Jenner played college football for the Graceland Yellowjackets before incurring a knee injury that required surgery. Convinced by Olympic decathlete Jack Parker's coach, L. D. Weldon, to try the decathlon, Jenner culminated a 6 year decathlon career by winning the men's decathlon event at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, setting a third successive world record and gaining fame as "an all-American hero". Given the unofficial title of "world's greatest athlete", Jenner established a career in television, film, writing, auto racing, business, and as a Playgirl cover model.

Jenner has six children with three successive wives—Chrystie Crownover, Linda Thompson, and Kris Jenner—and has since 2007 appeared on the reality television series Keeping Up with the Kardashians with Kris, their daughters Kendall and Kylie Jenner, and Kris's other children Kourtney, Kim, Khloé, and Rob Kardashian. Assigned male at birth, Caitlyn Jenner publicly came out as a trans woman in April 2015. Her new name was publicly announced in July of that year, with her name and gender being legally changed the following September. From 2015 to 2016, Jenner starred in the reality television series I Am Cait, which focused on her gender transition. In January 2017, she underwent sex reassignment surgery. Jenner has been called the most famous transgender woman in the world.