Caitlyn Jenner

Caitlyn Jenner (born William Bruce Jenner, October 28, 1949), formerly known as Bruce Jenner, is an American former track and field athlete, television personality and politician.

After her Olympic career, her professional career changed into being a television celebrity.  By 1981, she had starred in several television movies.  Since 2007, she is best known for the reality television program Keeping Up with the Kardashians. She is the stepmother of the Kardashian sisters.

In 2015, Jenner came out as transgender. In June 2015, Jenner had completed her transition and changed her name to Caitlyn Jenner.

In April 2021, Jenner announced her candidacy for Governor of California in the 2021 recall election as a Republican. The recall election was not successful.

Early life
Jenner is from Mount Kisco, New York. She studied at Newtown High School in Newtown, Connecticut,. Jenner got a football scholarship to Graceland College (now Graceland University) in Iowa. A knee injury caused her to stop playing football. She changed to the decathlon. Jenner first decathlon was at the Drake Relays in 1970. She finished in fifth place.

Olympic career
Jenner placed third in the decathlon at the 1972 U.S. Olympic trials. She finished in tenth place at the 1972 Munich games. Because she did so well in getting to the Olympics, she chose focus her time almost entirely on training. She sold insurance when not training.  In the years before professionalism was allowed in athletics, this kind of full-time training was unusual.  During that time, she spent eight hours a day at the San Jose City College track. San Jose at the time was a main place for training Olympic athletes. Millard Hampton, Andre Phillips, John Powell, Mac Wilkins, Al Feuerbach and others also trained there.  In 1974 and 1976, Jenner was the American champion in the decathlon.

At the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, she won the gold medal in the Decathlon. She set the world record of 8,618 points.  Her record was broken by just 4 points by Daley Thompson in 1980.  In 1985, the IAAF Decathlon scoring table was changed. Using the new table, Jenner's score was 8634 when comparing her to modern athletes.  As of 2011, Jenner is #25 on the world all-time list and  #9 on the American all-time list.

Jenner was a national hero due to winning the Olympic decathlon.   She won the 1976 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. She was made a part of the Olympic Hall of Fame in 1986 and the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame, the Connecticut Sports Hall of Fame in 1994 and the United States National Track and Field Hall of Fame in 1980.

Celebrity
In the 1970s, Olympic athletes were required to be amateur. They were not allowed to be paid as a sports celebrity. In 1972, three major Olympic sports (basketball, 100 meters and decathlon), were won by Soviet athletes. Winning the decathlon title made Jenner an American hero. After this, Jenner wanted to earn money because of her celebrity. If she did this, she could not take part in the Olympics again. She left her equipment in the stadium. She did not expect to ever use them again. Shortly after the Games, Jenner's picture was used on the front of Wheaties brand breakfast cereal as a "Wheaties champion."  Since then, photographs of several hundred athletes have been used on the boxes. Jenner is one of only seven Wheaties "spokesmen." She was asked to go to the White House to meet with President Gerald R. Ford.

On November 22, 1977, Jenner went to San Francisco to testify in court against complaints that General Mills, the makers of Wheaties, had been using false advertising about her eating Wheaties. Jenner said that she liked the cereal and ate it two to three times per week. Two days later the court case was stopped.

In 1977, the Kansas City Kings picked Jenner with the 139th pick of the NBA Draft. Jenner had not played basketball since high school. She did not play for them.

Jenner decided to try for a television career. She had some success. Jenner starred in the television movies "The Golden Moment: An Olympic Love Story" (1980) and "Grambling's White Tiger" (1981). In 1981–82, she began acting on the police series CHiPs. She played the role of Officer Steve McLeish. She was a short time replacement for Erik Estrada. Estrada was in a contract dispute with NBC and MGM at the time. Jenner was in a half-dozen episodes before Estrada returned.

Jenner also appears in the video games Olympic Decathlon (1981) and Bruce Jenner's World Class Decathlon (1996).

Further TV appearances
Jenner has appeared as herself on many game shows and reality TV programs. In the early 1990s, she was the host of an infomercial for a stair-climbing exercise machine called the "Stair Climber Plus".

In January 2002, Jenner was in an episode of the American series of The Weakest Link. In February and March 2003, she was part of the cast of the American series of I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!. She made a cameo appearance on a season three episode of The Apprentice in May 2005. She skated with Tai Babilonia for Skating with Celebrities in January–March 2006. Jenner has as also been a guest judge on Pet Star on Animal Planet, and appeared on NBC's game show Identity. She was also on Celebrity Family Feud with her family.

Keeping Up with the Kardashians
Since 2007, Jenner has been in the  E! reality television series Keeping Up with the Kardashians. She is on the series with her wife Kris Jenner, stepdaughters Kourtney, Kim, Khloé, and stepson Rob Kardashian and daughters Kylie and Kendall Jenner. The Kardashian members of the family are from Kris' marriage to attorney Robert Kardashian. Season two had an average of 1.6 million viewers.

At the start of its fourth season in late 2009, Keeping Up with the Kardashians set ratings records. Its second episode had a total of 4.2 million people watch it.

Kardashians ended its fifth season on October 24, 2010. It had 4.1 million viewers at that time. This was less than record 4.8 million viewers for its fourth-season finale on February 28, 2010.

Personal life
Jenner's company, Bruce Jenner Aviation, sells aircraft supplies.

When Jenner was a young child, she learned she had dyslexia. In an episode of the sitcom Silver Spoons, she told the Stratton family about her condition. This was after she retired from sports, built a successful career as a motivational speaker and television sports commentator.

On February 7, 2015, Jenner was involved in a multiple-vehicle collision on the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, California. The accident caused one death, and eight others were injured. Jenner was able to walk away from the accident.

Politically, Jenner is conservative and is a Republican. She is also a Christian.

On September 23, 2013, Jenner said that she underwent surgery of her nose skin because of cancer.

Transgender
In April 2015, Jenner publicly came out as transgender in a two-hour television interview. She said that she wants to be referred to with male pronouns while transitioning. Jenner will star in an eight-part documentary about her transition. It will be broadcast starting in July 2015. On June 1, 2015, Jenner revealed her new name, Caitlyn, and her use of female pronouns officially.  Many news sources have described Jenner as the most famous openly transgender American.

Family

Jenner has a younger sister named Lisa. Her younger brother, Burt was killed in a car accident shortly after Jenner's success in the Olympics. Jenner's first son is named after her brother.

Jenner's first marriage was to Chrystie Crownover (December 15, 1972 – January 2, 1980). They had two children, Burton William "Burt" Jenner (born September 6, 1978) and daughter Cassandra Lynn "Casey" Jenner  (born June 10, 1980). In 2009, Jenner became a grandmother to Francesca, her daughter Casey's first child.

Jenner's second marriage was from 1981–1985 to actress Linda Thompson. Their two sons Brandon Thompson (born June 4, 1981) and Brody (born August 21, 1983) appeared in their own reality show The Princes of Malibu. Brody was also on the reality show The Hills.

Jenner's third marriage was to Kris (née Houghton). After dating for five months, they married on April 21, 1991. Kris was previously married to lawyer Robert Kardashian. Jenner has two daughters with Kris, Kendall Nicole (born November 3, 1995) and Kylie Kristen (born August 10, 1997). During Jenner's third marriage, she was the stepfather of Kim, Khloé, Kourtney and Rob Kardashian.

Bruce and Kris Jenner announced their separation in October 2013, though they had actually separated a year earlier. Their divorce was finalized in March 2015.

Politics
In July 2017, Jenner announced that she was contemplating running in the 2018 race for the US Senate to represent California. She decided not to run in the elction.

In early April 2021, it was reported that Jenner was considering running for Governor of California in the 2021 recall gubernatorial election as a Republican. On April 23, she officially announced her candidacy.

References

Other websites

Official site 

 
Wheaties spokesperson
Jenner Communications
Bruce Jenner's U.S. Olympic Team bio 
USATF Hall of Fame bio

1949 births
Living people
American Christians
American Olympic gold medalists
American socialites
American track and field athletes
Businesspeople from New York
I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! contestants
Kardashian family
LGBT broadcasters
LGBT businesspeople
LGBT Christians
LGBT Olympians
LGBT people from New York
Medalists at the 1976 Summer Olympics
People with cancer
Republicans (United States)
Sportspeople from New York
Television personalities from New York
Transgender and transsexual people
People from Mount Kisco, New York
Politicians from New York
Politicians from California
Businesspeople from California
LGBT people from California
Sportspeople from California
LGBT politicians
US Republican Party politicians