Michael "Mike" Gonzales is a former United States decathlete.
Gonzales attended Bishop Montgomery High School in Redondo Beach, California, where he played both football and track and field. He was inducted into the school's Athletic Hall of Fame in 2013. [1]
Gonzales was offered multiple football scholarships to play at top universities. He accepted a full scholarship in Track and Field from University of Southern California with the intention of becoming an Olympic athlete. At USC Gonzales was a standout in decathlon, where he held the USC Decathlon School record from 1984-2019. [2] He competed and won the gold medal in decathlon at the 1987 Pan American Games in Indiana.
Gonzales tried four times to make the USA Olympic Team in Decathlon (1984 1988, 1992,1996) but was plagued by injury in each attempt. Gonzales was recruited by Olympian Liston Bochette to participate in the 1998 Winter Olympics representing Puerto Rico in the four-man bobsled team. At 2002 Winter Olympics Michael Gonzales did not meet Puerto Rico Olympic Committee rules about eligibility; after this, the Puerto Rico Olympic Committee withdrew the recognition of the Winter Sports Federation for the island, effectively ending any hopes for athletes competing at the Winter Olympics until 2018.
Gonzales later became a competitive amateur golfer, competing in over 400 tournaments. [3] In 2016 Mike Gonzales began to complete as a professional golfer, completing in Champion Tour Event qualifiers and 3 of the Champion Tour Qualifying School Tournaments. Today he is the CEO for TOPIMR, a web-based Internet Marketing Company.
Gonzales resides in Southern California with his wife, Debra and his son Tanner.
Sports in Puerto Rico can be traced from the ceremonial competitions amongst the pre-Columbian Native Americans of the Arawak (Taíno) tribes who inhabited the island to the modern era in which sports activities consist of an organized physical activity or skill carried out with a recreational purpose for competition. One of the sports which the Taíno's played was a ball game called "Batey". The "Batey" was played in "U" shaped fields two teams; however, unlike the ball games of the modern era, the winners were treated like heroes and the losers were sacrificed.
Robert Eugene Richards was an American athlete, minister, and politician. He made three U.S. Olympic Teams in two events: the 1948, 1952, and 1956 Summer Olympics as a pole vaulter and as a decathlete in 1956. He won gold medals in pole vault in both 1952 and 1956, becoming the only male two-time champion in the event in Olympic history.
Steve Scott is an American former track athlete and one of the greatest mile runners in American history. The silver medalist in the 1500 meters at the inaugural IAAF World Championships in Athletics in Helsinki in 1983, Scott owns the U.S. indoor record in the 2000 meters (4:58.6-1981). He held the American outdoor mile record for more than 26 years and also is the former American indoor record holder in the same event. Track & Field News ranked Scott #1 in the U.S. on 10 occasions, and 11 times during his career he was ranked in the top ten in the world by T&FN. Additionally, he participated for the US team at the 1984 Olympics. He finished 5th in the 1500 meter run at the 1988 Olympics held in Korea. Scott was also an Olympian on the 1980 Olympics team which was not allowed to go to Moscow. He ran the sub four-minute mile on 136 occasions in his career, more than any other runner in history.
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The UCLA Bruins are the athletic teams that represent the University of California, Los Angeles. The Bruin men's and women's teams participate in NCAA Division I as part of the Pac-12 Conference and the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF). For football, they are in the Football Bowl Subdivision of Division I. UCLA is second to only Stanford University as the school with the most NCAA team championships at 121 NCAA team championships. UCLA offers 11 varsity sports programs for men and 14 for women.
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Dean Bartlett Cromwell, nicknamed "Maker of Champions", was an American athletic coach in multiple sports, principally at the University of Southern California (USC). He was the head coach of the USC track team from 1909 to 1948, excepting 1914 and 1915, and guided the team to 12 NCAA team national championships and 34 individual NCAA titles. He was the head coach for the U.S. track team at the 1948 Olympic Games in London, and assistant head coach for the U.S. track team at the 1936 Berlin Olympics.
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Liston (Lin) D. Bochette III, born June 16, 1957, is an athlete, artist and civic leader. He participated in several Olympic Games as an athlete and administrator.
Gordon Orlikow is a Canadian former decathlon, heptathlon, and hurdles competitor who won medals in the 73rd Drake Relays, the 1981 Maccabiah Games and 1985 Maccabiah Games in Israel, and the 1987 Pan American Games. He is a former Chairman of the Board of Directors of Athletics Canada, and a member of the Canadian Olympic Committee. He is also a Senior Client Partner at Korn/Ferry International.