thumb|318x318px|Jenner in 1980
Caitlyn Marie Jenner (born William Bruce Jenner,<!-- SEE MOS:GID, please consult talk page and establish consensus before removing deadname --> October 28, 1949), is an American media personality and retired Olympic gold medal-winning decathlete.
Jenner played college football for the Graceland Yellowjackets before incurring a knee injury that required surgery. Convinced by Olympic decathlete Jack Parker's coach, L. D. Weldon,<!-- has no first name. given name is L. space D. --> to try the decathlon, she competed in decathlon for six years, culminating in winning the men's decathlon event at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal,
Jenner has six children with three successive wivesChrystie Crownover, Linda Thompson, and Kris Jennerand from 2007 to 2021 appeared on the reality television series Keeping Up with the Kardashians with Kris, their daughters Kendall and Kylie Jenner, and stepchildren Kourtney, Kim, Khloé, and Rob Kardashian.
Jenner publicly came out as transgender in April 2015, announcing her new name in July of that year. although her views on transgender issues have been criticized by many other LGBTQ+ activists.
A member of the Republican Party, Jenner ran in the 2021 California gubernatorial recall election, finishing 13th with one percent of the vote. Six months after the election, Jenner was hired by Fox News as an on-air contributor.
Early life
Caitlyn Marie Jenner was born on October 28, 1949, in Mount Kisco, New York, as William Bruce Jenner, and was known as Bruce until June 2015. Jenner's younger brother, Burt, was killed in a car accident in Canton, Connecticut, on November 30, 1976, shortly after Jenner's success at the Olympic Games. and climbed to fifth behind Steve Gough and Andrew Pettes with one event remaining on the Fourth of July. Needing to make up a 19-second gap on Gough in the 1500 meters, Jenner qualified for the Olympic team by finishing first, 22 seconds ahead of the others. This prompted the Eugene Register-Guard to ask: "Who's Jenner?" During this period, Jenner trained at the San Jose City College (SJCC) and San Jose State University (SJSU) tracks. and 8,538 points at the 1976 Olympic trials, also in Eugene. The second Eugene record was a hybrid score because of a timing system failure and it was wind aided. Still, Jenner was proud of what she described as "a nice little workout."
Of the 13 decathlons Jenner competed in between 1973 and 1976, the only loss was at the 1975 AAU National Championships, when a "no height" in the pole vault marred the score. and so adopted a cautious approach to the hurdles and discus. Jenner then had personal bests in the pole vault and javelin.
Olympic world record performance:
- 1973 USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships: 5th (7617 pts)
- 1975 French Athletics Championships: (8058 pts)
- 1976 USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships: (8542 pts)
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Event
! Performance
! Location
! Date
! Points
|-bgcolor=#ccffcc
| Decathlon
|
| align=center | Montreal
| align=right | July 29–30, 1976
| align=right | 8,618 points
|-
| 100 meters
| align=right | 10.94
| align=center | Montreal
| align=right | July 29, 1976
| align=right | 819 points
|-
| Long jump
| align=right |
| align=center | Montreal
| align=right | July 29, 1976
| align=right | 865 points
|-
| Shot put
| align=right |
| align=center | Montreal
| align=right | July 29, 1976
| align=right | 809 points
|-
| High jump
| align=right |
| align=center | Montreal
| align=right | July 29, 1976
| align=right | 882 points
|-
| 400 meters
| align=right | 47.51
| align=center | Montreal
| align=right | July 29, 1976
| align=right | 923 points
|-
| 110 meters hurdles
| align=right | 14.84
| align=center | Montreal
| align=right | July 30, 1976
| align=right | 866 points
|-
| Discus throw
| align=right |
| align=center | Montreal
| align=right | July 30, 1976
| align=right | 873 points
|-
| Pole vault
| align=right |
| align=center | Montreal
| align=right | July 30, 1976
| align=right | 1,005 points
|-
| Javelin throw
| align=right |
| align=center | Montreal
| align=right | July 30, 1976
| align=right | 862 points
|-
| 1500 meters
| align=right | 4:12.61
| align=center | Montreal
| align=right | July 30, 1976
| align=right | 714 points
|-
| colspan=4 align=right | Virtual Best Performance
| align=right bgcolor=#cffcff | 8,618 points
|}
Post-Olympic career
Capitalizing on Olympic fame
thumb|Jenner (right) greets Liberian president [[William Tolbert at the White House on September 21, 1976, as United States President Gerald Ford looks on]]
In the 1970s, Olympic athletes were considered to be amateurs and were not allowed to seek or accept payment for their positions as sports celebrities. During the Cold War in 1972, three major Olympic titles that had a long history of American successbasketball, the 100-meter dash, and decathlonwere won by Soviet athletes. All Soviet athletes were professionals, while the United States was limited to amateurs. The publicity stunt was executed by team president/general manager Joe Axelson to mock the Kansas City Chiefs' yearly claims that they planned on selecting "the best athlete available" in the National Football League Draft. Jenner was presented with a jersey customized with the number 8618, the Olympic gold medal-winning score, but would never appear as an active player with the Kings.
Wheaties spokesperson
thumb|upright|Image of a throwback [[Wheaties cereal box featuring Jenner. The box reflects designs from the 1970s when General Mills used Jenner for promoting their breakfast cereal. A vintage box sold in 2015 on eBay for . (1980) and Grambling's White Tiger (1981). and in the video games Olympic Decathlon She made guest appearances in 2020 and 2021, for the 18th and 20th seasons respectively.
thumb|323x323px|Jenner in 2012
In 2011, Jenner appeared in the Adam Sandler comedy Jack and Jill in a scene with Al Pacino as an actor in a play.
In November 2019, it was announced that Jenner would be participating in the nineteenth series of the British version of I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! after having previously appeared on the American iteration in 2003. Jenner ultimately placed sixth in the competition.
In 2021, Jenner appeared as a contestant in season five of The Masked Singer as "Phoenix", being the second contestant to be unmasked and the first of Group B and the show's first transgender contestant. That same year, Jenner appeared in the Australian version of Big Brother VIP. In 2022, Fox News hired Jenner as an on-air contributor. It was the first time she had appeared on-screen with her family since the final season of their previous reality series Keeping Up with the Kardashians.
Motorsports career
Jenner had a short career as a race car driver in the IMSA Camel GT series (International Motor Sports Association) in the 1980s. In 1980, Jenner was contacted by NASCAR Winston Cup Series team DiGard Motorsports about driving the No. 88 car for the 1981 season; although Jenner expressed interest, Ricky Rudd was ultimately hired for the seat.
In 2022, Jenner founded Jenner Racing, a team in the all-female W Series open-wheel championship. The team lasted just one year before the series folded midseason, though their driver Jamie Chadwick was declared the champion as the points leader when the final races were canceled.
Business
Jenner had licensed her previous name for Bruce Jenner's Westwood Centers for Nautilus & Aerobics in the early 1980s to David A. Cirotto, president of other local Nautilus & Aerobics Centers. She had no ownership in the licensed name centers, Later that year, H&M created a six-minute film featuring Jenner, called Caitlyn Jenner's Greatest Victories: A Timeline.
Personal life
Marriages
Prior to gender transition, Jenner had been married three times, first to Chrystie Scott ( Crownover) from 1972 to 1981. They have two children, including son Burt<!-- Casey Marino not named per WP:BLPNAME -->.
With Israel closing its skies to civilian aviation, Jenner was stranded. She eventually left Israel on June 15 by crossing a land border with Jordan, delaying her departure by only 24 hours. Prior to her departure, her hosts organized a farewell ceremony, which was attended by Tel Aviv's deputy mayor, Asaf Zamir.
Gender transition
Coming out as a transgender woman
thumb|upright|[[The Washington Post commented that Jenner's debut Vanity Fair cover, shot by Annie Leibovitz, had special significance for its subject: "After all the magazine covers that featured the former athlete, once lauded as the 'world's greatest athlete,' the Leibovitz photograph will be the most meaningful. Looking directly at the camera, Jenner is finally herself for the first time publicly."
In a 20/20 television interview with Diane Sawyer in April 2015, Jenner came out as a trans woman, saying that she had dealt with gender dysphoria since her youth and that, "for all intents and purposes, I'm a woman." Jenner wore women's clothing for many years and took hormone replacement therapy but stopped after her romance with Kris Kardashian became more serious, leading to marriage in 1991.
Media attention
In June 2015, Jenner debuted her new name and image, and began publicly using feminine pronoun self-descriptors. Later that month, an episode of Epic Rap Battles of History was released featuring Jenner, as Bruce (portrayed by Peter Shukoff) and then Caitlyn (portrayed by transgender rapper Jolie "NoShame" Drake), rap battling against Bruce Banner (portrayed by Lloyd Ahlquist) then The Hulk (portrayed by Mike O'Hearn).
Reception
General
thumb|upright=0.75|Jenner in 2015
In August 2015, Jenner won the Social Media Queen award at the Teen Choice Awards.
Feminist author Germaine Greer called Glamour magazine's decision to award Jenner with a "Woman of the Year" award misogynistic, questioning whether a transgender woman could be better than "someone who is just born a woman."
Chris Mandle of The Independent stated: "Jenner has gone on to inspire countless men and women, but her comments, which were made after she was celebrated at Glamour magazine's Women Of The Year in New York were branded 'offensive and insulting'." He added: "People began tweeting the other, harder things women have to deal with, such as institutionalized oppression, abuse, and sexual assault".
In 2022, Jenner said that trans swimmer Lia Thomas was not the "rightful winner" of the NCAA Division I women's 500-yard freestyle event, adding "It's not transphobic or anti-trans, it's COMMON SENSE!".
Show and memoir
Jenner's gender transition is the subject of I Am Cait, initially an eight-part TV documentary series, which premiered on E! in July 2015 to an audience of 2.7 million viewers. The show tied for Outstanding Reality Program at the GLAAD Media Awards in 2016.
Politics
Jenner leans towards political conservatism and is a Republican. "I have gotten more flak for being a conservative Republican than I have for being trans", she has said.
Jenner is a supporter and advocate for the Israeli government. In 2024, with pro-Palestinian protests erupting in universities all over the country, Jenner called for the deportation from the United States of the pro-Palestinian protesters.
In February 2017, President Trump rescinded federal requirements giving transgender students the right to choose the school restroom matching their gender identity. In response, Jenner tweeted "Well @realDonaldTrump, from one Republican to another, this is a disaster. You made a promise to protect the LGBTQ community. Call me."
In April 2017, Jenner said she was in favor of same-sex marriage.
In July 2017, Jenner stated that she was contemplating running in the 2018 race for the U.S. Senate to represent California. Later in the month, she condemned Trump for issuing an order to reinstate a ban on transgender people from serving in the military. In her tweet, she wrote "What happened to your promise to fight for them?", juxtaposing it with Trump's tweet from June 2016 in which he promised to fight for the LGBT community. Her reversal came after a Trump administration proposal to restrict the legal definition of a person's gender to that assigned at birth.
In September 2021, Jenner supported the Texas Heartbeat Act which made all post-six-week abortions illegal. She told CNN: "I'm for a woman's right to choose. I am also for a state having the ability to make their own laws."
In April 2024, Jenner again reversed her position by supporting Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election.
In April 2026, she said in a TV interview that she had written to Trump for assistance with difficulties created by her new passport stating her sex as male, according to the new law passed in November 2025. Despite receiving no response from him, she affirmed her support and "love" for Trump. She was widely mocked on social media for her continuing support for the party which was negatively affecting her life.
2021 California gubernatorial recall election
thumb|right|Jenner's gubernatorial campaign logo
In early April 2021, it was reported that Jenner was considering running for Governor of California in the 2021 recall gubernatorial election as a Republican. Later in the month on April 23, Jenner launched her campaign for governor.
In May 2021, during her run, Jenner stated in an interview with TMZ that trans girls should not be allowed to compete in girls' sports at school, backing Republican Party views on transgender people in sports. She has been criticized by many transgender rights advocates who do not see her as an asset to their cause.
In her pitch to voters, Jenner has likened herself to Donald Trump, calling herself a "disrupter" like Trump.
During the campaign, Jenner left the United States, going to Australia in order to compete on that country's television series Big Brother VIP. Although invited to take part in candidate debates, she did not participate. Jenner fought Governor Gavin Newsom in court to prevent the California Secretary of State from placing Newsom's party affiliation on the ballot, and won the legal battle.
Jenner ended up in 13th place with 75,215 votes, which was one percent of the votes cast for replacement candidates.
See also
- History of transgender people in the United States
- List of American sportsperson-politicians
- List of athletes on Wheaties boxes
- List of transgender people