life-time cereal may have cornered the market on cute with Little Mikey , but Wheaties has got serious game . For 80 years , the blade has been backing up its repute as “ The Breakfast of Champions ” by featuring more than 500 jock on its box seat ( not all of them on the front ) . The custom has been a treasured one amongst Olympic athlete in particular , whose front - and - center presence on a composition board box seat full of wheat berry and bran bit seems to be as near sought after as the Au medal itself . Here ’s a brief history of the Olympics , as told by Wheaties boxes .
1. BABE DIDRIKSON (1935)
In 1935 , Babe Didrikson — who gold medaled in hurdles and the javelin stroke at the 1932 Olympic Games in Los Angeles — became the first distaff athlete to appear on a box of Wheaties ( albeit on the back ) .
2. JESSE OWENS (1936)
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Track and sphere hotshot James “ Jesse ” Owens , who wowed the crowds by winning four gold palm at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin , was the first black jock to come out on the cereal box . He made a second appearance in 2003 .
3. BOB RICHARDS (1958)
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In 1958 , two - metre Olympian pole vaulting champion ( he admit home the atomic number 79 in 1952 and 1956 ) was the first athlete to make the front of a Wheaties corner . But I. A. Richards was more than just a familiar physiognomy used to generate sale . In 1956 , he was pick out from more than 500 other athletes to serve as the cereal ’s spokesperson , a role he cover through 1970 . “ I run into it more as a commission than a problem , ” Richards told theLos Angeles Timesin 1992 . “ What we did was immensely more important than making money … Now hombre like [ Michael ] Jordan go on and say , ‘ You ’d better eat your Wheaties , ’ but we went around the state talking to mass . ”
4. BRUCE JENNER (1977)
Before he was an unofficial fellow member of the Kardashian kindred , Bruce Jenner in reality achieve something : a amber medal in the Decathlon at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal , which turn him into a pretty major celebrity in the 1980s . So much so that he in reality put back Erik Estrada onCHiPs . ( Which was a like all big deal at the meter . )
5. MARY LOU RETTON (1984)
Thirty years ago , gymnast Mary Lou Retton won five medals at the Summer Olympics , which she followed up with yet another impressive accomplishment when she became the first distaff athlete to be featured on the front of a Wheaties box . Her darling mug point up again in 1999 and 2012 .
6. MICHAEL JORDAN (1988)
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Michael Jordan was already an NBA virtuoso — and gold medallist ( as part of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games)—by the time he made his first Wheaties show , in 1988 . He would go on to win yet another gold medal in 1992 , at the Barcelona Olympics , where he was the only role player to start in all eight game . He would also gear up a record for Wheaties ’ favorite cover boy : 18 appearance ( and counting ) .
7. U.S. WOMEN’S OLYMPIC GYMNASTICS TEAM (1996)
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Kerri Strug , Shannon Miller , Amanda Borden , Dominique Moceanu , and Jaycie Phelps were among the untested women who made history in 1996 when they became the first American team to win a gold medal in gymnastics , trounce out the heavily favour team from Russia and Romania . Wheaties paid tribute to their victory .
8. JIM THORPE (2001)
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It took long enough ! Eighty - nine age after he won both the pentathlon and decathlon at the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm ( wearing two different shoes he ’d rescued from a garbage can after his own kicks were stolen ) , Jim Thorpe finally made his way to the front of a Wheaties loge . Perhaps the delayed laurels was due to the fact that his medallion were revoked in 1913 , when it was discovered that he had play semi - professional baseball before the Games ( a no - no at the time , as only amateur were allowed to vie ) . In 1983 , 30 years after his passing play , the International Olympic Committee decide to repair his titles . Too bad he was n’t around to savor it !
9. JUSTIN GATLIN (2004)
Two years after winning a gold medallion ( plus two silvers and one bronze ) in Athens in 2004 , sprinter Justin Gatlin was hit with a four - class ban on contend after testing positive for steroids . In 2010 , he re - egress , and added yet another bronze laurel wreath to his aggregation at the 2012 London Games .
10. MICHAEL PHELPS (2004)
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In 2004 , Michael Phelps — the most successful Olympian of all time , with a total of 22 medals — made his first of two Wheaties boxful appearances . The second one came in 2012 , the same year he retired . He was 27 years old . ( Time to start exercise that breaststroke , minor . )
11. LINDSEY VONN (2010)
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America ’s most decorated skier won the Au at the 2010 Winter Olympics . She ’s in Sochi this year , too , but as a newspaperwoman for NBC News .
12. SHAUN WHITE (2010)
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A cardinal figure in the modulation of snowboard from daredevil spectacle to Olympic variation , Shaun White won his first gold medallion at the 2006 Games in Turin and did it again in Vancouver in 2010 .
13. MISTY MAY-TREANOR (2012)
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Now retired , Misty May - Treanor is the world ’s most successful beach volleyball game player , having take in more than 100 championships throughout her career , not to mention the three Au laurel wreath she spike in three sequent Olympic Games ( in 2004 in Athens , 2008 in Beijing , and 2012 in London ) .
