Brian Oldfield, who placed sixth in the shot put at the 1972 Olympics but made a much bigger impact elsewhere in his sport, will speak at the opening ceremonies today at 10:30 a.m. Dave Johnson, the bronze medalist in the decathlon in 1992, will speak at an athletes' breakfast Saturday at 7 a.m.
Competition begins today at 11 a.m. and runs through 8 p.m. Action resumes Saturday at 9 a.m. and should wrap up by 5:30. Among the meet highlights are a five-event pentathlon competition featuring six girls and boys, a mile run on Saturday at which invited college runners will take aim at running the first sub-4:00-minute mile in Alaska, and the appearances of Oldfield and Johnson.
Oldfield revolutionized his sport by being the first to succeed with the spinning delivery style that's now used universally. He went pro after the 1972 Munich Games and registered distances unheard of in his sport, including a throw of 75 feet in 1975. But the effort wasn't acknowledged as a world record because it came in an era when the track and field record book didn't recognize professionals.
Johnson gained famed in the months leading up to the Barcelona Olympics, when he and fellow American decathlete Dan O'Brien were the subjects of Reebok's Dan-and-Dan "Clash of the Titans" campaign. But the clash never materialized, because O'Brien no-heighted in the pole vault at the Olympic Trials and failed to make the U.S. team.
Despite a foot fracture suffered before the Olympics, Johnson won the bronze medal to become the first American to claim a medal since Bruce Jenner won gold in 1976.
The Big C Relays are co-hosted by Grace Christian and Anchorage Christian schools, and Johnson and Oldfield are here through the aid of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.
Important warning about e-mails purporting to be from the adn.com staff.