Dwight Edwin Stones (born December 6, 1953) is an American television commentator and a two-time Olympic bronze medalist and former three-time world record holder in the men's

high jump The high jump is a track and field event in which competitors must jump unaided over a horizontal bar placed at measured heights without dislodging it. In its modern, most-practiced format, a bar is placed between two standards with a crash mat f ...

. During his 16-year career, he won 19 national championships. In

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeast A ...

, Stones became the first athlete to both compete and serve as an announcer at the same Olympics. Since then, he has been a

color analyst A color commentator or expert commentator is a sports commentator who assists the main (play-by-play) commentator, typically by filling in when play is not in progress. The phrase "colour commentator" is primarily used in Canadian English and the ...

for all three major networks in the United States and continues to cover

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events ...

on television. He served as an analyst for

NBC Sports NBC Sports is an American programming division of the broadcast network NBC, owned and operated by NBC Sports Group division of NBCUniversal and subsidiary of Comcast. The division is responsible for sports broadcasts on the network, and its d ...

coverage of

Track and Field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events ...

at the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Na ...

Biography

Born in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, Stones set a national high school record while at Glendale High School in 1971 at , then won the bronze medal at age 18 at the

1972 Summer Olympics The 1972 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XX Olympiad () and commonly known as Munich 1972 (german: München 1972), was an international multi-sport event held in Munich, West Germany, from 26 August to 11 September 1972. ...

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

. He set his first world record the following summer when he cleared , also at Munich. That jump also made him the first "

flop In computing, floating point operations per second (FLOPS, flops or flop/s) is a measure of computer performance, useful in fields of scientific computations that require floating-point calculations. For such cases, it is a more accurate meas ...

" jumper to set a world record, five years after

Dick Fosbury Richard Douglas Fosbury (born March 6, 1947) is an American retired high jumper, who is considered one of the most influential athletes in the history of track and field. Besides winning a gold medal at the 1968 Olympics, he revolutionized the h ...

made that style famous while winning the gold medal at the

1968 Summer Olympics The 1968 Summer Olympics ( es, Juegos Olímpicos de Verano de 1968), officially known as the Games of the XIX Olympiad ( es, Juegos de la XIX Olimpiada) and commonly known as Mexico 1968 ( es, México 1968), were an international multi-sport eve ...

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...

. Stones raised the world record to in 1976 at the

NCAA Championships The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

Franklin Field Franklin Field is a sports stadium in Philadelphia, United States, at the eastern edge of the University of Pennsylvania's campus. It is the home stadium for the Penn Relays, and the University of Pennsylvania's stadium for football, track and fi ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

in June, and added another centimeter to the record two months later. Stones attended

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

his freshman year (1971–72), and later transferred to

Long Beach State California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) is a public research university in Long Beach, California. The 322-acre campus is the second largest of the 23-school California State University system (CSU) and one of the largest universities i ...

for a year and a half, and is a member of that university's hall of fame. In 1994, Stones hosted the second season of the ESPN game show ''Dream League''. In 1998, Stones was inducted into the

National Track and Field Hall of Fame The National Track and Field Hall of Fame is a museum operated by The Armory Foundation in conjunction with USA Track & Field. It is located within the Armory Foundation (the former Fort Washington Avenue Armory) at 216 Fort Washington Avenue, b ...

. He was a 1991 inductee into the Orange County Hall of Fame. Stones is

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

, and he once competed in the

Maccabiah Games The Maccabiah Games (a.k.a. the World Maccabiah Games; he, משחקי המכביה, or משחקי המכביה העולמית; sometimes referred to as the "Jewish Olympics"), first held in 1932, are an international Jewish and Israeli multi-sp ...

in Israel.

Olympic competition

Stones was one of the world's top high jumpers from 1972 to 1984 and has been twice named the World Indoor Athlete of the Year by Track & Field News. At age 18, during the

, he took the bronze medal in the high jump behind

Jüri Tarmak Jüri Tarmak (21 July 1946 – 22 June 2022)Suri olümpiavõitja Jüri Tarmak

and Stefan Junge. At the

1976 Summer Olympics Events January * January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 11 – The 1976 Phi ...

Montréal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple-p ...

, he was a heavy favorite to win the gold medal. Earlier, he finished second at the U.S. Olympic Trials, then had to settle for another Olympic bronze behind

Jacek Wszola Jacek is a Polish given name of Greek origin related Hyacinth, through the archaic form of ''Jacenty''. Its closely related equivalents are: Jacinto (Spanish and Portuguese), Giacinto (Italian), Jácint ( Hungarian) and Jacint (Catalan, shortened ...

and local favorite

Greg Joy Gregory Andrew Joy (born April 23, 1956) is an American-born Canadian high jumper who stood 6' 4" tall and weighed 157 lbs while competing from 1973 to 1982 for Canada. Biography Born in the U.S. to Canadian parents, Joy lived in Vancouver, Brit ...

when his jumping ability was hampered by the competition being struck by heavy rain. A few days later, he raised the world record to in dry conditions at Franklin Field in Philadelphia. His participation at the Montreal Games sparked a heated debate: he had allegedly said that he hated French Canadians (Montréal-Matin Newspaper, July 29, 1976, pages 5 and 8) when he criticised the organization of the Games in a media interview. Consequently, Stones was subject to raucous booing and hissing during the competition. The debate became so inflamed that he decided on a new tee-shirt for the day of the final, the back of the shirt reading "I love French Canadians", which officials asked him to take off. The Americans in the audience responded to the treatment of Stones by booing Claude Ferragne, a French-Canadian jumper, during the event. After missing 1980 Olympics in Moscow due to the American-led boycott, Stones returned to the Games at age 30 in

, and finished fourth. He cleared 2.31 m, but lost the bronze medal to

Zhu Jianhua Zhu Jianhua (; born 29 May 1963) is a retired Chinese high jumper. His personal best of 2.39 metres is a former world record for the event, and is still the Chinese record. In Helsinki 1983, Zhu became China's first man to win a medal in th ...

on the countback. His distant cousin,

Doug Nordquist Douglas Nordquist (born December 20, 1958, in San Gabriel, California) is a retired male high jumper from the United States, who competed at the 1984 Summer Olympics where he ended up in fifth place with a jump of 2.29 metres. He was TAC high ...

, finished 5th, clearing 2.29 m. He had earned his spot on the U.S. Olympic Team by setting his 13th American record at , Nordquist finished second (2.31m) Hymans, Richard (2008
The History of the Olympic Trials – Track & Field
''USA Track and field''. Retrieved June 30, 2019. at the U.S. Olympic Trials on June 24.

Professionalism

In the transitional time when

amateur sports Amateur sports are sports in which participants engage largely or entirely without remuneration Remuneration is the pay or other financial compensation provided in exchange for an employee's ''services performed'' (not to be confused with givi ...

were beginning to break the barrier of payment to athletes, Stones was a leading advocate of the change. During that period, one of the first options was for winnings to be paid to the athlete's club. To answer that, Stones created the Desert Oasis Track Club, a California corporation. The only athlete in the club was Dwight Stones.Cheap Seats, “Superstars 1978” · A Very Special Episode · The A.V. Club
Avclub.com. Retrieved on 2016-07-11. The stockholders and officers were Dwight Stones and his family members. Stones first made money in the televised sports creation '' Superstars'' which was "donated" to the track club. This caused the

IAAF World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation (from 1912 to 2001) and International Association of Athletics Federations (from 2001 to 2019, both abbreviated as the IAAF) is the international governing body for ...

and its American affiliate the AAU to suspend Stones. The ensuing lawsuit led to the

Amateur Sports Act of 1978 The Amateur Sports Act of 1978, signed by President Jimmy Carter, established the United States Olympic Committee and provides for national governing bodies for each Olympic sport. The Act provides important legal protection for individual athletes ...

, which broke up the AAU, decertifying it as the national governing body for track and field (and many other sports) causing the formation of

The Athletics Congress USA Track & Field (USATF) is the United States national governing body for the sports of track and field, cross country running, road running and racewalking (known as the sport of athletics outside the US). The USATF was known between 1979 and ...

and the slow transition to allow professionalism.ORANGE COUNTY HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES : Quantum Leap : Olympic Failure, Daughter's Illness Brought Dwight Stones Down to Earth – Page 2 – latimes
Articles.latimes.com (1991-10-17). Retrieved on 2016-07-11.

Records held

* World Record: High Jump – on July 11, 1973 * World Record: High Jump – on June 5, 1976 * World Record: High Jump – on August 4, 1976 * American Record: High Jump – on June 24, 1984

Championships

;1984 * 1984 Olympic Games: High Jump (4th) * 1984 U.S. Olympic Trials: High Jump – 2.34 m (1st) ;1983 * 1983 TAC Outdoor Championships: High Jump (1st) * 1983 TAC Indoor Championships: High Jump (3rd) ;1982 * 1982 TAC Indoor Championships: High Jump (1st) ;1980 * 1980 AAU Outdoor Championships: High Jump (3rd) ;1978 * 1978 AAU Outdoor Championships: High Jump (1st) ;1977 * 1977 World Cup: High Jump (2nd) * 1977 AAU Indoor Championships: High Jump (1st) * 1977 USTFF Outdoor Championships: High Jump (1st) * 1977 AAU Outdoor Championships: High Jump (1st) ;1976 *

: High Jump (3rd – bronze medal) * 1976 U.S. Olympic Trials: High Jump (2nd) * 1976 USTFF Outdoor Championships: High Jump (1st) * 1976 AAU Outdoor Championships: High Jump (1st) * 1976 NCAA Outdoor Championships: High Jump – 2.31 m (1st) * 1976 NCAA Indoor Championships: High Jump (1st)(Cal State Long Beach) Dwight Stones 1975

;1975 * 1975 USTFF Indoor Championships: High Jump (1st) * 1975 USTFF Outdoor Championships: High Jump (1st) * 1975 AAU Indoor Championships: High Jump (1st) * 1975 AAU Outdoor Championships: High Jump (3rd) ;1974 * 1974 USTFF Indoor Championships: High Jump (1st) * 1974 AAU Outdoor Championships: High Jump (1st) ;1973 * 1973 USTFF Indoor Championships: High Jump (1st) * 1973 USTFF Outdoor Championships: High Jump (1st) * 1973 AAU Indoor Championships: High Jump (1st) * 1973 AAU Outdoor Championships: High Jump (1st) ;1972 *

: High Jump – 2.21 m (3rd – bronze medal) * 1972 U.S. Olympic Trials: High Jump – 2.21 m (1st) * 1972 NCAA Outdoor Championships: High Jump (3rd)(UCLA)

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Stones, Dwight 1953 births Living people American game show hosts American male high jumpers Athletes (track and field) at the 1972 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1976 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1984 Summer Olympics California State University, Long Beach alumni Olympic bronze medalists for the United States in track and field World record setters in athletics (track and field) Jewish American sportspeople UCLA Bruins men's track and field athletes Long Beach State Beach men's track and field athletes American masters athletes Track and field broadcasters Track and field athletes from California Medalists at the 1976 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1972 Summer Olympics Track and field people from California 21st-century American Jews