This obituary is a part of a collection about individuals who have died within the coronavirus pandemic. Examine others right here.
Arnie Robinson Jr., who gained the gold medal within the lengthy bounce on the 1976 Summer time Olympics in Montreal, died on Dec. 1 at his house in San Diego. He was 72.
His demise was confirmed by his son, Paul, who stated the trigger was problems of Covid-19.
After putting third within the lengthy bounce on the 1972 Summer time Olympics in Munich, the place he wore an anti‐Vietnam Conflict armband as he accepted his bronze medal, Mr. Robinson set his sights on successful gold 4 years later in Montreal.
Mr. Robinson, who had represented the Military when he certified for the Munich video games, left the service the next 12 months and set about coaching in earnest. He dashed up the steps at Balboa Stadium in San Diego till his legs ached, whereas residing off the earnings of his spouse, Cynthia, and cash from his dad and mom. When stomach issues upended his coaching, a chiropractor helped him get again into kind, he instructed The New York Instances in 1976.
“It was no miracle, solely the Lord above can do miracles,” he stated. “Nevertheless it was rattling close to it.”
In 1976 in Montreal, Mr. Robinson, 28 on the time, received his Olympic gold, leaping 27 ft 4¾ inches on the primary bounce of the competitors.
Over all, he gained seven nationwide lengthy bounce titles, and he was the top-ranked lengthy jumper on this planet from 1976 to 1978.
He retired from competitors in 1979 and in 1982 turned a coach at San Diego Mesa Faculty, the place he additionally was a professor of well being and train science till his retirement in 2010, the faculty stated.
In an announcement, U.S.A. Monitor & Subject, the governing physique for the game in the US, described Mr. Robinson as “one of many biggest lengthy jumpers in historical past.”
Arnie Paul Robinson Jr. was born on April 7, 1948, in San Diego. His father, Arnie Robinson Sr., was an electrician and a small-business proprietor. His mom, Verneater Robinson, was a volunteer at Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church in San Diego.
A lifelong resident of San Diego, Mr. Robinson attended Morse Excessive Faculty, San Diego Mesa Faculty after which San Diego State College, the place he was the 1970 N.C.A.A. males’s out of doors observe and area champion within the lengthy bounce.
His son, Paul Robinson, 42, was born shortly earlier than his father retired from competitors. In an interview, he stated it had taken a number of years earlier than he realized his father was an Olympian — one with a gold medal to his title, no much less. It merely didn’t come up, he stated.
“I came upon about his being an Olympic athlete once I was 6 or 7 years previous,” Paul Robinson stated. “He started to inform me about going to the Olympics, successful the bronze, then the gold medal. I had no thought. None of his buddies introduced it up.”
Mr. Robinson was significantly injured in 2000 when a drunken driver struck his automobile. He recovered and went on to teach the united statesA. Monitor & Subject lengthy bounce crew on the 2003 world championships.
In 2005, Mr. Robinson realized he had glioblastoma, a type of mind most cancers, and was instructed he had six months to stay, U.S.A. Monitor & Subject stated. He lived an extra 15 years.
Paul Robinson stated his father had begun feeling unwell in mid-November, with labored respiration and coughing. He examined optimistic for the coronavirus solely a couple of week earlier than he died at his house within the Skyline Hills neighborhood of San Diego, his son stated.
Mr. Robinson’s marriage to Cynthia Eley led to divorce. Along with his son, he’s survived by three sisters: Margaret Tucker, Carolyn Johnson and Arnette Lavergne. A youthful brother, Michael Robinson, died in 2011.
He was inducted into the Nationwide Monitor and Subject Corridor of Fame in 2000, the San Diego Sport Affiliation’s Breitbard Corridor of Fame in 1984 and the California Group Faculty Athletic Affiliation Monitor and Subject Corridor of Fame in 2007.
Later in life, whereas he was nonetheless teaching and instructing, Mr. Robinson discovered one other ardour, his son stated: constructing homes.
“He began with a room addition at our grandmother’s home,” he stated. “He realized easy methods to body, the plumbing, {the electrical}, all of the points of constructing homes. That finally led him to constructing his own residence, the one he lived in for 30 years.”
“He had a ardour for it,” he stated, “similar to athletics.”
