David Jenkins (sprinter)

Olympic medal record
Men’s Athletics
	1972 Munich	4x400 metre relay
Men's European Championships
	1971 Helsinki	400 m
	1974 Rome	400 m
	1974 Rome	4 x 400m
Men's European Cup
	1973 Edinburgh	400 m
	1973 Edinburgh	4 x400 m
	1975 Nice	400 m
	1975 Nice	4 x 400 m
Men's Commonwealth Games
	1978 Edmonton	4 x 100 m
Men's Universiade
	1973 Moscow	400 m
	1973 Moscow	4 x 400 m

David Andrew Jenkins (born May 25, 1952) was a Scottish athlete who competed mainly in the 400 metres [1].

Jenkins was educated at Edinburgh Academy, where he excelled at sport. He started off as Scottish 100/200/400 Champion, followed by his first of 6 AAA's 400metre titles. Also In 1971, still aged only nineteen, Jenkins won the 400 meters at the European Athletics Championships in Helsinki

He went on to compete for Great Britain in the 1972 Summer Olympics held in Munich, Germany in the 4 x 400 metre relay where he won the silver medal with his team mates Martin Reynolds, Alan Pascoe and David Hemery.

In 1974 he won the silver medal on the 400 meters at the European Athletics Championships in Rome as well as the gold medal in the 4x 400 metre with his team mates Glen Cohen, William Hartley and Alan Pascoe.

In 1975 he was United States of America 400 metre champion, with his fastest time of his career 44.93 which was a British record at the time.

In 1978 he won a gold medal competing for Scotland at the Commonwealth Games in Edmonton, Canada in the 4 x 100 m relay, alongside Cameron Sharp, Allan Wells and Drew McMaster.

In 1980 he was U.K 400 metre champion.

In 1976 and 1980 Jenkins placed 7th on the 400 metre final at the Summer Olympics.

He later admitted to having taken performance-enhancing steroids during his athletics career.

In the 80s Jenkins together with Juan Javier Macklis set up a plant for the production of anabolic steroids in Mexico which they wanted to sell on the US market. Jenkins was arrested and in December 1988 found guilty by a US court of trafficking steroids worth around $100 million. He was sentenced to seven years in the Mojave Desert Prison, but was released after 9 months. In 1993 he set up a partnership with Dan Duchaine, a well known steroid guru, and founded Next Proteins, a company which produced dietary supplements for athletes and bodybuilders. When Duchaine died Jenkins became the chairman of Next Nutrition.

Today he lives in San Diego, California.

Background, Education, and International Sport

Scottish documentary company, Pelicula Films, featured David Jenkins during his training in 1975 as he prepared for the 1976 Olympic Games (Montreal, Quebec, CA). The film, The Long Sprint: Diary of an Olympic Athlete, follows Jenkins from his training, races and the Olympic Games heats. Jenkins qualified for the Olympic 400-meter finals but did not medal. The documentary film was directed by Michael Alexander and won the Gold Grand Prix Award in the British International Sport Film and Television Festival in 1977. The film is available in the Scottish Screen Archive, the national film library. [2]

Sprinting: It Runs In The Family

In 1975, Jenkins and his brother, Roger Jenkins[[3]], represented Great Britain and Northern Ireland v. Finland at Crystal Palace, London as the UK’s #1 and #2 400-meter runners according to “Athletics 75: A Birds Eye Yearbook”, written by Ron Pickering. Jenkins’ international athletic career spanned three decades, 1969 through 1982 starting on cinder tracks, to synthetic tracks from hand timing to electronic timing. His notable achievements include: