Rafer Johnson
Rafer Lewis Johnson (born
August 18,
1935) is a former
American decathlete.
Johnson was born in
Hillsboro, Texas, but moved to
Kingsburg, California at age 9. In high school, he played on the school's
football,
baseball and
basketball teams. As a versatile athlete, he was attracted to the decathlon after seeing double Olympic Champion
Bob Mathias compete.
He competed in his first meet in
1954, as a freshman at
UCLA. His progress in the event was impressive, and he broke the
world record in his fourth competition. He also pledged Pi Lambda Phi Fraternity, America's first nondiscriminatory fraternity while at UCLA. That same year, he also won the title at the
Pan American Games. Johnson qualified for both the decathlon and the
long jump events for the
1956 Summer Olympics in
Melbourne. However, he was hampered by an injury, and forfeited his place in the long jump. Despite this, he managed to take second place in the decathlon, finishing behind his compatriot
Milt Campbell. It would turn out to be his last defeat in the event.
Due to injury, Johnson missed the
1957 and
1959 seasons (the latter due to a car accident), but in
1958 and
1960, he improved the world record two more times. The crown on his career came in 1960, at the
Rome Olympics. His most important opponent was
Yang Chuan-Kwang of
Taiwan. Yang also studied at UCLA, and the two were training together and had become friends. After 9 events, Johnson lead Yang, but Yang was thought to be capable of overcoming this gap in the final event, the 1500 m. Johnson however managed to cling on to Yang, and won the gold.
After this gold medal, Johnson ended his athletic career. In 1960, he began acting in
motion pictures and worked as a sportscaster. In
1968, he worked on the presidential election campaign of
Robert Kennedy and was one of those present who helped wrestle Kennedy's assassin,
Sirhan Sirhan to the floor. Sixteen years later, he was chosen to ignite the
Olympic Flame during the opening ceremonies of the
1984 Summer Olympics in
Los Angeles.
Johnson made several film appearances including the
James Bond film
Licence to Kill as a DEA agent.
Johnson's autobiography, "The Best That I Can Be" was published in 1998.
Johnson's brother,
Jimmy, is a member of the
Pro Football Hall of Fame and his daughter,
Jennifer, competed in
beach volleyball at the
2000 Olympic Games in
Sydney.
*
Olympic medalists in athletics
