Olympians with lofty political ambitions are usually quicker to the trail than Caitlyn Jenner.
Jenner, 71, is 46 years removed from Olympic glory. A Republican candidate for governor of California, she’s bound to be known more for her roles in reality television shows than for winning a gold medal in the decathlon.
Still, COVID-19 has turned 2021 into an Olympic year, good timing as far as Jenner is concerned. She announced her candidacy for governor of America’s most populous state by remembering her triumph in the 1976 Olympics in Montreal.
“I don’t go into a race thinking I’m going to lose. I didn’t go to the Olympic Games thinking I was going to lose,” she said.
Jenner hopes to become the latest in a line of famous Olympians to win a statewide or congressional office. The list is too long for me to recount in this space, but I’ll cover a few.
Basketball star Bill Bradley was a gold medalist as a member of America’s 1964 Olympic team in Tokyo. After a 10-year career in the NBA, Democrat Bradley won election to the U.S. Senate in 1978.
Decathlete Bob Mathias won gold medals in London in 1948 and Helsinki in 1952. He became a congressman from California in 1966, lasting eight years until the fallout from Watergate led to a purge of Republicans.
Middle-distance runner Jim Ryun was a three-time Olympian who won the silver medal in the 1,500 meters in 1968 in Mexico City. He went on to become a Republican congressman from Kansas for a decade.
Ralph Metcalfe, though a sprinter, was slower to his seat in government. He won silver medals in the 100 meters in the 1932 and 1936 Olympics, the latter with Adolf Hitler watching America’s Black sprinters dominate in Berlin. Metcalfe, a Democrat, became one of Chicago’s leading Black politicians, first as an alderman starting in 1955 and then as a congressman in 1970.
Jenner’s entry into politics is different from the others. She was Bruce Jenner when she won the Olympic decathlon. In 2015, she came out as trans and took a new first name.
As an Olympian, Jenner achieved remarkable publicity in an event that generates constant debate.
America’s sportswriters have long disagreed on the worth of the decathlon — 10 track and field events in which cumulative scores determine who wins the medals. The late Jim Murray of the Los Angeles Times once broke down the arguments in a colorful passage.
“There are those who hold that the man who wins it is, by acclamation, the world’s greatest athlete,” Murray wrote. “The other school of thought deems a decathlon champ just the utility infielder of track and field, a guy who is just a compound of mediocrities, a one-man band who conceals lack of one outstanding talent by a multiplicity of lesser ones. He can read music and make noise but is no soloist.”
Bruce Jenner was the rarest of decathletes in that he seldom faced doubters. His image graced boxes of Wheaties, and Jenner made the cover of Sports Illustrated. Inside the magazine was a fawning story on Jenner by star author Frank Deford.
“Boyishly good-looking — a handsome Pete Rose — with tender brown eyes, a glorious smile (what a year this is for teeth in America!), beautifully built, good-humored, well-spoken, Jenner could have been Bicentennial government issue. He came equipped with a pretty blonde wife in a tight-fitting T-shirt who cried tears of happiness,” Deford wrote.
After the Olympics, Jenner auditioned for the role of Superman in what would be a franchise of movies. He lost the part to Christopher Reeve, but for years, newspapers and magazines kept reporting Jenner turned it down. Even Murray, the legendary pro, made the error.
That’s how it used to be. No one believed Jenner could come in second. Her odds are lower now. Jenner is one of 41 candidates who hope to succeed California’s Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, who’s fighting for his political life in a special election Sept. 14.
Voters will answer two questions. The first is whether to recall Newsom. The the second is which candidate might succeed him in case he’s ousted.
Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger became California’s governor through this process in 2003. Schwarzenegger probably was in a better spot than Jenner. A storied bodybuilder who became a movie star, Schwarzenegger was at the height of his fame when he ran.
Another Olympics is finally underway in Tokyo, a city whose lagging COVID-19 vaccination rate means the arenas will be without spectators.
It’s a different world from the one Jenner was on top of all those years ago in Montreal. Fame came easily then. Does she have an encore in politics?
Ringside Seat is an opinion column about people, politics and news. Contact Milan Simonich at msimonich@sfnewmexican.com or 505-986-3080.
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