Yang earned silver and Kuznetsov took bronze. Johnson finished just 1.2 seconds and six yards behind Yang to win the gold. Johnson had to finish within 10 seconds of Yang, which was no small feat as Yang was much stronger running at distance than Johnson. Yang won six of the first nine events, but Johnson led by 66 points going into the 1,500 meters, the decathlon's final event. Yang was his primary competition in Rome. Johnson won over the Soviet audience with his gutsy performance in front of what had been a hostile crowd.Ī car accident and subsequent back injury kept Johnson out of competition during 1959, but he was healthy again for the Olympics in 1960. Later that year at a U.S.-Soviet dual meet in Moscow, Johnson beat Kuznetzov by 405 points and reclaimed the world record with 8,302 points. Kuznetzov, a two-time Olympic bronze medalist who the Soviets called their 'man of steel,' broke Johnson's world record in May 1958 with 8,016 points. Johnson, Yang and Kuznetzov had their way with the record books between the 19 Olympics. It was the last time Johnson would ever come in second. Johnson's teammate Milt Campbell, a virtual unknown, gave the performance of his life, finishing with 7,937 points to win gold, 350 ahead of Johnson.

He was forced to withdraw from the long jump, for which he had also qualified, but tried to gut out the decathlon. Olympic team, is shown in Los Angeles on August 6, 1960.Īfter winning the national decathlon championship in 1956, Johnson was the favorite for the Olympics in Melbourne, but pulled a stomach muscle and strained a knee while training. At a welcome home meet afterward in Kingsburg, California, he set his first world record, breaking the mark of two-time Olympic champion and his childhood hero Bob Mathias.Īs a freshman at UCLA, where he received academic and athletic scholarships, Johnson won gold at the the 1955 Pan Am Games, and set a world record of 7,985 points. Johnson won a gold medal at the Pan American Games in 1955 while competing in just his fourth decathlon. and winner of the decathlon at the 1960 Summer Olympics holds the torch aloft to light the Olympic flame during the opening ceremony for the XXIII Olympic Games on July 28 1984, at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Yang of Taiwan and Vasily Kuznetsov of the former Soviet Union. Johnson set world records in the decathlon three different times amid a fierce rivalry with his UCLA teammate C.K. flag at the 1960 Games and lighting the torch at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum to open the 1984 Games.

His Olympic career included carrying the U.S. Johnson was among the world's greatest athletes from 1955 through his Olympic triumph in 1960, winning a national decathlon championship in 1956 and a silver medal at the Melbourne Olympics that same year. He died at his home in the Sherman Oaks section of Los Angeles, according to family friend Michael Roth. Kennedy's assassin in 1968, died Wednesday at age 86. Rafer Johnson, who won the decathlon at the 1960 Rome Olympics and helped subdue Robert F.

Kingsburg dollar store brave