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|
 Wilkins in 1976 | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Full name | Mac Maurice Wilkins |
| Nationality | American |
| Born | November 15, 1950 (1950-11-15) (age 75) Eugene, Oregon, U.S.[1] |
| Height | 1.93 m (6 ft 4 in) |
| Weight | 115 kg (254 lb) |
| Sport | |
| Country |  United States |
| Sport | athletics |
Event(s) | Discus throw,shot put,hammer throw,javelin throw |
| Club | Pacific Coast Club, Long Beach Athletics West, Eugene Oregon Ducks, Eugene |
| Achievements and titles | |
| Personalbest(s) | DT – 70.98 m (1980) SP – 21.06 m (1977) HT – 63.65 m (1977) JT – 78.43 m (1970)[1][2] |
MacMauriceWilkins (born November 15, 1950) is an Americanathlete who competed mainly in thediscus throw. He was born inEugene, Oregon and graduated in 1969 fromBeaverton High School in Beaverton, Oregon.
Distance running coachBill Bowerman recruited Wilkins to the University of Oregon, where he threw the javelin 257 ft 8 in (78.54 m) as a 19-year-old freshman. As a senior, he was an NCAA champion in the discus and won the first of eight U.S. national championships in the discus. He was inducted into theOregon Sports Hall of Fame in 1994.
Wilkins competed for the United States in the1976 Summer Olympics inMontreal,Quebec, Canada, in the discus throw, where he won thegold medal with a distance of 221' 5" to defeatWolfgang Schmidt ofEast Germany by four feet. Wilkins qualified for the 1980 U.S. Olympic team but did not compete due to the1980 Summer Olympics boycott. However, he received one of 461Congressional Gold Medals created especially for the spurned athletes.[3]
Wilkins won asilver medal in the discus throw at the1984 Summer Olympics inLos Angeles. He placed 5th in the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, Korea.
Wilkins broke the world record four times in his career. During his discus throw series on May 1, 1976, inSan Jose, California, he set theworld record three times with consecutive throws of 69.80 m, 70.24 m, and 70.86 m. In 1976 and 1980, Wilkins was ranked #1 worldwide in the discus throw. In 1977, he was the indoor national champion in the shot put, with a throw of 69 ft 1.5 in (21.069 m).[2]
From 2006 through 2013, Wilkins was thethrows coach atConcordia University, an NAIA school inPortland, Oregon. His throwers won 26 individual national championships and earned 94 All-American honors. WhenAl Oerter died on October 1, 2007, Wilkins became the earliest surviving Olympic champion in the men's discus. He is not the oldest;Viktor Rashchupkin—the 1980 champion—is almost a month older. In August 2013, Wilkins left Concordia University to coach forUSA Track & Field in Chula Vista, California.[4]
| Records | ||
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| Preceded by | Men's discus world record holder April 24, 1976 – August 9, 1978 | Succeeded by |
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| International | |
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| National | |
| People | |
