Bill Nieder

Who is Bill Nieder?

William Henry Nieder is an American athlete who mainly competed in the shot put. He was born in Hempstead, New York, and grew up in Lawrence, Kansas.

He competed for the United States at the 1956 Summer Olympics and received a silver medal for his 18.18 m long throw, losing to Parry O'Brien. Four year later, Nieder later won gold with his throw of 19.68 m/64' 6¾" inches at the 1960 Summer Olympics held in Rome, Italy. The mark was the Olympic record and was an improvement of 5 feet from his mark 4 years earlier. Parry O'Brien had also improved over that time but was almost 2 feet behind Nieder with Dallas Long third.

A graduate of the University of Kansas, Nieder was the first collegiate athlete to better the 60-foot mark with a 16-pound shot. He was also the first high school prep athlete to break the 60-foot barrier with a 12-pound shot put.

Nieder, who set the shot put world record on three occasions, tried boxing when his track and field career ended following the 1960 Olympics. He was knocked out in his first bout and hung up the gloves for good.

He was employed by 3M and was instrumental in developing artificial athletic turf. Nieder sold the first ever synthetic track surface for an Olympic Games to the 1968 Mexico City organizers. Such tracks are now standard at all major track meets. Nieder later developed a new version of the rubber room.