12 Facts About Bill Nieder

William Henry Nieder was an American athlete who mainly competed in the shot put.

Bill Nieder was born in Hempstead, New York, and grew up in Lawrence, Kansas.

Bill Nieder was married to his wife Sue at the time and had a daughter Connie of about one year of age.

At the Olympics Nieder won a gold medal with a throw of 19.68 m The mark set a new Olympic record and was an improvement of 5 feet from his mark 4 years earlier.

Bill Nieder was the first high school prep athlete to break the 60-foot barrier with a 12-pound shot put.

Bill Nieder, who set the shot put world record on three occasions, tried boxing when his track and field career ended following the 1960 Olympics.

Bill Nieder was knocked out in his first bout and hung up the gloves for good.

Bill Nieder was employed by 3M as a salesman, and as an Olympic medal holder with a persuasive knack for presenting things in the most favorable light, Bill Nieder helped sell the first ever synthetic track surface for an Olympic Games to the 1968 Mexico City Olympics organizers.

In 2006 Bill Nieder was inducted into National Track and Field Hall of Fame.

Bill Nieder helped subdue a passenger attempting to enter the cockpit of American Airlines flight 1561 headed to San Francisco on Sunday, May 8,2011.

Bill Nieder was 77 years old at the time and surrounding passengers who witnessed the altercation said Nieder arose from his seat to go to the bathroom, when he unknowingly bumped into the passenger intending to enter cockpit, allowing American Airline attendants to prevent the passenger from ultimately entering the cockpit.

On October 11,2022, it was announced by the University of Kansas that Bill Nieder had died in the previous week at the age of 89.