GARY GUBNER
Sport: Track and Field
Inducted: 2001
Country: United States
Born: December 1, 1942 in New York, New York
Gary Gubner broke the World Indoor Shotput record on multiple occasions in 1962, eventually establishing the World indoor record of 64'113/4" (19.805 meters). He was ranked number one in the
World Indoors in 1962 and 1963. Outdoors, he was second in 1962 and fifth in 1963.
Injuries hampered Gubner’s expectations of making the U.S. team at the 1964 U.S. Olympic track and field trials, so he turned his attention to weightlifting and made the U.S. Olympic Weightlifting Team. He narrowly missed medaling, finishing fourth in the Heavyweight class at the 1964 Games.
Gubner went on to establish four Junior World lifting records in the Heavyweight class: 3871/2 pounds in the press; 324 pounds snatch; 4231/2 pounds clean and jerk; and a total pounds 1,135. In
1965, he set a U.S. press mark of 412 pounds en route to lifting 1,180 pounds.
In 1961, after touring Europe with the U.S. track and field team, which included a Shotput victory over the vaunted Soviet entry and a “statement” visit to Friday night services at a Moscow synagogue, Gubner competed in the Sixth Maccabiah Games in Israel, winning gold medals in Shotput, Discus, and Heavyweight Weightlifting.
© 1996- International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame
