
STEVE MCCONKEY QUICK FACTS

—-On October 19, 1955, Steve was born in Des Moines, Iowa. He attended Dunlap Elementary School and went on two field trips to the Drake Relays where he was introduced to world-class track and field. In 1968, Steve’s family moved to the Danbury, Wisconsin area (Dairyland). He graduated from Webster High School (WI) in 1974.
—-On September 22, 1959 in Des Moines, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev visited various agricultural sites. He was on a two week tour of the United States during the Cold War. On his way to a packing house, his motorcade drove down a street near Steve’s home. Steve and his brother ran down the road to see what was going on. The motorcade was surrounded by the police and many armed guards were on the street corners. They saw Khrushchev go by very close.
—-While in Des Moines, Steve lived near the Iowa Capitol and the State Historical Museum. With friends, he spent a lot of time going through those buildings, including walking the 298 steps up to the Iowa Capitol Dome many times from the second floor. The Dome was 275 feet above the ground floor. During the Vietnam War, there were many protests at the Capitol.
—-Being the first battleground state in politics, Iowa had parades for many politicians in Des Moines. Steve went to some of those parades. The politicians rode through the downtown streets in limousine convertibles without proper protection. The Kennedy’s, Nixon, LBJ, Goldwater, etc.
—-Around Steve’s 18th birthday on October 19, 1973, Steve registered for the Vietnam War draft. Registration with the Selective Service System was suspended on April 1, 1975.
—-On November 10, 1975, the Edmund Fitzgerald sank in Lake Superior, killing all twenty-nine on board. On that morning, Steve was walking to class at the University of Wisconsin-Superior. The wind was blowing extremely hard off the lake.
—-Steve became a Christian in March 1976 at the University of Wisconsin-Superior after reading a Bible left in the student union.
—-After hitchhiking in April 1976 to the Drake Relays in Des Moines, Steve sat with Bruce Jenner, his first wife, and ten others. Jenner destroyed the decathlon record. In that group were his fellow competitors who talked about their events with Jenner. He went on to win the 1976 Olympic decathlon gold while setting the world record. Steve morally opposes the transgender movement.
—-While going to Minnesota State University in Mankato. Steve worked for his dad buying walnut and elm trees from nearby farms. Loggers harvested them and laid them out near railroad tracks. The trees were used for veneer in various countries. Also, he worked at a gas station, pumping gas and washing windows.
—-Steve ran 70,256 miles from 1971 through 2019, forty-eight years at 4.01 miles per day. He ran for Webster High School (WI) and the University of Wisconsin-Superior before transferring to Minnesota State University in Mankato. In 1977, MSU was third at the NCAA Division 2 Cross Country Championships. Steve got a BS-Community Health degree from MSU with honors.
—-Steve was a graduate assistant coach at Western Kentucky University for the cross-country and track and field teams in 1980-81. They won the Ohio Valley Conference Cross Country Championships with a perfect 15 points and were sixth at the 1980 NCAA Division 1 Cross Country Championships. He got his Master of Public Health degree with honors at WKU.
—-From 1982 through 1992, Steve was a USA National Track and Field Club Coach for Athletes in Action (82-83), Lay Witnesses for Christ (83-88), and 4 Winds Christian Athletics (88-92). Athletes were ranked ninety-three times. Team centers were in Eugene (OR), Dallas-Fort Worth (TX), and Minneapolis-St. Paul (MN). After 1992, 4 WINDS USA dropped the team to work with athletes on all teams.
—-In 1987, Minnesota Governor Rudy Perpich put Steve on a committee to design the National Sports Center in Blaine, a suburb of Minneapolis-St. Paul. He helped design the Center’s track and field portion. Currently, track and field does not use the facility. Soccer, hockey, golf and other sports use the facility. 3.8 million visitors visit the Center each year, making it the most-visited sports facility in Minnesota.
—-Four Winds Christian Athletics (4 WINDS USA) legally began in September 1988 in Minneapolis-St. Paul. The final non-profit ruling was in 1994.
—-In 1996, Steve and Liz McConkey were 75 yards from the Olympic bomb in Atlanta. They saw Richard Jewell pushing people back. He was falsely accused of planting the bomb, but was later cleared. Steve and his family were going to go in the direction of where the bomb was, but Jewell pushed them back. More people would have died if Jewell had not warned them. They saw a guy go in with an Army bag before the bomb went off and the FBI interviewed them.
—-While running near Danbury, Wisconsin in the summer of 1997, Steve saw two bears come out of the woods 175 feet in front of him. One was huge and the other was smaller. They did not run away as normal. He ran through the woods to the shore of Big McGraw Lake near Danbury, Wisconsin and stopped. Steve heard the bear chasing through the woods. He went out 20 feet from the shoreline. The smaller bear came to the shoreline and got into the water. As Steve threw muck at the bear’s face and shouted, the bear was clicking its jaws loudly and rotating its head like a robot. Twenty feet from the shoreline, he walked 200 feet as the bear walked away from the water and kept coming back. A pontoon picked Steve up.
—-In 2003, Steve started fighting against the International Olympic Committee’s transgender policies. He was the only person who stood against this publicly. Steve called various IOC members and was in contact with the USA Olympic Committee. From there, the transgender sports movement spread to high schools, all the way to the Olympics. Steve has fought this agenda every step of the way. Eventually, Olympic track and field, swimming, and other sports stopped transgender athletes.
—-Before the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, Senator Lindsey Graham and Steve fought the Chinese government after news circulated that they were not going to allow Bibles in the Olympic Village. Afterwards, China cleared up the confusion. There was a worldwide article released by the Associated Press on the subject.
—-Before and during the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, 4 WINDS USA put athlete testimonies into the Chinese underground church of 110 million people. Those athletes won three golds and two silvers. After their events, they shared the gospel worldwide. Steve was contacted by a Chinese pastor to get the testimonies while mowing the lawn.
—-Steve tried to sue the International Olympic Committee before the 2016 Olympics in Rio to stop the women’s 800m race. However, the lawyers said that he could not because he did not have a vested interest in the race. Steve was concerned that intersex athletes (not transgender) would sweep the race. That is exactly what happened as they had high untested testosterone levels. This was a turning point as Olympic sports organizations started to pay attention.
—-In 2019, Steve asked Rasmussen polling to do a poll on transgender athletes. It was the first poll that was done on the subject in the United States. At that time, only 28% of Americans were for transgender athletes.
—-During the 2024 Olympics, Steve opposed the International Olympic Committee for telling the media to not use certain words to address athletes, including the words “husband and wife.” Also, he provided evidence that the United Nations and the Olympic Committee work together to implement the radical 2030 Agenda.
—-Since 1981, Steve has done ministry work at most USA Track and Field Championships, Olympic Trials, and some Olympics. The 2024 Olympics was their eleventh Olympic cycle. During the 2024 Olympic Trials, Steve had a successful outreach to the Olympic track and field team. They went on to win thirty-four medals in Paris, the most since the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. Steve’s first Olympics was in Los Angeles in 1984, where the Olympics will be held in 2028. During the 2024 Olympics, many athletes shared the gospel.
—-On September 10, 2024, Steve was the Western Kentucky University Alumnus of the Week. WKU has 16,500 students.
—-In recent years, Steve has had over 360 worldwide radio, article, and TV interviews.
—-The ministry center has been in Madison, Wisconsin since 2006.