Willie Banks

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources.
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. (help, get involved!)
This article has been tagged since October 2006.

This article is about the track and field athlete. For other uses, see Willie Banks (disambiguation).

William Augustus ("Willie") Banks III (b. March 11, 1956 at Travis Air Force Base, California) is an American athlete. He grew up in San Diego County and went to Oceanside High School. Banks is an Eagle Scout.

He was a track & field athlete competing in the triple jump. On June 16, 1985 he set a world record of 58 feet 11.5 inches at the national championships in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA.

He earned his B.A. and J.D. from UCLA, but was unable to pass the bar exam. He finished second in the NCAA Championships in 1977 and 1978.

He broke the American record in 1981.

He was a member of the 1980, 1984, and 1988 Olympic teams.

He participated on the 1983 and 1987 World Championship teams.

He was awarded the Track & Field News and United States Olympic Committee Athlete of the Year in 1985.

He served USA Track & Field as chair of the Athletes Advisory Committee in addition to serving as an organization vice president.

Banks will always be remembered as one of the most flamboyant athletes to compete in track and field. He is the originater of the now common hand clapping that takes place during many track and field events^{[citation needed]}. His flamboyant personality was also present in his jumping. He has been reported as laughing during some of his jumps. He held the world record of 17.97 m until Jonathan Edwards broke it for the first time in 1995 with 17.98m. He also jumped 18.20m at Indianapolis in 1988, but this was assisted by an illegal 5.2 m/s wind. He is still competing, clearing an impressive 14.00m to head the 2006 world masters rankings [1]in the 50-54 age group, just 7cm behind that age-group's world record.

He was inducted into the USA Track & Field Hall of Fame in 1999.

Banks is President of the US Olympians Association. His term runs from 2005 to 2008. ^[1]

Preceded by Michael J. Bourdeau Daniel R. Mackesey John Naber Gifford Nielsen Bryan L. Rodgers	NCAA Top Five Award Class of 1979 Willie Banks Robert W. Dugas Steve Fuller Dan Harrigan James J. Kovach	Succeeded by Gregory Kelser Paul B. McDonald R. Scott Neilson Steadman S. Shealy Marc D. Wilson