Barry King (decathlete)

Barry John King (3 April 1945 – 27 March 2021)^[1] was a British Olympic decathlete who was later an author, corporate director, corporate board member and specialist in Olympic marketing and sports development.^[2]

Barry King

Personal information
Nationality	British (English)
Born	3 April 1945
Died	27 March 2021 (aged 75) Colorado Springs, USA
Height	185 cm (6 ft 1 in)
Weight	90 kg (198 lb)
Sport
Sport	Athletics
Event	decathlon/discus
Club	Hillingdon AC
Medal record Representing  England Commonwealth Games 1974 Christchurch Decathlon 1970 Edinburgh Decathlon

Biography

He was founder and chief executive officer of Outdoor-Fitness, LLC.,^{[3][4][5][6][7]} co-founder of Sports Directions Corporation, and served as a director at the United States Olympic Committee for 14 years during the height of their organizational and fundraising successes.^[8]

King is co-author of a two-book series, published in association with the United States Olympic Committee, entitled The Olympic Challenge as well as Journey of the Olympic Flame.^{[9][10][11][12]} King assisted in creating an Olympic themed Iowa state school educational curriculum for K-12 students,^[13] again, in conjunction with the United States Olympic Committee. In film, he was the technical director of the Walt Disney motion picture, The World's Greatest Athlete.^[14]

Athletics career

He grew up in England and obtained a track and field scholarship from the University of Colorado at Boulder in the United States. His first major international competition came when he represented England at the 1970 British Commonwealth Games, where he won the bronze medal in the decathlon.^[15][16]

He then took part in the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich two years later, competing for Great Britain. He ranked fifteenth overall in the Olympic decathlon competition. He returned to the podium at the 1974 British Commonwealth Games in Christchurch, New Zealand, this time coming away with the silver medal.^[17][18][19]

He has held national records and became the British decathlon champion after winning the 1972 AAA Championships title.^[20] He won the British national pentathlon title, and also set the national record on 20 May 1970 in Santa Barbara, California.^{[citation needed]}

Personal life

King was married to Deanna Pinckney-King and has one daughter.