 Williams in 1972 | |||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Born | August 23, 1953 Fresno, California, U.S. | ||||||||||||||
| Height | 1.78 m (5 ft 10 in) | ||||||||||||||
| Weight | 69 kg (152 lb) | ||||||||||||||
| Sport | |||||||||||||||
| Sport | Athletics | ||||||||||||||
| Event(s) | Sprint, long jump, triple jump | ||||||||||||||
| Club | Tobias Striders | ||||||||||||||
| Achievements and titles | |||||||||||||||
| Personal best(s) | 100 m – 10.19 (1977) 200 m – 21.15 (1983) LJ – 8.34 m (1972) TJ – 15.94 m (1971) | ||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Randy Lavelle Williams (born August 23, 1953) is an American former track and field athlete.
In high school, Williams attended Edison High School in Fresno, California. He then attended the University of Southern California. [1]
At the CIF California State Meet in 1969, Williams finished third behind future rival James McAlister, in 1970, he finished second behind future NFL star, Lynn Swann, and in 1971, he won the meet in what would have clearly been a meet record, had it not been wind aided. [2]
Williams won the sprints at the 1987 Masters West Region Championship. [3]
Williams mainly competed in the long jump, in which he won a gold medal at the 1972 Olympics and a silver medal in 1976. [4] His 1972 winning jump of 8.34 m (27–4½) set the world junior record that stood for almost 40 years until it was improved by 1 cm by Sergey Morgunov on June 20, 2012. At the time it was the longest standing record on the books. [5] Williams qualified for the 1980 U.S. Olympic team but was unable to compete due to the 1980 Summer Olympics boycott. He did receive one of 461 Congressional Gold Medals created specifically for the athletes. [6]
In 2009, Williams was inducted into the National Track and Field Hall of Fame. [7]
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.
William Augustus Banks III is an American athlete. Born at Travis Air Force Base, California, he grew up in San Diego County and went to Oceanside High School. Banks is an Eagle Scout.
Louise Dorothy Ritter is an American former track and field athlete who won the gold medal in the high jump at the 1988 Olympic Games.
Catherine "Kathy" Laverne McMillan is a retired American athlete, who mainly competed in the long jump.
John Gates Powell was an American track and field athlete who specialized in the discus throw. He set a world record at 69.08 meters in 1975, and his personal best of 71.26 meters ties him for ninth place in the all-time performers list.
Larry Myricks is an American former track and field athlete, who mainly competed in the long jump event. He is a two-time winner of the World Indoor Championships and a two-time winner of the World Cup. He also won a bronze medal at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, and bronze medals at the World Championships in 1987 and 1991.
Alice Regina Brown is a retired American sprinter. Competing at the 1984 and 1988 Olympics she won two relay gold medals and an individual silver medal. She attended John Muir High School and California State University, Northridge.
Tomás Valdemar "Tom" Hintnaus is a retired Brazilian-born pole vaulter, model, and actor. Although he is an American citizen, he represented his native country, Brazil, in the Olympic Games following the American boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics.
Allan "Al" Dean Feuerbach is a former American track and field athlete. He competed in the shot put at the 1972 and 1976 Olympics and finished in fifth and fourth place, respectively. He missed the 1980 Games due to the boycott by the United States. He did however receive one of 461 Congressional Gold Medals created especially for the spurned athletes.
Stanley Floyd is a retired track and field sprinter from the United States. He was a 1979 graduate of Dougherty High School in Albany, Georgia. In 1980, he was considered one of the favorites for the 100m title but was denied his chance due to the United States boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics.
James J. Robinson Jr. is a former American middle distance runner. He was the dominant American 800 meters runner from the mid-1970s through the mid 1980s. He ran in the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, finishing fifth in his semi-final and not making the final. He was on the ill-fated 1980 U.S. Olympic team that did not get to compete due to the 1980 Summer Olympics boycott. He did however receive one of 461 Congressional Gold Medals created especially for the spurned athletes.
Carol LeGrant Lewis is an American former track and field athlete who specialized in the long jump. She is the 1983 World Championship bronze medalist, and a 4-time US Champion. Her best long jump of 7.04 meters in 1985 is the former American record. She is the sister of 9-time Olympic gold medalist Carl Lewis, and former professional soccer player Cleveland Lewis. She is also the daughter of retired American hurdler Evelyn Lawler.
Frances Anne "Francie" Larrieu Smith is an American track and field athlete. She was the flagbearer at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona for the United States of America. Larrieu Smith was the third female American athlete to make five American Olympic teams, behind the six of fencer Jan York-Romary and Track and Field's Willye White. The feat was later equaled by basketball player Teresa Edwards, track and field's Gail Devers, cyclist/speedskater Chris Witty and swimmer Dara Torres. After one of the longest elite careers on record, she retired from that level of competition.
Luis Alberto Bueno is a (presumed) retired Cuban Track and Field athlete, known primarily for being a Junior long jumper.
William Ernest Green was an American sprinter.
Sergey Morgunov is a Russian track and field athlete, specializing in the long jump. On 20 June 2012 he set the World Junior Record in the event, jumping 8.35m in Cheboksary, Russia. The jump surpassed the longest standing record on the books, set by Randy Williams while winning the gold medal at the 1972 Olympics. Morgunov's jump, set while winning the Russian Junior Championships also tied him for the best jump of the year, by any athlete, to that point in the 2012 Olympic year. The mark also qualified as the European Junior Record, formerly held by Spain's Eusebio Caceres.
Maren Elizabeth Seidler is a retired American track and field athlete. She dominated the shot put from the mid 1960s through 1980. She won the event at the USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships eleven times starting in 1967, including nine in a row from 1972 to 1980. She was the American champion indoors nine times, 1968-9, 1972, 1974-5 and 1977 to 1980. She won her event at the United States Olympic Trials four straight times 1968-1980, a feat only equalled by only one woman, Madeline Manning, Edwin Moses is the only man to achieve four. Jackie Joyner Kersee is the only woman who has won more events at the Olympic Trials, split between the long jump and heptathlon. She competed in the Olympics three times, making the final twice. Her 1980 selection was quashed by the 1980 Summer Olympics boycott. Seidler did however receive one of 461 Congressional Gold Medals created especially for the spurned athletes.
Benjamin "Benn" Fields is an American former high jumper. In 1979 Fields won silver medals at the Pan American Games and the Soviet Spartakiad. He won his specialty at the 1980 U.S. Olympic Trials, but missed out on Olympic participation due to the American boycott.
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Bruce Kennedy is a Rhodesian, then American track and field athlete known for the javelin throw. He has been dubbed "one of the unluckiest athletes in Olympic history" not because of his failures at the Olympics but due to the political nature of his inability to appear at the Olympics. Born in Southern Rhodesia, he first came to the United States to study at the University of California, Berkeley. He qualified for the Rhodesian team for the 1972 Olympics, but when he arrived in Munich, he was not allowed to take the field. The government of Rhodesia, created when Kennedy was 14 years old, had never been recognized as a legitimate government and its athletes, including Kennedy, were excluded from the Olympics. He made the Rhodesian Olympic team again in 1976, but was not welcome at the Olympics. After eight years in the United States, he was able to obtain American citizenship in 1977 and compete for his new country. He finished second at the 1980 Olympic Trials but by that point in time, President Jimmy Carter had already declared the 1980 Summer Olympics boycott. He was one of 461 athletes to receive a Congressional Gold Medal instead. He was able to attend the 1984 Olympics near his home in Santa Barbara, California, working as an usher.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link). iaaf.org. June 21, 2012
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