I was born in 1976 and I’m sure I saw Bruce Jenner on television at some point I wouldn’t have known who he was without the Kardashians thrusting him into the limelight again. (And I only say him because that’s how Jenner was presenting at the time.)
MAD got in some trouble for using “Bruce” as their code word for effeminate gay men.
I mainly remember the 1976 Olympics because of Nadia Comaneci and her premier perfect 10 in gymnastics, but Bruce Jenner was also a star. He was also something of a regional hero because we lived in Des Moines, and he went to college in Lamoni, a small town on the Missouri-Iowa border that is pronounced la-moan-eye.
Light PPCs are lostech. 
Jenner was on KUWTK as Bruce from 2007 to 2015 (or maybe longer because her transition happened IRL in 2015 before it aired on the show). Her only claim to fame at that time was ex-athlete and stepparent/parent to these very famous women and Kris’s husband, wasn’t it?
There’s no way people who actually watched/followed KUWTK didn’t know who Bruce Jenner was. I’m sure they didn’t know what his event was but they can’t possibly think of Caitlyn in a bubble.
That being said I am pretty sure there were more people saying they hated KUWTK than had ever watched the show. And more people saying they actively avoided Kardashian news than had ever really read any Kardashian news.
I’m not saying that all young people should know who Bruce was but I am saying that anyone who watched the show knows. And that fewer people actually watched the show in earnest than everyone accuses everyone else having done.
Personally I am only vaguely familiar with the show but I know who Bruce The Athlete was. I would not have guessed decathlon tho. Born in 1979.
I understand that. Jenner has done this herself, which is why I suspect no one has said anything.
But, since you bring it up, I do want to note that the general etiquette with trans people is that you use their preferred gender even in the past, and don’t use their dead name more than necessary.
I’m not sure what pronouns Caitlyn uses now for her past. She’s changed her pronouns before, and the last reference I find of her referring to herself with male pronouns was in 2015, when the etiquette rules were not as widely established.
Although I answered before, I wanted to clarify.
I was in high school so the Olympics were a huge deal, just simply because they filled daytime TV. Youngers today cannot imagine life before HBO (for us), ESPN, and even CNN, daytime TV sucked during the summers.
It was back when the Soviet block, especially the USSR and East Germany were pouring everything into the Olympics (including doping) for propaganda purposes and the US finished third in the metal count.
This was a huge story of those Olympics, perhaps the biggest for many people.
i remeber as a kid that he was presented as some running expert on various morning shows like good moring America etc and would answer on jogging and the like and they would menton the olympics
And it famously backfired against Reebok when Dan failed to qualify for the Olympics (he missed the pole vault). Dave ended up taking Bronze at Barcelona 1992 and then shortly retired.
Dan O’Brien would later win Gold in decathlon in the 1996 Olympics.
I was 10 at the time so I remember the 76 olympics very well. Most of the girls wanted to be Nadiya Comaneci and there were some bad falls off the monkey bars. Our social studies classes were full of “America = freedom = good and USSR = commies = BAAAAAAAD!” so Jenner got a lot of lip service, especially since it was the decathalon which meant we beat the commies at ALL the sports at once!
I remember a few guest appearances on TV shows, Diffrent Strokes maybe, as the wholesome all American athlete.
I’ve seen this meme a few times over the past couple of years, which is probably worthy of inclusion here.
I was only aware of Jenner as an athlete from my youth and then started hearing about her being associated with the Kardashians. I’ve never seen the show, so all I know about it is that Kayne West and Jenner are somehow involved.
If you know what Bruce Jenner was famous for, you will recognize the name of the just-passed F. Lee Bailey’s famous client Patty Hearst and what all that was about. If you are under 55, “SLA” is probably meaningless to you.
I’m 55. Isn’t he part of the Wu-Tang Clan?
(Just kidding. I’m well aware it’s the New York State Liquor Authority)
And that is kind of funny because I have heard of Taylor Shift but know almost nothing about her. I think she does singy things or something. We all seem to form cultural bubbles that are soft on some parts of the membrane and all but impermeable on others.
But again, my point is that Jenner is not the equivalent of Bailey or Hearst. They are people who were famous in the seventies but were later forgotten. Jenner was a famous person in the seventies and is still a famous person in 2021.
But to be fair, she wasn’t called Caitlyn Jenner at the time the Olympic Medal was won. I had heard they were going to change the name, but I don’t know if that is what happened. She also wasn’t called Caitlyn during most of her time on Keeping Up With The Kardashians.
I remember those episodes! IIRC, Ponch didn’t appear in those episodes due to a contract dispute.
This is a tragedy. And people also prob’ly forget Jenner’s role in using cowpox to prevent disease.
I think it’s not accurate to use the word “still” here. Jenner is famous again.
A few years ago, I read a blog post that was kind of randomly talking about the Kardashian’s Christmas card that had just come out. I knew that the Kardashians had a TV show and were kind of famous for being famous.
But then the blog post mentioned that Bruce Jenner was on the card, and I thought that was bizarre - why would Jenner be on their card? That was a name I hadn’t heard in a couple of decades at least.
Don’t forget, Bailey was one of O. J. Simpson’s defense lawyers in the 90s along with the Kardashians’ sire, Robert.