European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 21, 1977, Darmstadt, Hesse Olympic Star Bruce Jenner at Dusseldorf Germany in his new role As . Network to sportscaster. By Mike Spear staff writer a year after putting in one of the greatest \ olympic decathlon performances of All / \ time Bruce Jenner is putting a big Effort into a new career to sport casting. My and if he trained six and seven hours a he Day for years to win the olympics his i my schedule is different now Only in the Type of training he s doing. Many Days As color Man doing actualities for Abc Are longer than those training Days of the he did t have to Start at the Bottom in his new Field but then he came to the Job with excellent credentials. If you re the world s greatest athlete the name that came automatically with the decathlon Victory you have to know something about sports. If your name is a household word in America and you Are handsome an glib you re made to order for television. Then if you majored in College in Public speaking and have wide experience speaking before audiences from High schools and colleges to conventions what else do you need basically on the Job experience. And Jenner s getting that aplenty. Ultimately he Hopes to graduate from Clorman to full time network sportscaster. Jenner does t kid himself about his new Job. I there because of the olympics he says. And it is obviously where he wants to be. He has no regrets about his Deci Sion to leave Amateur athletics after his olympic decathlon Victory. When he watches top athletes compete As he did recently in Dusseldorf during the world cup track and Field meet he says he gets no urge to return to Competition. And he s convincing. It s surprising i really Don t care to go Back. I feel very satisfied with my athletic performances of the past. I accomplished everything i wanted to accomplish and i Amateur athletics there s really no higher you can go than winning the olympic games and having the world nowadays Jenner wears the Pale yellow Blazer of Abc s wide world of sports and his conversation and to commentating is animated and filled with such superlatives As great tremendous and really very in his conversation the word fun pops up often. Some How it does t come across immediately that he is Capa ble of the kind of dedication that drove him to train for six and seven hours a Day for nearly 10 years to achieve what he wanted. For me the fun was sort of the climb to the top hews saying from a Stool among the television monitors and cameras under the roof of Disseldorf s Rhein stadium. I made the decision a Long time before that i would quit after the 76 games and i have stuck with it and i really does t bother me. I really did t have the motivation to keep the Competition looks like fun but All the work it takes to be out there to be Able to perform Well Tome just does t seem Worth it the world s greatest athlete is a title that comes because of the varied demands of the decathlon. It is considered the hardest of All olympic track and Field events and with Good reason. It is made up of 10 events that must be performed Over two Days and they tax the limits of an athlete s ability. There is the 100 meter dash Long jump shot put High jump 400 meter race 110 meter hurdles discus throw pole vault javelin throw and 1,500 meter Montreal Jenner won it with 8,618 Points which is 164 More Points than Nikolai Avnilov of Russia got i Munich in 1972 and 425 More than Bill Toomey of the . Won with in Mexico City in 1968. Jenner does t kid himself about his new Job. I m Here because of the olympics " s4s by Mike Spear when Jenner completed the last event in Montreal the1,500 meter race Many who saw it on television will re member him leaping in the air with the intoxication of Victory and running a Victory Lap carrying a Small . Flag. Then he mounted the Victory stand with guid Kratschmer of West Germany who was second and Avnilov who was third and kissed his Gold May figure that a big letdown had to follow but Jenner says games opened other doors for me and i be been Able to do other things. Like i work for Abc sports audit s fun it s enjoyable. I not Only do track and Field for them i be done motorcycle races and the superstar Competition. It s challenging to try to come across the Way you should and hopefully not make i had placed second it would have been a lot More difficult because these things would t have been coming in. And so in that Way there has t been a tremendous let Down. I be been pretty psyched up All the Way but if his Job now is fun his Long years of training in the past weren t exactly disagreeable either he says. I found the decathlon such a challenging event. There were so Many things i had to do and learn. It was inter Esting for me. It was always was so much technique to learn. There was a tremendous amount of running to be done. I had to do weightlifting. I would go at least six or seven hours a Day All year around. If i was going to win the olympic game Iliad to get out there and put the time during his years As a de athlete Jenner always found the Long jump the most frustrating. I never was a very Good Long jumper and i always thought i should be Able to go farther but i could t seem to get out there. I was a better thrower than runner but i Montreal running was my Best event. I ran personal bests in All three running events. My running was the thing that brought me through the As a competitor the 6-foot-2 Lethander weighed 190pounds. Today at 28 he is nearly 10 pounds lighter. He says that s because he never seems to get around treating. When he was training he says he had to Force him self to Dusseldorf Jenner was bursting with nervous Energy As he and Jim Mckay put together a show on the world cup for transmission by satellite Back to the states. Whenever there were speech pauses indicated he would beat out a fast rhythmic cadence on his thighs with his hands then on Cue he would come in with a bit of expertise on some aspect of throwing the javelin or heaving the shot put. He was in his element there was no doubt about it. It s scary at first he says of television work. Intakes a while to learn. You have to know a lot about your sport and do your first Day i walked in i d never even held a Micro phone before and they said Here try to say something intelligent i be been interviewed an awful lot so i Felt Comfort Able in front of the camera but it s a Little bit of a shaky experience the first i m working As i am Here with Jim i la usually speak right off the cuff without notes. I la write Down cer Tain facts if i need them but if i Start Reading the stuff it sounds like i m Reading Montreal Jenner and his wife Chrystie formed 8618 incorporated the title Corning from the number of Points in his decathlon Victory. All business connected with him goes through it his wheaties and Abc con tracts and other endorsements. Chrystie runs it and they Lemuei de athlete on the air both draw salaries. They both have found time to writ books on their experiences which will be published this s Abc Job requires that he travel often but he does t always leave Chrystie at Home. When i go to a Small town in Indiana i Don t see to see her but when i come Here to Germany or to the Bahamas next week or Hawaii she s right army Side. She s very selective. She picks All the Good Jenner takes pain to explain his approach to sports casting. I m trying to build a career so i can stay motivated stay in these areas for a Long time. As an announcer i m trying to do it my Way. When i try to copy someone style it conies out terrible. I m not trying to capitalize and make a lot of attitude has been just to try and take things slow and easy. I know All the athletes and i enjoy working if Jenner no longer competes in track and Field he has t dropped sports. His main interests now Are Tennis Motocross racing and sailing which he does mostly when at Home in Malibu Calif. Motocross racing has taken its toll on him. Just recently he got a cast off his leg following surgery on knee tendons the result of a Motocross Accident. He says his garage is filled with toys now and the irony of his situation amuses the games i could t afford to buy anything and now i be got the Money but because of the position m in they give me the stuff. Where were these people before the games when i could have really had a lot of fun As a color Man Jenner works with such announcers a Mckay Howard Cosell and Keith Jackson and he is both Happy and awed by was a sports announcer Long before i even started working on the decathlon he says. There s so much i can learn from him and and the have there been any classic slips while on the air not really. I had a really bad interview with Housto Mctear the sprinter though. Every question i asked was worded so that All he had to do was answer yes or never did get off the ground and it was my fault. And i be never let any profanity slip out although ican get very profane if i get mad Jenner sees hard times ahead for american Amateur athletes with the huge emphasis on sports in the Eastern bloc countries. He believes there is a Strong possibility that americans will suffer wide defeats in Moscow s 1980 olympics. It la take that to get the american people whore caught up so completely in professional sports to it behind the Amateur athletic program. Now it just something that interests them every four years during the he believes people May be turning towards Amateur sports. They re getting a Little tired of All the commercialism that s going on he says and mentions sports Page where half the stories Are about huge Money contracts. With Amateur sports it s clean. There s no Money Init. You re doing it because you love it. But the Amateur tag carries the connotation of not being , look at these people like Mac Wilkins and Al Berto Juantorena. These Guys Are professional in the sense that they Are the Best at what they do in the world. They re just not getting paid for have to get our own act together on Amateur athletics. You look at the United states. We have the Best facilities the Best doctors and the Best coaches in the world. Most All of the new ideas in track and Field com out of the United states. There is no reason Why we can t be the Best in the Jenner s Rise to the top As a de athlete came under the Tutelage of l. D. Weldon a former record Holder in the javelin. It was Weldon who got him interested in the decathlon and who convinced him that he could go to the top. When i look Back on that time it was a very important crossroad in my .4ti Enow mfg Jenner exulting As he placed second in 1,500-meter run at Montreal in july 1976 to win Gold medal in decathlon. Jenner had just completed High school in Newtown,conn., and was going to commute to a nearby College. Then l. D. Called me and said they needed another quarterback at Graceland College at Lamoni Iowa. He said not to worry about anything just to get out there. I never been that far away before and i was shaky about it let me Tell , a decathlon coach used the quarterback bit As bait and Jenner did play football at Graceland but Eldon saw in Jenner an athlete who could meet All the demands of the decathlon and very soon he convinced him that he could make it to the top. There was another Crossroads Jenner remember swell. It came at the end of his first year at Graceland. I had surgery on my knee after my freshman year offo Ball and it was generally a disappointing year. That summer 1969 i was a competitive water skier up an Down the East coast. A Friend of mine at Cypress Gar Dens fla., said Why Don t you come Down Here. I know can get you a Job i was in Virginia at the time and i thought i had Lousy sports year there was no reason to go Back to col lege i was t that excited about the school or anything. Thought i could go Down to Florida and have a Ball you know partying just having some fun take a year not so i m lying in bed in Virginia and that morning i thinking which Way should i go should i go North and Back to school or should i go South finally i got up Andi still had t made the decision. So i jumped into the car and started driving towards the interstate not knowing whether i would go North or South. I m getting closer and closer to the interstate and i thinking what do i do and then As i m just getting to the interstate this car on my left pulls up and it blocked me from making a turn to the South and so i wound up going North and Back to rest is history. Back at Graceland he met Chrystie and went on to make the 1972 olympic decathlon he did poorly in Munich he was bitten by the olympic Bug and four years later he broke the record a Montreal. By Richard flast new York times he uncontrollable child has always been viewed As a big problem. Thais especially True today. One hears that american shave a tendency to Over Praise their children and allow them to run wild. Discipline it said is what the children need. But Phillip Zimbardo a social psychologist at Stanford University views shyness the fear of asserting oneself in relationships with others As a far greater problem than any Lack of discipline. Shyness he says is a National asserts that parents in the United states generally act As if they were William Buckley in a debate. The disdainfully criticize their children for failure. Or some times they re just sarcastic about it which hurts parental scorn in Zimbardo s View derives in part from their own Uncertain position in the world. The want their children to do Well because successful Chil Dren Are a boost to parental status. On the other Han they Don t want their children to be too assertive too questioning because that threatens parental upshot Zimbardo said in an interview is that Many children Are caught in a bind. They must keep alow profile to be sure they Don t fail and evoke criticism. Everybody becomes a potential critic so these children keep their distance they re shy. Paradoxically the Low profile that helps them evade criticism also prevent them from reaching out for Success and thus gaining the esteem of others and making friends. I get so depressed Zimbardo said sitting in elementary school classes Day after Day and seeing these kids who Are nearly autistic their lips move but the never sing shyness As Zimbardo describes it is a crippling affliction. It diminishes a child s or an adult s ability to think. Shy people Are so fearful of Blunder ing and being rejected that when they face a task All they worry about is the pounding of their heartland whether they re about to make fools of them selves again. It is a condition Zimbardo writes in his recent Book shyness that will get worse in the coming years As social forces increase our isolation Competition and Zimbardo and his colleagues have been studying shy Ness for five years surveying 5,000 adults and children in the United states and other countries. They be inter viewed hundreds in depth. Zimbardo has concluded that shyness is mostly a cultural phenomenon rare in some societies and pervasive in others. The extreme examples he uses Are Israel and Japan he says shyness is instilled in the children As a Means of total control the Choice is to learn to be inhibited or pay the Price of rejection. In Israel however chutzpah is valued and every Success is praised while failures Are noted and allowed to pass. In the United states Zimbardo said there s a Little of each. We Don t give children As much credit for Success As we should although it s not a Complete denial of Praise like you find in Japan. But we Are hard on them for failure. Children Are held up to invidious comparisons wesak look How Bright your brother is or How Bright the next door neighbor is. And we make love contingent nonperformance on How Well they do. As a consequence the performance becomes everything and some children can t Bear to perform at the performances of life rather than substance Are what he sees As being All important in the parents behaviour too. There Are very few people i know who Don t live lives of quiet desperation. How Many parents feel real intrinsic satisfaction in what they re doing How Many have jobs they really like no they like so Many of their children live and die on the strength of each Success and each failure. But they keep that feeling from their said that when he asked the parents of 10q Junior High school students How they Felt about them selves 40 per cent said they were shy people. But when the children were asked if their parents were shy few had any inkling about their Parent s fears. Sometimes children Don t Start out shy they just Star tout quiet. Being quiet can Lead to being trapped. Once a child who does t talk much is viewed As a shy child the Label Sticks. It becomes hard to talk at All. People find it comfortable to think of others in consistent ways Zimbardo said. There s the talkative child the shy child the Clown. As soon As you say somebody is shy it explains their actions you can subsume All kinds of behaviour under it. As soon As that child starts to get talkative for one reason or another it will be treated As a deviant act Well what got into you somebody which of course is a Good Way to make a child feel some parents will protest that no they really Don t want their children to be shy. Zimbardo is sceptical. What they really mean by that he said i that they Don t want their children to be so excessively shy that it s embarrassing sometimes Chil Dren won t even answer when you talk to them and that s when the parents get but if parents really do want to help a shy child what should they do Zimbardo said the first step is to Analyse the family interactions and see if the child is trapped in stereotype that can be broken. Next parents ought to Start talking to the child More especially about the child s shyness and their own. That provides the child with More conversation around the House Zimbardo believes with others that one problem with shy people is that they Haven t acquired necessary social skills. It also makes the Parent seem More human less frightening. When a youngster fails parents and child ought to walkabout the failure in the context of what went wrong but All the while the parents have to leave the impression that the child is loved regardless of performance. And parents he said should publicly proclaim their unconditional love for their children. Zimbardo would rather see children filled with chutzpah than fear. Page 14 the stars and stripes wednesday september 21,1977 the stars and stripes Page 15
