“Olympic decathlon champion and Glamour's woman of the year” -When Caitlyn Jenner claimed to have 'great double' after coming out as transgender woman

Caitlyn Jenner was one of the most well-known decathlon athletes of her time when she was still a man the world knew by the name of Bruce Jenner. When she came out as a transgender woman in 2015, though she copped some criticism, Jenner was awarded ‘Woman of the Year’ by Glamour the same year. The 74-year-old claimed that it was one of the greatest achievements of her life.

Today, Jenner is popular as a reality TV celebrity. She was a record holder in the men's decathlon from 1975 to 1980. Even before being a decathlete, she was a water skier and basketball player.

The 74-year-old won a gold medal at the 1976 Montreal Olympics, breaking her world record with a score of 8618 points, a feat that would stand for four years. Jenner would later go on to become a TV celebrity before publicly coming out as a transgender woman in April 2015 in a television interview with Diane Sawyer.

She was nominated for Glamour's Woman of the Year in November 2015 and in her award-acceptance speech, Jenner claimed coming out as the best decision of her life.

“Over this last six months, it has been the most eye-opening experience of my life. For years and years I never felt like I fit in anywhere. I always felt as an outsider. I never felt good in the male side, and I wasn't obviously in the female side. I was kind of stuck in the middle. But all of a sudden after making this decision and coming out, it was by far the best thing I ever did,” she said (via Glamour).

Jenner called winning the Glamour award and the Olympic gold a ‘great double’ in an interview with BBC in 2019.

“I trained 12 years for the Olympic Games. I trained 65 years to transition in 2015. I have the great double. Olympic decathlon champion and Glamour's woman of the year,” she said via BBC.

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Before winning the 1976 Olympic Gold, Caitlyn Jenner had promised Mykola Avilov she would beat him

California Gubernatorial Candidate Caitlin Jenner Campaigns In Venice (Source: Getty)

Caitlyn Jenner competed in the 1972 Olympics but finished 10th. She would promise the gold medalist, Soviet Union’s Mykola Avilov, that she would beat him the next time.

“Next time, I’m going to beat you,” she told Avilov (via Yahoo News).

Avilov had set the world record with his gold medal win, and although Jenner broke that a year before in 1975, she would fulfill her words at the 1976 Olympics. She would win exactly the way Avilov did; setting a world record.

Caitlyn Jenner scored 8,618 points to win the gold and beat Avilov. She also started the tradition of doing a victory lap with the USA's flag on her shoulders.