BRUCE MACDONALD

Bruce MacDonald received a scholarship to NYU as a hurdler in 1947. After graduating college, a teammate from the NY Pioneer Club asked MacDonald to compete in an all-around event that included a half-mile race walk. To prepare for the event, MacDonald and his teammate received help from the legendary Henry Laskau. After some persuasion, MacDonald gave in and eventually focused his energies on race walking. Laskau must have known what a talent his student had: MacDonald became a three time Olympian (1956 - 20K, 1960 - 50K, 1964 - 50K).

Even before MacDonald finished his elite career, he started giving back to the sport as a coach. In 1958, he was the head track and field coach at Port Washington High School. One of his first protégé’s was Ron Daniel, who competed in exhibition events at dual meets. MacDonald was the head coach, on and off, for nearly 50 years and played a key part in getting the race walk accepted as a scoring event in the New York State High School Championships. Today he still coaches at Port Washington Middle School.

MacDonald has served as an IAAF judge and as an umpire at the 1996 Olympic Games. He has coached countless world and national class race walkers.