Caitlyn Jenner stormed to victory at the Olympics 46 years ago today (July 30) and took to Instagram to celebrate her historic win with a seriously epic throwback.

Then known as Bruce Jenner before her transition, Caitlyn, 72, made history by winning gold in the decathlon at the 1976 OIympic Games, and setting a new world record in the process.

It was a moment that propelled her to huge fame and even onto the side of cereal boxes.

Historic victory

Caitlyn often fondly looks back at her time as an Olympic athlete, and wrote about it extensively in her autobiography The Secrets of My Life, released in 2017.

Marking the anniversary today, she shared a picture of herself on the running track alongside the caption: “July 30 1976! I can’t believe it’s been 46 years since my Olympic win! I love my country,” adding a gold medal emoji.

Since winning at the games she’s worked as a public speaker, wrote books, made guest appearances in TV shows and movies, welcomed many children and grandchildren, and of course became a huge star of reality TV alongside then-wife Kris Jenner on Keeping Up With The Kardashians.

Her own spin-off show I Am Cait followed her after her transition, and despite a few reported feuds with the Kardashians, she’s remained a staple of reality stardom.

Her sporting success saw her awarded the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage at the ESPYs in 2015, and long before that, she was making history at the Olympics.

She set a new world record in the decathlon with 8,618 points over the 10 events, which include 100m, long jump, pole vault and javelin. Her record stood for four years.

The current world record of 9,126 points was earned by France’s Kevin Mayer in 2018.

The current Olympic record is 9,018 points, achieved by Canada’s Damian Warner in 2021.

Looking back

Caitlyn tearfully admitted during her time in the Celebrity Big Brother Australia house earlier this year that she has conflicting feelings about her Olympic win.

As a photo of her winning moment was shown, she fought tears as she said: “This will not be easy to get through, but I’ll get through it.”

She told her housemates: “This photo means a lot to me. I spent 12 years of my life every day preparing for that moment, and I got there, and right at that moment I won the title of the greatest athlete in the world.

“A few days later I saw this photo was on the cover of Sports Illustrated and the caption right here was ‘all right’, and to be honest with you, that was exactly how I felt.”

The emotional star continued: “I thought to myself, ‘Oh my God, did I build that character up so big that I’m stuck with him the rest of my life?’

“It was so much more to me than that photo and I struggled with that for a long time. That was 45 years ago, long time. My journey in life has been very interesting.

“Every story, especially of transitioning, is a different story. There is no right way to do this, there’s only your way to do this and the quality of our life and the meaning of our life is going to determine how we handle this journey.

“And for me it was a tough struggle, but somehow I got through it.”

She went on to say that her favorite part about being female is feeling “peace in her soul” and that she “didn’t have that as a male”.

She said she had never been in a “better place” in her life.

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