Catherine Laverne MCMILLAN

As an 18-year-old recent graduate of Hoke County High School in North Carolina, Kathy McMillan set a new U.S. record of 22-3 (6.78) in winning the 1976 AAU long jump. At the Montréal Olympics she had a marginal foul of 22-4½ (6.82), that would have won the gold, but McMillan had to settle for second place, that matched Willye White's performance of 20 years earlier as the best ever by a U.S. woman in the Olympic long jump. After the Games, McMillan enrolled at Tennessee State and placed second in the AAU in 1977 and 1978. In 1979 she won the AAU and was the Pan American Games champion, after winning bronze four years earlier. In 1980 she placed second in the )Olympic Trials), but was denied a trip to Moscow by the Carter Boycott. At the 1983 Pan American Games she won again gold in the long jump.

Personal Bests: 200 – 24.6 (1975); LJ – 22-3 (6.78) (1976); JT – 137-11 (42.04) (1979).