Bill Green (hammer thrower)

Competition record
Men’s Hammer Throw
Competitor for  United States
Olympic Games
5th	1984 Summer Olympic Games
Pan American Games
2nd	1987 Bloomington, IN (Disqualified)
World University Games
4th	1983 Summer Universiade
United States Olympic Trials (track and field)
10th	1980 Eugene, Oregon
1st	1984 Los Angeles (Olympic Trials Record)
USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships
1st	1979 Bloomington, IN (Junior)
3rd	1982 Knoxville, TN
4th	1983 Indianapolis, IN
2nd	1984 San Jose, CA
1st	1986 Eugene, OR
2nd	1987 San Jose, CA
NCAA Men's Outdoor Track and Field Championship
4th	1979 (Division II)
5th	1981 (Top American)
4th	1982 (Top American)
4th	1983 (Top American)

William ("Bill") Green (born April 28, 1960) is a former United States record holder in Track and Field, who finished 5th in the hammer throw in the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, California.

Personal life and family

Bill Green grew up in the Silicon Valley region of the San Francisco Bay Area, graduating from Fremont High School in Sunnyvale, California in 1978, and California State University, Long Beach in 1984 with a bachelor's degree in Political Science. He is married to Julie Green and has two children, William John Jr. ("Jack") and Victoria ("Tori"). The family currently resides permanently in the Napa Valley and part-time in the Lake Tahoe community of Fallen Leaf Lake.

Green is the son of William Hipkiss, a prominent attorney and actor in community theater who in the 1970s and 1980s performed in over 20 productions at the Frauenthal Center for the Performing Arts in Muskegon, Michigan and other parts of Western Michigan.^[1][2] His mother is Barbara Green, former mayor and city councilwoman in the historical Lake Tahoe town of Truckee, California, who also served one term as County Supervisor for Nevada County, California.^[3] Bill was adopted at age 5 by Barbara Green's second husband Kenneth Green, and raised in California since the age of 3. Ken Green was an engineer educated at Stanford University, with undergraduate and master's degrees in both mechanical and petroleum engineering, and was the son of Stanford professors.^[4]

Athletic career

Green was asked by the Fremont High School (Sunnyvale, CA) coaching staff to try out for the sport of Track and Field, based upon observations made in a physical education weightlifting class. A discus thrower for two years in high school who failed to qualify for the California state meet, he was recruited by renowned throwing coach Art Venegas near the beginning of his career. Venegas would later develop 33 national champions in 28 years as assistant and head coach at UCLA, a record never approached by any other university.^[5] Encouragement to try the hammer throw as a college freshman resulted in an NCAA All American designation and an AAU National Junior Champion title in 1979 in just five months with the event, and a ranking of third in the United States at the senior level three years later in 1982.^[6]

Green competed at the height of hammer throw performance historically, a time when the event was dominated by the Eastern Bloc communist sports system.^[7][8] Technical advancements in the hammer throw pioneered by the Soviet Union in the late 1970s were increasing distances at a furious pace by the early 1980s and the complex biomechanics of these changes, which evolved the hammer throw from a strength event to a focus on speed, were not well understood in other parts of the world.^[9] Based on experience competing against Russian prodigy Igor Nikulin at the USA vs USSR Junior National Team competitions in 1979, an athlete who go on to become one of history's all-time performers and an Olympic medalist in 1992, Green and Venegas believed they could adopt the new technical changes and reestablish the United States as a viable competitor internationally after more than 25 years with no Americans on the Olympic podium. In 1983 and 1984 he set three American Collegiate Records, three United States National Records,^[10] and placed 5th at the 1984 Olympic Games. He is one of only three Americans since 1952 to place in the top six in Olympic competition,^[11] and his performance in Los Angeles established a prelude to the country's first Olympic medal in 40 years with Lance Deal's 2nd place finish in the 1996 Atlanta Games.

Endorsements and media appearances

He appeared in television shows, commercials, print advertisements and did product endorsement for such companies as Eastman Kodak, The Hershey Company (Care Free gum), the Ford Motor Company, Mazda, Seafirst Bank, Mizuno Corp., and Nike, Inc. Green also worked as a consultant to actor and filmmaker Danny DeVito, who produced, directed and starred in the children's movie "Matilda", based upon the final novel by best-selling British author Roald Dahl. His work on the film included adviser for actress Pam Ferris, whose character in the story Miss Agatha Trunchbull had been an Olympic hammer thrower.^[12]

Retirement from athletics

Green became disillusioned with the lack of support and training resources necessary for an American athlete to challenge in an area of sports dominated by the Eastern Bloc athletic system at the height of its success in the 1980s.^[13] This factor, combined with the belief that drug use was required to medal at a second Olympic Games and a limited interest in the event in the United States, eroded his enthusiasm for Track and Field.^[14]

In August 1987, he became embroiled in a controversy generating international headlines when he was disqualified for doping at the Pan American Games in Indianapolis, Indiana, where he'd won the silver medal.^[15] He had tested positive for testosterone with a T/E ratio of 11,2-1.^[16] In April 1988 IAAF handed him an eighteen month ban from sports for the anti-doping rule violation.^[17]

After a ten month appeal process, according to one of Green's lawyers, under threat of litigation for violating American due process rights the general secretary of International Association of Athletics Federations allowed him to compete in the 1988 United States Olympic Trials.^[18] Without sufficient time to prepare given the delays, he did not defend his title at the 1988 Olympic Trials or compete in the Olympic Games in Seoul, South Korea. Green retired from Track and Field in 1987 at age 27.

He was inducted into the Long Beach State Athletic Hall of Fame in October 2001.^[19]

Professional career

Beginning as a trainee at the Century City, California office of international insurance broker Johnson & Higgins, he became a sales and marketing executive with the The SCPIE Companies (a division of Johnson and Higgins). Until it was sold in 2009, the Southern California Physicians Insurance Exchange (SCPIE) was the largest largest provider of medical liability insurance in California. He served as Vice President of Sales at SCPIE until 2006, and later held the same title at The Doctors Company in Napa, California. He has been Director of Marketing for the Medical Insurance Exchange of California (MIEC) in Oakland, California since 2010.^[20]

See also

• Athletics at the 1984 Summer Olympics - Men's hammer throw
• List of Olympic medalists in athletics (men)

References

External links

• Olympic Games video clip
• Montage of Olympic Games hammer throwers
• Soviet Union documentary on the Hammer Throw-footage from the 1986 Goodwill Games
• Autobiographical article

1984 USA Olympic Track & Field Team Qualification 1984 United States Olympic Trials (track and field) Men's track & road athletes Ray Armstead Alonzo Babers Kirk Baptiste Ron Brown Tonie Campbell Don Clary Paul Cummings Brian Diemer Marco Evoniuk Greg Foster Sam Graddy Johnny Gray John Gregorek Danny Harris Tranel Hawkins Jim Heiring Thomas Jefferson Earl Jones Roger Kingdom Steve Lacy Carl Lewis Henry Marsh John Marshall Antonio McKay Walter McCoy Edwin Moses Sunder Nix Daniel O'Connor Vince O'Sullivan Doug Padilla Pete Pfitzinger Pat Porter Alberto Salazar Carl Schueler Steve Scott Calvin Smith Willie Smith Jim Spivey John Tuttle Craig Virgin Men's field athletes Duncan Atwood Willie Banks Earl Bell Tim Bright Edward Burke Art Burns Michael Carter Mike Conley, Sr. John Crist Milton Goode Bill Green Al Joyner Dave Laut Carl Lewis Jud Logan Doug Lytle Mike McRae Larry Myricks Doug Nordquist Tom Petranoff John Powell Steve Roller Dwight Stones Mike Tully Mac Wilkins Augie Wolf Jim Wooding Women's track & road athletes Evelyn Ashford Sharrieffa Barksdale Joan Benoit Jeanette Bolden Cindy Bremser Valerie Brisco-Hooks Alice Brown Judi Brown Julie Brown Robin Campbell Chandra Cheeseborough Mary Decker Diane Dixon Benita Fitzgerald-Brown Kim Gallagher Randy Givens Florence Griffith Joyner Joan Hansen Denean Howard Sherri Howard Julie Isphording Missy Kane Lillie Leatherwood Pam Page Diana Richburg Kim Turner Angela Wright-Scott Ruth Wysocki Women's field athletes Jodi Anderson Carol Cady Laura De Snoo Leslie Deniz Cindy Greiner Lorna Griffin Joni Huntley Jackie Joyner Carol Lewis Ramona Pagel Louise Ritter Karin Smith Pam Spencer Lynda Suffin Cathy Sulinski Angela Thacker Coaches —