Dwight Stones

American athletics competitor, high jumper, track and field commentator

Dwight Edwin Stones (born December 6, 1953) is an American television commentator and a two time Olympic bronze medalist and former three time world record holder in the men's high jump. During his 16 year career, he won 19 national championships. In 1984, Stones became the first athlete to both compete and serve as an announcer at the same Olympics. Since then, he has been a color analyst for all three major networks in the United States and continues to cover track and field on television. He served as an analyst for NBC Sports coverage of Track and Field at the 2008 Summer Olympics. He is a member of the US Track Hall of Fame, the California Sports Hall of Fame, the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, and the Orange County Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.

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, during the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, he took the bronze medal in the high jump behind Jüri Tarmak and Stefan Junge. At the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montréal, he was a heavy favorite to win the gold medal. Earlier, he finished second at the U. S. Olympic Trials, then had to settle for another Olympic bronze behind Jacek Wszoła and local favorite Greg Joy when his jumping ability was hampered by the competition being struck by heavy rain. A few days later, he raised the world record to in dry conditions at Franklin Field in Philadelphia. His participation at the Montreal Games sparked a heated debate: he had allegedly said that he hated French Canadians (Montréal Matin Newspaper, July 29, 1976, pages 5 and 8) when he criticised the organization of the Games in a media interview. Consequently, Stones was subject to raucous booing and hissing during the competition. The debate became so inflamed that he decided on a new tee shirt for the day of the final, the back of the shirt reading "I love French Canadians", at the U. S. Olympic Trials on June 24.

In the transitional time when amateur sports were beginning to break the barrier of payment to athletes, Stones was a leading advocate of the change. During that period, one of the first options was for winnings to be paid to the athlete's club. To answer that, Stones created the Desert Oasis Track Club, a California corporation. The only athlete in the club was Dwight Stones. The stockholders and officers were Dwight Stones and his family members. Stones first made money in the televised sports creation Superstars which was "donated" to the track club. This caused the IAAF and its American affiliate the AAU to suspend Stones. The ensuing lawsuit led to the Amateur Sports Act of 1978, which broke up the AAU, decertifying it as the national governing body for track and field (and many other sports) causing the formation of The Athletics Congress and the slow transition to allow professionalism.