Bragging Rights H 1996 Olympic gold medalist and Olympic record holder (2.39m/7-10) H American record holder (2.40m/7-10.5) H 1991 World Outdoor and 1997 World Indoor champion H Nine-time USA Indoor and USA Outdoor champion
Track and field is a sport of development and perseverance. Nobody proved that better than Charles Austin.
He was marginal at best in high school, having never qualified for the Texas high school championships. A phone call from his high school coach to Southwest Texas University (now Texas State University) was needed to generate enough interest in Austin to ask him to enroll there. From that point it was all history as Austin went on to set the American record and win Olympic high jump gold in 1996.
His gold medal marked both an incredible journey to become the best in the world and one of great determination following a knee surgery in 1993. Terrible tendinitis shredded Austin’s knee and without surgery he was told he would never jump again. That wasn’t an option to Austin.
Austin seemed to defy the laws of gravity. How could a man just over six-feet tall clear a high jump bar nearly eight feet high?
But his gravity-defying performances made him one of the best in American history. Qualifying for three Olympic Games, Austin won an astonishing nine total USA Indoor and Outdoor championships, which included a run of six straight outdoor national titles from 1995-2000.