business."

Today, just over a year after announcing that she is transgender, Jenner is making waves for a different reason. She is no longer married to Kris Jenner, mother to Kim, Kourtney and Khloe Kardashian and Jenner’s own daughters, Kendall and Kylie, now famous in their own right. She has had a successful run on her own television show “I am Cait.” She is, far and away, the most famous transgender person to ever walk planet Earth and she is seemingly doing her best to learn on the fly and make America a better and safer place for transgender Americans.

She may not always say the right things and she may not be able to understand what its like for someone without her resources to make the same transition she did, but she has forced a conversation that used to be tucked away in the back of a closet out to the forefront of American consciousness. Caitlyn may not speak for the transgender community as a whole, but she has given the transgender community a voice to speak with.

Can you name every Summer Olympics event?
SCORE:
0/57
TIME:
15:00
1896-
Swimming
1896-
Road cycling
1896-
Track cycling
1896-
Artistic gymnastics
1896-
Greco-Roman wrestling
1896-
Track and field
1896-
Fencing
1896-
Shooting
1896-
Tennis
1896-
Weightlifting
1900-
Water Polo
1900-
Equestrian jumping
1900-
Archery
1900-
Football
1900-
Golf
1900-
Rowing
1900-
Sailing
1900-1924
Rugby union
1900
Basque pelota
1900
Cricket
1900
Croquet
1900-1936
Polo
1900-1920
Tug of war
1904-
Diving
1904-
Freestyle wrestling
1904-
Boxing
1904-1908
Lacrosse
1904
Roque
1908
Field hockey
1908
Jeu de Paume
1908
Rackets
1908
Water motorsports
1908
Figure Skating
1912-
Equestrian dressage
1912-
Equestrian eventing
1912-
Modern pentathlon
1920
Equestrian vaulting
1920
Ice hockey
1936-
Canoe/Kayak sprint
1936-
Basketball
1936-
Handball
1964-
Volleyball
1964-
Judo
1972-
Canoe/Kayak slalom
1984-
Synchronized swimming
1984-
Rhythmic gymnastics
1988-
Table tennis
1992-
Badminton
1992-2008
Baseball
1996-
Mountain biking
1996-
Beach volleyball
1996-2008
Softball
2000-
Trampoline gymnastics
2000-
Taekwondo
2000-
Triathlon
2008-
BMX
2016-
Rugby sevens

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