Barry King (decathlete)

Barry King
Medal record
Men's athletics
Representing  England
Commonwealth Games
Silver medal – second place 1974 Christchurch Decathlon
Bronze medal – third place 1970 Edinburgh Decathlon

Barry John King (3 April 1945 – 27 March 2021)[1] was a British Olympic decathlete who was later an author, corporate director, corporate board member and specialist in Olympic marketing and sports development.[2]

Biography

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He was founder and chief executive officer of Outdoor-Fitness, LLC.,[3][4][5][6][7] co-founder of Sports Directions Corporation, and served as a director at the United States Olympic Committee for 14 years during the height of their organizational and fundraising successes.[8]

King is co-author of a two-book series, published in association with the United States Olympic Committee, entitled The Olympic Challenge as well as Journey of the Olympic Flame.[9][10][11][12] King assisted in creating an Olympic themed Iowa state school educational curriculum for K-12 students,[13] again, in conjunction with the United States Olympic Committee. In film, he was the technical director of the Walt Disney motion picture, The World's Greatest Athlete.[14]

Athletics career

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He grew up in England and obtained a track and field scholarship from the University of Colorado at Boulder in the United States. His first major international competition came when he represented England at the 1970 British Commonwealth Games, where he won the bronze medal in the decathlon.[15][16]

He then took part in the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich two years later, competing for Great Britain. He ranked fifteenth overall in the Olympic decathlon competition. He returned to the podium at the 1974 British Commonwealth Games in Christchurch, New Zealand, this time coming away with the silver medal.[17][18][19]

He has held national records and won national championships in the decathlon, discus throw and pentathlon. He is the current British national pentathlon record holder, set on 20 May 1970 in Santa Barbara, California.

Personal life

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King was married to Deanna Pinckney-King and has one daughter.

References

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  1. ^ Barry King at Olympedia
  2. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 14 April 2020. Retrieved 8 July 2012.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  3. ^ "Adult playgrounds fight obesity - Video on NBCNews.com". MSNBC. Archived from the original on 11 July 2012.
  4. ^ "Outdoor Fitness Equipment NBC MSNBC Nightly News 7 July 8 2012 Aduly playgrounds outdoor gym obesity". Outdoor-fitness.com. 8 July 2012.
  5. ^ "Our Company at Outdoor Fitness". Outdoor-fitness.com.
  6. ^ "Team Bios". Outdoor-fitness.com.
  7. ^ Hu, Winnnie (29 June 2012). "Mom, Dad, This Playground's for You". The New York Times.
  8. ^ "Atlanta Mounting Olympian Effort at Getting 1996 Games". Los Angeles Times. 25 August 1990.
  9. ^ "Journey of the Olympic Flame: Gayle Bodin Petty, Barry King: Books | chapters.indigo.ca". www.chapters.indigo.ca. Archived from the original on 1 January 2013. Retrieved 26 January 2022.
  10. ^ Toomey, Bill; King, Barry (1988). The Olympic Challenge, 1988: Barry King, Bill Toomey: 9780937359358: Amazon.com: Books. HDL Pub. ISBN 0937359351.
  11. ^ "Barry King". Bokfynd.nu.
  12. ^ "26/20/137 : Alumni Association : Olympic Collection, 1975-1985" (PDF). Library.uluc.edu. Retrieved 24 March 2017.
  13. ^ [1][dead link]
  14. ^ "Track & Field News • View topic - Decathletes in the movies". www.trackandfieldnews.com. Archived from the original on 2 March 2014. Retrieved 14 January 2022.
  15. ^ "1970 Athletes". Team England.
  16. ^ "Edinburgh, 1970 Team". Team England.
  17. ^ "Athletes and results". Commonwealth Games Federation.
  18. ^ "Sports 123: Athletics: Men: Commonwealth Games: Decathlon". sports123.com. Archived from the original on 2 September 2003. Retrieved 14 January 2022.
  19. ^ "Documents > Pdf > Flame07_Color.Pdf | World Olympians Association" (PDF). Woaolympians.com. Retrieved 24 March 2017.
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