Biography
Stones, who is Jewish, was born in Los Angeles, California. He set his first world record when he cleared 2.30 m (7 ft 7 in) in 1973 at Munich, Germany. That jump also made him the first "flop" jumper to set a world high jump record, five years after Dick Fosbury made that jumping style famous while winning the Mexico City Olympics. Stones raised the world record to 2.31 m (7 ft 7 in) in 1976 and added another centimeter to the record two months later.
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, he represented the U.S. for the first time at the 1972 Summer Olympics, placing third in the high jump competition. Four years later at the Montreal Olympics, he was a heavy favorite to win the gold medal but had to settle for a bronze when his jumping ability was hampered by competition in the rain.
His participation at the Montreal Games sparked a heated debate, in which he supposedly said he hated French Canadians (Montréal-Matin Newspaper, July 29, 1976, pages 5 and 8); this debate became so inflamed that he felt the need to start wearing a t-shirt that said he loved the people who organized the Games.
He returned to the Olympics in 1984, finishing fourth after setting his 13th American record at that year's Trials.
Stones attended UCLA his freshman year 1971–72, and later transferred to California State University, Long Beach and is a member of that University's Hall of Fame.
In 1998, Stones was inducted into the USA Track and Field Hall of Fame.
Read more about this topic: Dwight Stones
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