William Bruce Jenner was a multifaceted athlete at Newton High School in Connecticut, where he played football and basketball, water skied, and did the high jump and pole vaulting. He won an athletic scholarship to Graceland College in Iowa, where he played football during his freshman year and varsity basketball during his sophomore year. His coach noticed Jenner's agility in track and field and suggested that he concentrate on the decathlon. The decathlon is a grueling two-day test of endurance, strength, and skill in ten events involving running, jumping, and throwing. Jenner graduated from Graceland in 1973 and began training for the 1976 Olympics. Between 1973 and 1976 he won 12 of the 13 decathlons he entered.

During the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Jenner won the gold medal in the men's track and field decathlon competition with 8,618 points. It was his third world record in the decathlon. His best events were the pole vault, javelin throw, discus, 1,500-meter run, and 110-meter hurdles. In 1976 Jenner was awarded the Associated Press Sports Award for Male Athlete of the Year. The same year he also won the James E. Sullivan Memorial Award, given by the Amateur Athletic Union of the United States. Jenner was inducted into the National Track and Field Hall of Fame in 1980, and into the United States Olympic Hall of Fame in 1986.

After the 1976 Olympics, Jenner worked as a sportscaster on ABC television, endorsed commercial products, and cowrote two books. He began auto racing in 1980 and celebrated his first victory in 1986.