LOS ANGELES — Nearly 40 years after his record-breaking Olympic gold-medal win in the decathlon, Bruce Jenner is poised to make history in a different realm, with an interview in which he is expected to disclose his transition to life as a woman.
The 65-year-old Jenner, known to younger generations as the patriarch of reality TV's Kardashian clan, will become the most high-profile American to come out as transgender with his first public comments on the issue.
Jenner recently sat down for an interview with Diane Sawyer of the US television network ABC. The two-hour interview is to be broadcast starting at 9pm Friday New York time (8am Saturday Thailand time).
Neither Jenner nor his representatives have commented on a transition that has been widely rumoured, but never substantiated. That has not stopped magazines from running cover stories about the supposed transition and how his family is reacting to it.
ABC's teasers for the interview have shed little light on what is to come in the special.
In a video clip released on Thursday, Jenner says, "It is going to be an emotional rollercoaster, but somehow I am going to get through it" and, referring to his family, "I can't let myself hurt them."
Sporting long hair and sitting on a couch, Jenner is seen telling Sawyer, "I want to know how this story ends."
Jenner has six biological children and four stepchildren in the Kardashian family through his ex-wife Kris Jenner, the manager and mother of the stars in E! Entertainment's Keeping Up with the Kardashians.
Jenner won the decathlon at the 1976 Summer Olympic Games in Montreal and broke the world record for points in the 10-event competition in which winners are given the unofficial title of "World's Greatest Athlete".