Mac Wilkins

Mac Wilkins

Wilkins in 1976
Personal information
Full name	Maurice Malcolm Wilkins
Nationality	American
Born	November 15, 1950(1950-11-15)(age73) Eugene, Oregon,U.S.
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)
Medal record RepresentingtheUnited States Olympic Games 1976 Montreal Discus throw 1984 Los Angeles Discus throw Pan American Games 1979 San Juan Discus throw

Maurice Malcolm "Mac" Wilkins(born November 15, 1950) is an Americanathlete,who competed mainly in thediscus throw.He was born inEugene, Oregonand graduated in 1969 fromBeaverton High Schoolin Beaverton, Oregon.

College

Distance running coachBill Bowermanrecruited Wilkins to the University of Oregon, where he threw the javelin 257' 8 "(78.43m) as a 19-year-old freshman. As a senior, he was 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 Famein 1994.

Olympics

Wilkins competed for the United States in the1976 Summer OlympicsinMontreal,Quebec,Canada in the discus throw, where he won thegold medalwith a distance of 221' 5 "to defeatWolfgang SchmidtofEast Germanyby four feet. Wilkins qualified for the 1980 U.S. Olympic team but did not compete due to the1980 Summer Olympics boycott.He did however receive one of 461Congressional Gold Medalscreated especially for the spurned athletes.

Wilkins won asilver medalin the discus throw at the1984 Summer Olympicsheld inLos Angeles.He placed 5th in the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, Korea.

World records

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 recordthree times with consecutive throws of 69.80 m, 70.24 m, and 70.86 m. In 1976 and 1980, Wilkins was ranked #1 in the world in the discus throw. In 1977, he was the indoor national champion in the shot put, with a throw of 69' 1.5 "(21.06 m).

Coaching

From 2006 thru 2013, Wilkins was thethrowscoach atConcordia University,an NAIA school inPortland, Oregon.His throwers won 26 individual national championships and earned 94 All-American honors. WhenAl Oerterdied on 1 October 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 for USATF in Chula Vista, California.

External links

• Wilkins at the 1976 US. Olympic TrialsVideoonYouTube@ 30:55