Bill Wambach

Bill Wambach is an American amateur track-and-field athlete who competes at the Masters level. He broke the national high-jump record for the 80- to 84-year-old division with a jump of 1.26 meters (4 feet 11⁄2 inches) at the 2006 Badger State Games.[1] He has been competing in the Badger State Games for many years. He was named the "Male Athlete of the Year" by the National Congress of State Games.[2] On July 10, 2011, he added the American M85 record, jumping 1.17m at the USATF Midwest Masters meet.[3][4] Two months later at the Wisconsin Senior Olympics, he improved upon that mark jumping 1.18m, though that mark has yet to be recognized as a record.[5]

Wambach was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on August 1, 1925. He has lived in Sun Prairie since 1978. He is a retired district highway engineer. He is married with six daughters, two sons and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

In the 1940s, he competed as a high jumper for Marquette University. Though he once cleared 6 ft. 2 in., he never was a serious threat for breaking the collegiate national record.[6] He keeps fit by biking, cross-country skiing and walking. He says the reason he is doing so well is because "I've just outlived all the good guys who could beat me."[7]

He is one of the two stars of a feature-length documentary film by Andrew Napier called Mary and Bill, featuring Wambach and Mary Stroebe, a 90-year-old woman who runs in Triathlons.[8] The documentary has not yet been released.

He also participates in the Young Eagles program at the EAA AirVenture Museum, with which he has given airplane flights to more than 640 children since 1992.[9]

References


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