Mac Wilkins

Mac Wilkins

Personal information
Full name	Maurice Malcolm Wilkins
Nationality	American
Born	November 15, 1950 (1950-11-15) (age 73) Eugene, Oregon, U.S.
Height	1.93 m (6 ft 4 in)
Weight	115 kg (254 lb)
Sport
Country	United States
Sport	Athletics
Event	Discus throw
Achievements and titles
Personal best	70.98 m (1980)
Medal record Men's athletics Representing the United States Olympic Games 1976 Montreal Discus throw 1984 Los Angeles Discus throw Pan American Games 1979 San Juan Discus throw

Mac Maurice Wilkins (born November 15, 1950) is an American athlete, who competed mainly in the discus throw. He was born in Eugene, Oregon and graduated in 1969 from Beaverton High School in Beaverton, Oregon

Wilkins competed for the United States in the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Canada in the discus throw, where he won the gold medal with a distance of 221' 5" to defeat Wolfgang Schmidt of East Germany by four feet.

Wilkins also won a silver medal in the discus throw at the 1984 Summer Olympics held in Los Angeles, after missing the 1980 games due to the American boycott. He was 5th in the 1988 Games in Seoul Korea.

Famous distance running coach Bill Bowerman recruited Wilkins to the University of Oregon, where he threw the javelin 78.44m, 257' 8" 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 the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame in 1994.

With the death of Al Oerter on 1 October 2007, Wilkins is the earliest surviving Olympic champion in the men's discus. He is not the oldest as Viktor Rashchupkin, the 1980 champion, is almost exactly 1 month older.

Wilkins broke the world record four times in his career. During his discus throw series on May 1, 1976 in San Jose, California, he set the world record three times with consecutive throws of 69.80m, 70.24m, and 70.86m.

In 1976 and 1980, Wilkins was ranked #1 in the world in the discus throw. He was national champion indoors in the shot put in 1977 with a best of 21.06m, 69' 1.5".

From 2006 thru 2013, Wilkins was the throws coach at Concordia University, an NAIA school in Portland, Oregon. His throwers won 26 individual national championships and earned 94 All-American honors.

In August 2013, Wilkins left Concordia University to coach for USATF in Chula Vista California.

External links

• Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Mac Wilkins". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 2016-12-04.
• Wilkins at the 1976 US. Olympic Trials Video on YouTube @ 30:55