Original subtitles

First, an Olympic champion,

Bruce Jenner!

It's all over.

It's all over.

I've always had these issues going through me,

but without them, I don't think I ever would have accomplished what I did.

I was just so average.

Well, actually, I was below average.

I was dyslexic,

and I had identity issues.

But then, in fifth-grade gym class,

the coach says, "Run around the chairs," and timed every kid.

I wound up having the fastest time in the whole school.

My life changed forever at that point.

If I would have been average,

good student, no identity issues,

I wouldn't have needed sports.

But for me, I needed it...

because I was different.

Nobody knew it, but down in my soul, I was different.

So I built this Bruce character.

And Bruce was a good person.

Bruce did a lot with his life,

and I'm very proud of what he was able to accomplish.

Honestly,

I would kind of like to honor him.

But, you know what?

Caitlyn was always living down deep inside.

♪ Stranger's arms ♪

♪ Reach out to me ♪

♪ 'Cause they know ♪

♪ I'm so lonely ♪

♪ Then my mind ♪

♪ Goes back to you ♪

♪ And your sweet love ♪

♪ Sees me through ♪

Hey, girl!

Come here.

Come here, come here, come here.

What are you doing? What? I know.

Tch, tch, tch, tch, tch.

This is a very cute shot we've used.

We're in Hawaii, and I'm taking Kendall and Kylie,

and I'm putting 'em on top in the air like that.

And they thought that was just great fun.

Actually, this is kind of interesting.

I got a Guinness World Record,

and it's the fastest time to reach one million followers on Twitter.

I did it in four hours and three minutes.

You know who I beat out?

Barack Obama did it in five...

5.4 or something like that.

I beat him out by an hour.

And, actually, here's... I had framed, "Happy Father's Day."

My phone's ringing.

It's in the other room.

It's Mom.

Well, you're being filmed right now.

I don't need to be filmed, honey.

I know you don't need to be filmed. Don't worry.

All right, I'll call you in a little bit.

- Love you. - Love you. Bye.

Bye.

That's Mom.

My mother, 92.

And still sharp as a whip.

But she's actually been a great support to me over the years.

Great support,

because, you know, I lost my dad way before I transitioned, any of that.

That's always been a regret, that my dad didn't know my story.

I had a good relationship with my dad.

We were always close because of sports.

He loved Bruce. You know, his boy.

Never knowing my whole story.

When I was ten, eleven,

I would sneak into my mom's closet.

And if the parents were all gone, I would dress up,

try things on,

put some lipstick on.

Scared to death I would get caught, but I never did.

It just was so taboo to do.

I always wondered, "Am I doing this for, like, a high?"

"Is that the excitement? Am I just, like, a risk-taker?"

So I've just always dealt with confusion in my soul.

But when sports came around,

it became that little arena where I could escape.

The place where I could shine.

When it came to sports, he'd be into basketball.

And when basketball was over, he was into track.

And when track was over, he was into waterskiing.

So, he was very, very competitive.

To be honest, because of being dyslexic

and not having confidence in myself intellectually,

I never thought I'd go to college,

but this small school in Lamoni, Iowa, Graceland College,

offered me this little deal to play football.

And that's where I met Chrystie.

I met Bruce the first day of school.

This person just came running up to me that I'd never met

and said, "Will you go to the movie with me Friday night?"

And I...

"Okay."

And then he ran away.

He was really funny,

and he didn't know how handsome he was.

He was just the boy next door.

I remember we were talking about gymnastics...

and he said, "Oh, I love gymnastics."

And then he did handsprings and backflips across the lawn,

like, he was just gone.

It was so surprising and so impressive,

and I was just learning how he could do anything.

He could just do anything.

January 2nd, 1969.

I was playing linebacker to try to block a punt.

- I got through the line. - Gone.

Just getting ready to jump,

and the single safety hit me right in my knee

when it was planted firmly in the ground.

Bang. Tore it up.

And I thought, "That's the end of sports. I'm done with that."

"I don't think my knee's gonna make it through that."

And I remember seeing him walk around with a cast on his leg,

and he would sit around and sulk.

Moody. It was a horrible time for him when he was injured.

I didn't know what I was gonna do.

I didn't know if my knee would come back.

I didn't think I would make it through that,

and I didn't know what my future was.

But LD Weldon, the track-and-field coach,

got his hands on him and said,

"I think you'd be better at the decathlon,"

and the rest is history.

I was really impressed with Bruce because he'd listen to you

and he had a desire to just do the very best he could possibly do.

I had no idea what I was getting into,

but my sophomore year, I ran my first decathlon.

That one race,

that changed everything.

One race.

I remember walking up to the line,

and the adrenal glands just hit.

Bam!

My heartbeat went from 80 to 180, just like that.

And I'm thinking,

"If there was ever an event that's got my name on it,

this is it."

It just intrigued me.

The history behind it intrigued me.

1912, the winner of the first decathlon was Jim Thorpe.

And the king of Sweden said to Jim,

"You are truly the greatest athlete in the world."

So they give you that title.

And that was pretty much my obsession from that point on.

That year, I actually broke the school record

for the decathlon at Graceland.

And then my senior year, in 1972, I made it on my first Olympic team.

I was a nobody.

I never should have made it on the team, but I did.

It was by far the biggest athletic thrill of my life.

The decathlon is ten events.

There are five events the first day, five events the second day.

But each event contradicts the next.

Shot put, you can get bigger and stronger and throw the shot farther.

But the next event's the high jump. You can't get off the ground.

Where is that balance?

Not only physically,

but mentally.

The competition is so intense.

Nobody ever beats the decathlon.

I didn't have a chance.

I got tenth.

But then the most significant thing happened after.

I wanted to stay around to watch the ceremony.

I'd never seen an Olympic gold medal ceremony happening right in front of me.

I stood up on the side,

and I watched this guy, Nikolai Avilov of the Soviet Union,

and I was totally impressed with this human being.

He had just won the decathlon.

And watched him receive his medal.

I said to myself,

"That's it."

"That's what I want right there."

After he came home,

Bruce talked about Avilov a lot.

I remember Bruce talking about Avilov as godlike.

Avilov was a very gifted athlete.

And he had such a big impact on my life.

He had good skills.

He was talented.

He obviously worked hard.

But mentally, he was extraordinarily strong.

He had everything.

He was from the Soviet Union in the middle of the Cold War.

The Soviet Union would have athletic camps for young kids

where they're trained, and they're worked, and they're put into sports schools,

and they're gonna cultivate these great athletes.

That was Avilov.

And I always thought,

"They never would have picked me to be on one of those teams."

I had this war going on inside me.

"Are you really trans? Are you gay?"

I didn't know anything about that, so you just keep your mouth shut.

But I thought, "What if I take the next four years of my life

and every minute of every day,

I test myself to see how good I could become at something?"

An opportunity to prove myself, prove my masculinity,

prove myself to the world that I'm a worthwhile human being.

If I can win an Olympic gold medal,

maybe I can prove these issues don't even exist.

I never understood why it was that important.

But I did know that he was struggling with this dissatisfaction within himself.

So we got married,

and I told him, "I can support you,

and I can help you get to those track meets,

and, you know, let's do this."

I got a transfer to San Jose, and we moved in spring of '73.

I found this apartment next to San Jose City College,

and then the one that was in the back, overlooking the track,

I said, "This has gotta be the one."

Wanna go for a run, Berth? Come on, let's go.

See you in an hour, Bruce.

My life back between 1972 and 1976,

very simple.

I got up and I trained.

Chrystie and I were living in this little one-bedroom apartment,

and we thought we'd love to have a little dog.

I saw in the paper that there was, like, ten puppies,

and she was the one that was on the outside.

And Bertha became my best friend.

Went to every workout,

and I dug a hole so she could go under the fence.

Come on, Berth!

Trained six to eight hours a day, every day, 365 days out of the year.

Just get it in, get it in, get it in, get it in.

I didn't have a coach. I had to do all my training on my own,

so it was just us.

15.1, Bruce. Not too bad!

Snap it up next time.

This was in the '70s.

You couldn't make any money in the sport. The last year of the amateur athlete.

So I got a job part-time as an insurance agent,

and Chrystie was a flight attendant.

So between the two of us, we could make ends meet.

And then on the weekends,

I was competing in track meets all over the world.

At night, I'd dream about the Games, I'd dream about the technique.

I was obsessed with getting the most out of myself.

On the left of your screen is Bruce Jenner.

This is not a great event for Bruce.

- Mirabeau... - I'm not a great sprinter,

so the 100 meters was always a challenge.

...but to keep pushing to get that time.

I was frustrated

because I needed to get better.

He was an incredible athlete,

but it just seemed like he was always struggling with his form on the hurdles.

Come on, Bruce!

Bruce really needed somebody he could train with.

This is one.

This is a picture taken at City College, and this is Bruce, back...

This was back in our training days.

We were pretty buffed out back then.

Bruce hanging on my arm.

I had read an article where Bruce Jenner had just won an all-comers meet,

and here's a picture of this great-looking guy running,

and I'm thinking, "Yeah, I'm gonna go to San Jose."

I go into the YMCA, and lo and behold, there's Bruce.

He's doing a weight workout.

Walks up to me and basically says, "Hey, I wanna train for the decathlon."

And I went, "Okay. Follow."

We'd started running together, going to the track together.

We started lifting together.

The hardest part about this is trying to get the weight up on top of you, okay?

Put 'em on your knees, and then lean back and kick one leg and the other leg, right?

Sort of one right behind each other and get it up. Okay.

When we trained, he'd talk about Nikolai Avilov.

Bruce always said, "This is the guy I'm gonna have to beat to win."

He wanted to break his world record.

So we would do clean and jerks.

This is not just lifting weights. This is an athletic move.

We got that up to over 300 pounds.

Even after the weights, we'd go back out and run again.

He would talk about running that 1500 meters

and running Avilov down at the end.

Every day, he seemed to get faster,

more powerful.

He started to gain his momentum and winning competitions.

There you see Bruce Jenner, shows tremendous speed. There he goes.

And that's a good jump.

You can hear the grunt.

I always felt mentally weaker than everybody else.

That became my greatest asset.

I was a lot more dedicated.

I was a lot more intense about it.

I wasn't told to do this. I wasn't brought up to do this.

It was me. I wanna be better than everybody else,

I wanna train harder than everybody else,

because I needed that in my life.

The year before the Olympics, people started recognizing Bruce.

Bruce Jenner of San Jose, California.

He's out to better his record at the Summer Olympic Games in Montreal.

They knew that he was a favorite to compete against Avilov.

The pressure was really on then.

Next year is a biggie, right?

- Ooh, you can say that again. - Are we gonna get it?

I feel confident that Freddy and myself are gonna be right in there.

I see the top three right now, Fred, myself, and Avilov.

- Next year for the Olympics? - Well, it's 11 months from right now.

The chances... I have just as good a chance as anybody,

and probably better than most, to win it.

Hopefully, we'll be up there. We'll be competitive, I'm sure.

The only way I can compete and to win is to put everything into it.

Right now, my attitude is the Olympic Games.

I'm gonna sacrifice anything I have to do.

In the 1500 meters now. Jenner is running for the title.

Jenner.

All of a sudden, Jenner now gets a challenge.

This will help Jenner

because it will ensure the fact that that seven seconds is gonna be there.

Jenner now fighting desperately

because he doesn't like to lose to anybody,

especially Tito from Argentina.

There we go. On past...

It's a long time. Um...

But it's unreal for me to experience this,

and so, I-I just couldn't be more happy and more excited.

How much does it mean to you

for your children to see their dad win a major championship?

It's special just to have them here.

Luckily, I was able to win.

Thank you for that, and what a great champion.

Around here, that will never be...

Good for him.

You know, watching Tiger win,

I mean, I appreciate the work that goes into it.

You know, everybody has to overcome obstacles in life.

Everybody's got stuff in their life that they have to deal with.

And over the last, you know, 11 years, he's been through a lot.

Physical, emotional,

scandals, you name it.

Embarrassment.

But he overcame that. I mean, one regret I have,

that my kids, who are the closest in my life right now,

weren't there when I was competing.

...four game winning, second-

Ladies and gentlemen of the Plattsburgh area,

let me say that

it's really a great privilege and a very high honor

to have the opportunity to be here in Plattsburgh.

Let me congratulate all of you

for the accomplishment of making the American Olympic team in 1976.

And on behalf of all Americans,

good luck and God bless you.

- Bruce, would you sign this picture? - Sure. Sure.

I'll be around for the next few days, so we can get as many as you want.

- That one's there right there. All right. - Thank you!

You're so nice!

How's that? There you go. All right? Good enough.

- One more! - Thank you!

You're in here, buddy.

They put all of us in vans, and they drove us up to Montreal.

One of my motivating factors

was that I was never gonna do this again after the Games.

I had to give up too much to be there.

Win, lose, draw.

Whatever it is, I'm done.

When I got to Montreal, I was nervous.

I was tense.

There were about 70 of us.

My family was there.

His parents, of course.

Cousins, friends.

The athletes themselves get tickets,

and so, Bruce and Chrystie said, "Do you want a ticket?"

Well, heck yeah! I'm going to Montreal.

Autographed pictures of Bruce Jenner, right here!

Chrystie and I were talking, and we go,

"Bertha should go." You know, she did every workout.

The least she can do is go to the Games.

The Olympics are the biggest happening in the world.

Over 200 countries come together for good,

highlighting the best of humanity.

I got to witness how big they are, the pageantry,

the history behind the Olympic Games,

the colors, the country.

This is bigger than anything you've ever done in your entire life.

From Montreal, the Games of the 21st Olympiad,

an exclusive presentation of ABC Sports.

Today, it all begins from the great new Olympic Stadium.

Next week, we'll begin our coverage of the decathlon.

The most demanding event in Olympic track-and-field, the decathlon...

Ten events in just two days, ending with a grueling 1500 meters run.

And the man who wins is generally hailed as the world's greatest athlete.

And when it's over, they say, it will be Bruce Jenner of the United States

and Nikolai Avilov of the Soviet Union.

The hardest part is

the decathlon's always near the end of the Games.

You go to the big hype, you get there,

and then it's almost two weeks after the opening ceremonies,

you finally get to run the decathlon.

I didn't wanna speak to anybody.

Just leave me alone.

Bruce Jenner, position three.

Dick Schaap has two athletes from each team with him

in the studios of CFCF in Montreal.

Good morning, Dick.

Good morning, Lloyd. I hope it's not quite as early there as it is here.

We have four of the American Olympians. Bruce, your competition begins Thursday.

I have three more days to go before I have to compete.

All the work has been done. Yesterday, I had my last training session.

So now it's just three days of rest. I stay off my legs

and get myself mentally prepared, really, for the competition.

That's it, gentlemen. Thank you.

I did not train to be on TV.

I didn't train to get paid.

I trained my butt off eight hours a day

to stand on the same stage as the guys that had gone before me.

I wanted that title of the greatest athlete in the world.

...the athletics competitions of the Games of the 21st Olympiad.

As soon as I get inside the stadium, I look over,

and I see Avilov on the other side of the track.

8,454 points, the world record by Avilov.

The event starts at ten o'clock in the morning and runs through the day,

and the first event, the 100-meter dash.

It's a scary thing to go through.

When you have that much time and energy

and work invested in something like that,

and you get one try.

Come on!

Oh!

I think he broke 11! I think he broke 11.

As I was slowing down, I kind of had a hard time slowing down.

Maybe I did okay.

Finally, when my time was put up on the board, I ran 10.94.

And it was the fastest 100 meters of my life.

And I thought, "Whoa!"

10.94.

819 points for Jenner. So Jenner is...

The second event in the decathlon, the long jump.

Here, I think you can expect Avilov to excel,

as well as Kratschmer, and the standings...

Avilov, a very good long jumper,

so I can't lose too much ground to him.

...and Samara of the United States.

Now we're gonna see Bruce Jenner in the long jump.

Bruce Jenner, this is not one of his real strong events,

his personal record twenty-three eight,

but it's a good leap by Bruce Jenner!

Very good leap by Jenner!

That is a good jump, I guess.

Looks good.

- 7.05! - 7.05! What'd you say he wanted?

- 7.21, but it... - He got it!

No, no. No, no. It's, uh... It's still not as good as he wants.

That really ticked me off,

because I knew Avilov's ready to go.

We look now at the defending champion, Nikolai Avilov.

Smooth. Confidently.

On the board! Good. Good reach on the board.

He hit it right on the money.

Thrust himself forward to save precious centimeters.

And he should... Oh, he does have a good one.

Twenty-four eight for 925 points.

So Avilov should move up off that jump.

Go, Jenner, go! Go, Jenner, go! Go, Jenner, go!

Fine throw by Bruce Jenner!

I put it just a little over 50 feet, 4 inches.

And it got me up to second place.

Now we've come to the event that is a favorite of Nikolai Avilov.

He's outstanding in the high jump.

Avilov watches Bruce Jenner of the United States,

who is going at six-eight,

and this will be a new personal record for Jenner.

I took my first two attempts.

- Oh! - Didn't make it.

And I'm down to my third and final attempt.

I remember standing back there, getting ready to go.

And looking at that bar and just thinking,

"If I don't do this,

it's over."

Oh yeah!

Bruce Jenner! And again, he cleared it with something to spare.

882 points for Jenner.

Bruce is delighted. Why wouldn't he be?

Now let's come back to the man who considers this his event.

Seven feet, 1/4 inch, the bar.

Got it!

I don't think he even touched it!

Nikolai Avilov clears at seven feet, 1/4 inch.

On the decathlon scale, it is 975 points,

and it's a new personal record for Avilov.

Avilov now is second.

He jumped from fifth to second, followed by Jenner and Zeilbauer.

The fifth event for the men's decathlon, 400 meters.

But a particularly outstanding effort by someone

could change some of the standings,

though it would seem that it'll take a stunning time

to make much of a difference in the top three.

I had thought about this 400-meter race for four years.

Exactly how I wanted to run it.

Gun goes off.

We've got a fair start.

Now, as they come off the curve, let's see what kind of...

And I thought, "I am going to run

the best second turn I've ever run in my life."

Here is Jenner out in lane number 5.

And Jenner is really turning it, going into the turn as he comes off...

Jenner is really turning it on.

Dixon now beginning to make his move.

But as they work through the turn...

And I'm looking at that line coming up in the turn,

and I'm thinking,

"Don't back off."

Jenner holding the lead coming off the turn. Jenner has the lead.

Pressure, pressuring him from the outside.

Avilov now trying to come back.

It is Pihl of Sweden.

And as we come to the finish line, it is Bruce Jenner way out in front.

Bruce Jenner wins it big, 47.5 through the count official!

Pihl of Sweden is second, Avilov comes on to get a third,

Kratschmer finished fourth and Fred Dixon was fifth.

Checking the time for Bruce Jenner.

That 47.51 is worth 923 points.

So now, as we look at the standings after five events,

you can see that only 35 points separate the top three,

and we'll go into the final five events tomorrow.

- Anything to say to Avilov? - No, not really. We were really...

We get along very well. We're always kidding each other about.

Like, I made six-eight and smiled at him, and he said, "That's very good."

Then when he made 7 foot, I said the same to him.

We get along very well. There's no rivalry or anything. Just, um...

I saw a quote, "I love my competitors 'cause they bring the most out of me."

That's the situation with myself and Avilov.

This is probably gonna be his best meet and mine too.

35 points out of the lead, and all my good events are coming up.

So now becomes the problem.

You have an Olympic gold medal on the line...

and you're supposed to lay there and sleep.

And it poured all night long.

You think about all the variables that are out there.

"What if I lose?"

And to be honest with you,

it scared me to death.

My heart was pounding so hard.

And I hear this tick-tick-tick.

The clock is ticking.

Every tick of that clock,

the end of sports gets closer.

Woke up the next morning. The ground was soaking wet.

The flame flickering brightly

here at Olympic Stadium on a cool, dark, and rather wet day in Montreal.

Our decathletes now go into the sixth event

with these standings,

but only 35 points separate the top three.

The hurdles are a really scary event.

There's a lot of opportunity to fail.

If you miss a hurdle, you fall down on the hurdles, you're dead.

...without the blocks, and it sounds like trees...

Oh! Dixon is stopped. He just absolutely...

A couple of flights ahead of me, Fred Dixon, one of the other Americans,

slipped on the track.

Just destroyed his time.

Fred Dixon comes in at 18 seconds-plus.

It was over for him.

He lost enough points that he couldn't make it up.

So Bruce was pretty freaked out.

Now we move to the second heat.

And in this one, we feature Nikolai Avilov.

This is one of his stronger events.

And Avilov sitting in second place behind Kratschmer after five events.

Let's watch Avilov now in lane number four. He looks sound.

And he's got the lead.

Here comes Samara. Fred running a very strong race.

Zeilbauer of Austria in second place,

and Samara takes the third.

Avilov with a very good time in the hurdles.

14.20 seconds.

14.20. That'll be a new personal record for him.

939 points for that time.

Add that to his 4315, and he stays right in there.

Now we move to the final 110-meter hurdles.

It is Bruce Jenner of the United States.

There was a lot of pressure.

You hit your big toe on a hurdle and fall down, and it's over.

I don't care what my time is. I just wanna live through this race.

Jenner getting out very well,

and Bruce is getting over the hurdles.

He's not banging his legs on the hurdles. He has not knocked one down yet.

Skowronek of, uh, Poland wins it.

Gémise of France is third, and Jenner gets a solid second.

Looking for Jenner's time, it is 14.84.

That's 866 points.

He shakes his head at the time, but I'm sure that Bruce is glad it's over.

But your overall standings after six events,

we see Avilov, Kratschmer, and Jenner.

They are well out in front. Dixon is gone.

We're going to concentrate now on Nikolai Avilov and Bruce Jenner

because that's where the decision is gonna be made.

All my events coming up now are my best events.

And to be honest with you, I thought for everybody else,

"It's over. You can all go home," you know. "This one's mine."

He grunted loud enough, didn't he?

It almost... Did it stay in?

Yeah, I guess it did.

8,454 points, the world record by Avilov.

Jenner, at 26 years of age, called the perfect decathlete.

He is the top contender.

Go, Jenner, go! Go, Jenner, go! Go, Jenner, go!

Go, Jenner, go! Go, Jenner, go! Go, Jenner, go!

Here's Jenner going, and he's way...

He is way, way over the bar.

And Jenner is moving ahead of the schedule that he had in mind.

Go, Jenner, go! Go, Jenner, go!

Go, Jenner, go! Go, Jenner, go!

When you come to the javelin,

the ninth event in the decathlon, the body is screaming for mercy.

Bruce Jenner, a lifetime mark in the javelin of 227 feet, 11 inches.

Now, if he can reach anywhere near that, he's gonna slam the door.

Let it go. It's a good one.

It's beyond 220 feet for Bruce Jenner.

That runs his point total to 7904 points.

Avilov remains third.

The events have been knocked off one by one,

and now only one remains.

The hardest event of all.

The last event, the 1500 meters, that's what the decathlon's all about.

You've been out there for two days, ten hours a day.

You think you're pretty tough, okay?

1500 meters is for the tough guys,

and that was my best event.

Because I wasn't afraid of pain.

This is one of those moments

that has brought capacity crowd to this massive structure.

All of the training, all of the talking, all of the psyching, it's all been done.

Now the gold medal is on the line, and we'll be standing by for the start.

For me, this wasn't just about the gold medal.

It was about breaking the world record.

I wanted to get over 8,600 points, 'cause nobody had ever done that before.

And I wanted to do it in front of Avilov.

If I do that, I will have accomplished everything that I ever wanted to do.

I wasn't gonna run this one slow.

Bruce Jenner looks reasonably loose and comfortable.

If he runs a 4:35.8 or better,

he is going to have a new world record.

Avilov would have to beat him by about 22 seconds.

During the race, I was mostly thinking pace, pace, pace,

what I'm doing, where I'm at in the race.

And then I passed Avilov on the first lap.

And right then is actually when I realized that I can do this.

I can break the world record. It's right there.

All I gotta do is reach out and grab it.

He's gotta come through over there at the starting line

in about a 2:16 or a 2:17.

If he doesn't... What the hell is he doing?

Run for it, Bruce! Go!

- Go, Bruce! - Don't stop, Jenner!

Step it up, Bruce! It's too slow!

I always knew, coming down for the last event,

I can run any time I have to run.

Uh, with 300 meters to go, I said,

"Whatever you got left, go for it."

He's putting on the kick.

Bruce Jenner is kicking up the back straight.

He's making a run at Lytvynenko!

He wants the world record.

His personal best is 4:13.6.

Lytvynenko trying to hold on.

Bruce Jenner is striving.

And Jenner is coming hard.

But what is the time?

4:11.41!

Bruce Jenner has hit the world record in the decathlon sideways!

The crowd on its feet, roaring its appreciation

of a tremendous effort

by the 26-year-old man from San Jose, California.

Nikolai Avilov walking so wearily across the track.

There's the pain of the decathlon.

Bruce Jenner is still upright and refuses to let fatigue pull him down.

My goodness!

No matter how hard I ran the race,

I would never fall at the finish line.

'Cause I've been through a lot in my life.

And I had to fight to get there.

And nobody knew...

...what this moment was actually all about.

When he won,

it was pretty amazing. And...

he came over to give me a hug.

I stepped over the banister, and he gave me a hug, and...

He said, "We did it."

It was a wonderful moment that he gave me.

He said, "We did it."

When he was up there on the podium,

I could see his face.

And I knew him, and I knew that he was struggling not to cry.

And he looked over at me and saw me crying, and then he laughed.

I am standing on the same platform

as all of these guys before me.

But...

I'm scared to death.

What's my life going to be like from this point on?

That was real! I don't bite!

You were going down that 1500 meters, and I said, "If you can run that hard

in the 1500 meters, I can quit smoking!"

- And I mean it. - Deal! Stick around a little longer.

I climbed every mountain.

I accomplished everything I could possibly accomplish.

Bruce Jenner, Olympic champion.

World's greatest athlete.

But I was still the same old person

with all the same old issues.

And then I remember the next day,

uh, waking up, went into the bathroom.

Uh, the medal was sitting there on the counter.

And I didn't have a stitch of clothes on, but the medal around my neck,

looked into a full-length mirror and said,

"What the hell did you just do?"

It's a great pleasure to welcome the Olympic decathlon winner.

Bruce Jenner is with us tonight.

Bruce.

And later, there is Bruce Jenner.

- Bruce Jenner. - Bruce Jenner.

Thank you.

You're probably getting tired of congratulations,

but, uh, really,

what a super magnificent performance it was.

Yeah. It's been about seven weeks now since the Games have been over,

and, yeah, my life really has changed.

After the Games, they literally had traffic jams of people

and cabs stopping in the middle of the street

running out to shake your hand.

Rich Harkins called Jenner's effort at the Montreal Olympics

"one of the outstanding performances of this decade."

In the beginning, it was kind of fun. He was a hero.

He was the ultimate hero. The world's greatest athlete.

All of a sudden, you're in the limelight all the time.

Everywhere you go, people know who you are. It's gotta be different.

I'm Bruce Jenner. I know a lot of races are really won on the starting blocks.

Did I build this character up so big and so publicly...

"Bruce," that I'm stuck with him?

I spent a good part of my life getting ready for that day.

I put in a lot of years and downed a lot of Wheaties,

because a complete breakfast with Wheaties is good tasting...

and good for you.

Take it from Bruce Jenner. Wheaties is the Breakfast of Champions.

We spent a lot of time together, even after the Olympics.

But he had a lot of things coming at him. Endorsements, acting...

Look, a guy with your athletic ability... I mean, you're a natural.

Well... Wait a minute, wait a minute. What's this all about?

Eventually, he had to move on, but life does that to you.

A Sports Illustrated article said the rest of your life will be a success.

- Does that make sense? Is that right? - Well...

I think the rest of my life will be a lot more interesting

because of what I did in Montreal, but I don't know about a success.

It was just hard to catch our breath,

and no privacy.

For Chrystie and I, the dynamics of the relationship was totally different.

Young ladies all over the world have, uh, gotta say,

"Wow, there's the decathlon champ," and, uh...

My wife and I are very close together,

and it's made it a little bit difficult on her sometimes, uh,

all of a sudden, the immediate change in our lives.

That change was difficult for me.

But we know now that there's other issues that were brewing at the time.

The Olympics were a big, big distraction from who I was.

I got scared that maybe now I have to deal with myself.

People love a good story like this.

The all-American kid, the wife who's working.

I didn't think I could live up to that.

Even though we were having challenges in the marriage,

we wanted to start a family.

So we had Burt.

There he is. Burt Jenner.

- Age... Uh, how many days? - Five days.

Say something to 'em, Burt.

There you go. You want the mic?

You can tell he's a Jenner. He goes right for the mic.

- Burt, this way! - Hey, Burt, there's Mommy!

- Burt! Hi! - There's Mommy!

Yay!

There's Mommy! Look at the camera!

As early as my memories start,

I knew there was something different about my dad.

Before the Olympics, my dad was...

was a nobody, you know, that nobody had ever heard of,

but after the Olympics, she was the world's greatest athlete...

...which is a blessing and curse at the same time.

I love being a dad.

My kids were wonderful,

but it was another distraction from who I am.

He told me once how he was really unhappy.

And what I was hearing was that he was unhappy with me.

It was just this massive secret in my life I couldn't talk about.

She didn't know that I was struggling with all this stuff in my head.

I didn't want people to know me and know who I was.

I just saw him needing to grasp onto something.

And I told him,

"When you've decided to see a therapist, then I'll come home."

But he didn't.

It is what it is.

I thought when Chrystie and I went our separate directions

that I could figure myself out.

I basically isolated myself from the world.

I wound up all by myself in a shack in Malibu.

I was suffering badly from gender dysphoria.

And that was the beginning of the worst six years of my life.

I remember I was at my grandmother's house.

And my dad flew down to pick me up.

And this was...

at least ten years after they had been divorced.

They never hung out.

That was when my father had told my mom that,

uh,

he... she had started to transition.

I remember watching TV,

and on the news,

they had a report from the Orange County Transgender Association.

On the average of around one a week, somewhere in the United States,

an individual is undergoing an operation to change his or her sex.

The operation has become much more prevalent

than the general public has realized.

I called 'em up, said that I was looking for a therapist.

I couldn't tell 'em my name or who I was.

And for the first time, I could really kind of sit down

and try to, with a professional, try to figure myself out.

It was hard for me to understand at first.

Started taking hormone pills

and had electrolysis to get rid of the beard, and...

Uh...

I'll never forget just having to get up out of the middle of class in sixth grade...

uh, because I was about ready to break down in tears,

and nobody knew why.

And I just got up and ran out of the room.

And just went and cried in the hallway.

But it wasn't because my dad was gonna transition. It was...

I was afraid my father was going to transition into someone

and go somewhere, and I would never see my father again.

Yeah, those were... Those were tough times.

I tried with transition, but I was too scared.

Too scared.

Five, six months later, I met Kris, and she was great for me.

She pulled me out of my funk and kept me going,

getting back into life as Bruce.

[gentle atmospheric music playing

I can't do the other things, so let's just be a good Bruce.

Kris, will you have Bruce to be your husband?

Will you pledge yourself to him, in all love and honor?

I will.

Here we go. One, two, three, smile!

Bruce, smile!

Here it is.

A romantic kiss for my beautiful, pregnant wife...

...on our property.

- Okay, ready? - Where we'll spend the rest of our lives.

This is it. Mmm. Okay.

Here comes our kids. They're so excited about the first day of school.

Here they come.

We'll go with Khloé first.

Now, Khloé, I know you're so excited about your first day of school.

Uniform girl. Here's Kimberly. Yes...

I loved being a dad. I loved carpooling kids.

I loved giving 'em advice and bringing all these kids up.

The first thing on the calendar is the puppet show.

Aww.

...two, three, go!

Hi, Kylie!

But the issue is not going away.

Whatever happens, I always want you to know that Daddy loves you,

and I think you're a wonderful little girl.

And could I have a kiss?

We're still recording. Okay.

Now, what do we have to say?

We have to say, "Hi, everybody, it's Christmas 1997!"

Oh my gosh, she's going so fast!

She's going so fast!

Yeah!

I was experimenting a lot.

And I thought, "Maybe I can survive

by just cross-dressing behind closed doors and still keep the old Bruce around."

Here at the start of the race, we got all the Jenner kids here.

Brody's here?

I remember one time I was at the Marriott in Orlando, Florida.

All I had to do all day is give one one-hour presentation.

I had the rest of the time to myself.

And I thought, "I can sneak out, get in the car, just drive around."

Just that little bit of freedom.

Drove around for an hour

and came back,

and I'm walking through the lobby towards the elevator...

and kinda going by the bar,

and this guy comes running up to me,

says, "I love trans women."

Ran down the hall, slammed the door.

My heart was pounding, and I was scared to death.

And I'm thinking, "That was so close to getting caught."

But I learned I was very comfortable that way.

Thank you very much!

But then the show...

It was an immediate, immediate change.

The world was different now.

It was just difficult, because I had so many secrets,

and I'm sneaking around, trying to live a little bit of my life.

First, it's official. Bruce and Kris have separated after 22 years of marriage.

Aww.

Not "aww." You mean, "Good for Bruce."

Bruce, are you happy to be single and free again?

When Kris and I went our separate directions,

I decided, "I can't take it any longer. I'm going to do this."

Hey, Bruce, are you dating Ronda?

I started to have some surgeries,

but I wanted to keep that kind of quiet,

because I never talked to any of my kids about these issues.

And then I'd come out of a doctor's office in a back alley

uh, where I had a little tracheotomy, had the thing done.

And there was a picture that...

that TMZ was gonna print.

We broke a big story on the website

that Bruce Jenner has gone to a Beverly Hills plastic surgeon

to ditch his Adam's apple.

Hey, Bruce, did you get a surgery? Any comments on that?

Do you want people not to talk about your gender reassignment

and tell your daughters to keep it on the down-low?

Kendall, are you upset about your dad's sex change?

My kids are seeing all of this...

and I still hadn't told them what was going on.

And that, to me, is the worst part of that time in my life. You know?

Because I am a better parent than that, you know?

But I wasn't then.

Come on.

The goats are comin'.

I'll never forget when my dad told me she is gonna transition.

We went on this walk with the goats

and I said, you know, "Hey, Dad, I've...

I've known for decades," you know, and...

But there was something about the honesty and the...

and the closeness, and the...

um...

My father just putting the guard down,

which was something I don't see very often.

And it was a conversation that I'll cherish...

more than any other conversation I've ever had with my father.

That was a really cool moment in my life.

And so, kind of the last hurdle I had to get over

was, um,

uh, my faith in God.

And so, I invited my pastor over,

and I told him my story.

And I basically asked him,

"In God's eyes, how does he see me? Am I doing the right thing?"

And I could never really get an answer.

But I had spent my entire life up to that point hiding.

Not being able to be myself.

I wanted to just smack everybody right across the face

and say, "Screw all you people. This is me."

"Accept it."

Ladies and gentlemen, the courageous,

the stunning Caitlyn Jenner.

I remember when I got my driver's license.

Caitlyn Marie Jenner, gender marker F.

And the good news.

We're right down the middle.

I thought, "Wait a second. Can I do all the things I used to do?"

You know?

I used to race cars, fly airplanes. Um...

You know, play golf and all that. Should I quit all that stuff?

And after a while, I thought,

"That's ridiculous."

Yeah. So I play golf, and I'm playing better than ever.

Turn! Ugh.

Didn't turn.

Kind of a bittersweet moment. Very excited, but on the other hand,

it was kind of wiping Bruce off the face of the Earth.

Sometimes they go, you know,

"Oh, Caitlyn won the Games. It was really Caitlyn."

And I go, "No, no, no, no, no. Bruce won the Games."

I have no problem saying that, okay?

I give him credit. He did that.

Now, was that all of me and my whole story?

Not even close. There's so much more to me than that.

But I do honor what he was able to do,

and I always call it Bruce, uh, 'cause Bruce did do that.

In hindsight, you know, I... I wonder, um...

if my dad wasn't trans, if my dad would have won.

I just wonder how much of that drive came from

wanting that acceptance from a group of men that he never...

she never felt

um...

accepted by completely or never felt truly part of.

You know, I just turned 70.

I don't have that many years left.

One thing that I always wondered...

That day when you go up to the Pearly Gates,

and you stand there,

you ask God, "Why did you do this?"

"Why this issue is in my head?"

You wonder, "Is there a reason for this?"

You get up there and say, "Hey, did I do a good job?"

Hopefully, he says, "Yes."

"You've raised a wonderful family."

"You've finally lived your life authentically."

It's all I can do and move on.

But now it's a new chapter, and let's see what Caitlyn can do.

End of story.