William Bruce Jenner (born October 28, 1949, in Mount Kisco, New York) is a U.S. track athlete, known principally for winning the decathlon in the 1976 Summer Olympics.
Bruce Jenner attended Newtown High School in Newtown, Connecticut, from Sleepy Hollow High School in North Tarrytown, New York. (Years later, the stadium there was to be named after him, but following an argument where Jenner would not attend fundraisers or be involved in the naming process, the stadium is now called Blue and Gold Stadium.) Jenner earned a football scholarship and attended Graceland College (now Graceland University), but a knee injury forced him to stop playing football and switch to the decathlon. He was mentored by Graceland's track coach L.D. Weldon, who was the first to recognize Jenner's potential and encouraged him to pursue decathlon. Jenner debuted in the decathlon at the Drake Relays in 1970- placing sixth.
Jenner placed third in the 1972 U.S. Olympic trials and finished in an impressive tenth place at the 1972 Munich games. He became an American champion in the event and won a gold medal at the 1976 Summer Olympics, setting a world record of 8,634 points. Jenner was handed a large American flag from a bystander in the audience as he spontaneously ran a celebratory victory lap, a gesture that has been emulated frequently since that time by athletes in other sports from countries around the world (and also by John Belushi in a Saturday Night Live commercial parody). He was the 1976 recipient of the James E. Sullivan Award as the top amateur athlete in the United States. Jenner was also the Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year in 1976. He was inducted into the Olympic Hall of Fame in 1986 and the Bay Area Hall of Fame and Connecticut Sports Hall of Fame in 1994.
After his Olympic success, the youthful Jenner appeared with Grits Gresham in an episode of ABC's The American Sportsman. The program featured Gresham engaging in hunting, fishing, or shooting in exotic spots with well-known celebrities.
Since 2002, Jenner has appeared as himself on a variety of game shows and reality TV programs. In January 2002 he participated in an episode of the American series of The Weakest Link (US) featuring Olympian athletes. In February and March 2003, he was part of the cast of the American series of I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!, and made a cameo on a season three episode of The Apprentice that originally aired in May 2005. He was partnered with Tai Babilonia for Skating with Celebrities that aired January-March 2006 (they were eliminated during the fifth of seven episodes).
In late 2007 and 2008 Jenner, along with wife Kris Jenner, stepdaughters Kim, Kourtney, Khloe and stepson Robert (from Kris' marriage to attorney Robert Kardashian), and daughters Kylie and Kendall, starred in the E! reality series Keeping Up with the Kardashians; season two earned an average of 1.6 million viewers, an increase over the previous cycle, and the show was renewed for a third season.
Jenner has additionally served as a guest judge on Pet Star on Animal Planet, and appeared with his family on NBC's Celebrity Family Feud.
Following his Olympic success, Jenner appeared on the front of Wheaties brand breakfast cereal as a "Wheaties champion". Of several hundred athletes who have been so featured, Jenner is one of seven Wheaties spokesmen. He was invited to the White House to meet with President Gerald R. Ford who autographed a political cartoon that featured the pair.
In 1980, Jenner made his acting debut in the film Can't Stop the Music which has become a cult classic over the years since its release. The disco-era comedy about the singing group The Village People was a notorious flop, though, and Jenner never made another theatrical film. However, he did appear in a few TV movies. He also guest-starred in a handful of episodes of the 80s TV police drama CHiPs as Officer Steve McLeish (subsitituting for star Erik Estrada when he was in a contract dispute with the studio).
His company, Bruce Jenner Aviation, sells aircraft to executives and corporations.
Jenner is widely known to have struggled with dyslexia -- he appeared on the sitcom Silver Spoons where he revealed his condition to the Stratton family -- and after retiring from sports, built a successful career as a motivational speaker and television sports commentator (making an appearance on the series Learn To Read). Jenner's divorced mother married the father of actor Gary Busey, when Jenner was in high school. They were raised in the same home and remain close friends and brothers. In 2006, Jenner competed on the FOX reality show Skating with Celebrities partnered with former U.S. and World Champion pairs figure skater Tai Babilonia; they finished third out of six couples.
His first marriage to Chrystie Crownover (1972 to 1980) produced two children, daughter Casey Jenner (b. June 4, 1980) and first son Burt Jenner (b. 1978). His other sons, Brandon (b. June 10, 1981) and Brody (with second wife Linda Thompson, to whom he was married from 1981 to 1983), appeared in their own reality show The Princes of Malibu, which featured them living with their stepfather David Foster. Brody has also been featured on the MTV series The Hills.
Jenner is currently married to Kris (née Houghton, and previously married to the late Robert Kardashian). He has two daughters with Kris named Kendall Nicole (b. November 3, 1995, middle name named after Nicole Brown Simpson) and Kylie (b. August 10, 1997).
