 Williams in 1972 | |||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Born | (1953-08-23) August 23, 1953 (age 71) Fresno, California, U.S. | ||||||||||||||
| Height | 1.78 m (5 ft 10 in) | ||||||||||||||
| Weight | 69 kg (152 lb) | ||||||||||||||
| Sport | |||||||||||||||
| Sport | Athletics | ||||||||||||||
| Event(s) | Sprint, long jump, triple jump | ||||||||||||||
| Club | Tobias Striders | ||||||||||||||
| Achievements and titles | |||||||||||||||
| Personal best(s) | 100 m – 10.19 (1977) 200 m – 21.15 (1983) LJ – 8.34 m (1972) TJ – 15.94 m (1971) | ||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Randy Lavelle Williams (born August 23, 1953) is an American former track and field athlete.
Education
In high school, Williams attended Edison High School in Fresno, California. He then attended the University of Southern California.
Career
At the CIF California State Meet in 1969, Williams finished third behind future rival James McAlister, in 1970, he finished second behind future NFL star, Lynn Swann, and in 1971, he won the meet in what would have clearly been a meet record, had it not been wind aided.
Williams won the sprints at the 1987 Masters West Region Championship.
Olympics
Williams mainly competed in the long jump, in which he won a gold medal at the 1972 Olympics and a silver medal in 1976. His 1972 winning jump of 8.24 m (27–4½) set the world junior record that stood for almost 40 years until it was improved by 1 cm by Sergey Morgunov on June 20, 2012. At the time it was the longest standing record on the books. Williams qualified for the 1980 U.S. Olympic team but was unable to compete due to the 1980 Summer Olympics boycott. He did receive one of 461 Congressional Gold Medals created specifically for the athletes.
Hall of Fame
In 2009, Williams was inducted into the National Track and Field Hall of Fame.
References
- USC OLYMPIANS: 1904–2004 Archived September 16, 2018, at the Wayback Machine, USC Trojans Athletic Department, Accessed August 13, 2008.
- "California State Meet Results – 1915 to present". Hank Lawson. Archived from the original on October 6, 2014. Retrieved December 25, 2012.
- National Masters News, Sept 1987, page 31. Retrieved Jun 7, 2022
- Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Randy Williams". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on April 17, 2020.
- "Morgunov leaps 8.35m World junior record* in Cheboksary". Archived from the original on June 23, 2012. Retrieved June 21, 2012.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link). iaaf.org. June 21, 2012 - Caroccioli, Tom; Caroccioli, Jerry (2008). Boycott: Stolen Dreams of the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games. Highland Park, IL: New Chapter Press. pp. 243–253. ISBN 978-0942257403.
- "Randy Williams". usatf.org. USA Track & Field, Inc. Retrieved May 17, 2009.
| Sporting positions | ||
|---|---|---|
Preceded by Ron Coleman
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Men's long jump best year performance 1972 |
Succeeded by James McAlister
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| Olympic champions in men's long jump | |
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   | This article about a track and field Olympic medalist of the United States is a stub. You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it. |
- USA Indoor Track and Field Championships winners
- 1953 births
- American male long jumpers
- Olympic gold medalists for the United States in track and field
- Olympic silver medalists for the United States in track and field
- Athletes (track and field) at the 1972 Summer Olympics
- Athletes (track and field) at the 1976 Summer Olympics
- University of Southern California alumni
- Sportspeople from Fresno, California
- Living people
- Track and field athletes from California
- Medalists at the 1976 Summer Olympics
- Medalists at the 1972 Summer Olympics
- American masters athletes
- 20th-century African-American sportsmen
- 21st-century African-American sportsmen
- American Masters Athlete that competed in Olympics
- NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships winners
- USC Trojans men's track and field athletes
- NCAA Division I Indoor Track and Field Championships winners
- American track and field athletics Olympic medalist stubs