Rafer Johnson, Olympic champion, actor and one of the people who reduced the Kennedy assassin dies

Rafer Johnson

, decathlon Olympic gold medalist at the 1960 Rome Olympics and one of the people who brought down

in 1968, died on Wednesday at the age of 86.

He died at his home in Los Angeles, according to family friend

, without revealing the cause of death.

Johnson was among the best athletes in the world from 1955 until his Olympic triumph in 1960. Four years earlier, he had already hung the decathlon silver at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics. He was the American flag bearer in Rome and in charge of lighting the cauldron at the opening of the 1984 Los Angeles Games.

In fact, Johnson was a movie champion because, to that happy Olympic career, he later joined an acting career that included roles in two Tarzan films or in the famous James Bond film 'License to Kill'.

Johnson set world records in the decathlon on three separate occasions amid a fierce rivalry with his UCLA teammate

Taiwan

and Soviet

.

Protagonist in the Kennedy assassination

On June 5, 1968, Johnson was working on Kennedy's presidential campaign when the Democratic candidate was shot in the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles.

Johnson teamed up with former NFL star

and journalist

in arresting

moments after he shot Kennedy, who died the next day.

"I knew he did everything he could to take care of Uncle Bobby at his most vulnerable moment," Kennedy's niece

by phone.

"His devotion to Uncle Bobby was pure and real. He had protected his friend. Even after Uncle Bobby died he stayed close."

Johnson called the murder "one of the most devastating moments" of his life.

With a reference since childhood

Born Rafer Lewis Johnson on August 18, 1934, in Hillsboro, Texas, he moved to California in 1945 with his family, including his brother Jim, a future member of the NFL Hall of Fame.

In Kingsburg, near Fresno in the San Joaquin Valley, it was less than 25 miles from Tulare, the hometown of

, who would win the decathlon at the 1948 and 1952 Olympics and was one of Johnson's first inspirations.

Johnson was an outstanding student and played football, basketball, and baseball and practiced track and field at Kingsburg Joint Union High.

During his junior year of high school, Johnson's coach took him to Tulare to watch Mathias compete in a decathlon, an experience that propelled him to begin the grueling discipline of 10 athletic events.

As a freshman at UCLA, where he received academic and athletic scholarships, Johnson won gold at the 1955 Pan American Games and set a world record of 7,985 points.

After winning the national decathlon championship in 1956, Johnson was the favorite for the Melbourne Olympics, but he injured an abdominal muscle and a knee while training.

He was forced to withdraw from the long jump, for which he had also qualified, but tried to finish the decathlon.

Johnson's

almost unknown

teammate

put on the performance of his life, finishing with 7,937 points to win gold, 350 ahead of Johnson.

It was the last time Johnson would finish second.

An accident and a rival

Johnson, Yang, and Kuznetzov had their way with the record books between the 1956 and 1960 Olympics. Kuznetzov, a two-time Olympic bronze medalist whom the Soviets called their "man of steel," broke Johnson's world record. in May 1958 with 8,016 points.

Later that year, in a meeting between the United States and the Soviet Union in Moscow, Johnson beat Kuznetzov by 405 points and recovered the world record with 8,302 points.

Johnson won over Soviet audiences with his fearless performance in front of what had been a hostile crowd.

A car accident and subsequent back injury kept Johnson out of competition in 1959, but he was ready for the 1960 Olympics again. Yang was his main rival.

Yang won six of the first nine events, but Johnson led by 66 points with the 1,500 meters remaining, the final event of the decathlon.

Johnson had to finish within 10 "of Yang, which was no small feat considering the Taiwanese was much stronger in that event.

Johnson finished just 1 "2 seconds behind Yang to win gold. Kuznetsov took bronze.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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