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Dou­ble Olympic medal­list and for­mer gov­ern­ment min­is­ter Wen­dell Mot­t­ley will re­ceive Yale Uni­ver­si­ty’s high­est ho­n­our, the George HW Bush ’48 Life­time of Lead­er­ship Award.

Mot­t­ley will be one of five past Yale ath­letes recog­nised at the Blue Lead­er­ship Ball on No­vem­ber 21 at the Schwarz­man Cen­ter. The oth­er re­cip­i­ents are lacrosse play­er Kei­th Fla­her­ty, lacrosse and field hock­ey ath­lete Lor­raine Prat­te Lewis, lacrosse and foot­ball play­er Mar­got Putukian, and foot­baller Vic­tor Staffieri.

A stand­out mid­dle-dis­tance sprint­er, Mot­t­ley cap­tained the Yale men’s track and field team in his se­nior year, set­ting in­door world records in the 400-yard, 500-yard, and 600-yard events. He won the Ivy League ti­tle in the out­door 440-yard/400-me­tre run three times and the in­door 600-yard/500-me­tre run twice. His per­son­al best of 45.2 sec­onds re­mains the Ivy League record for the 440-yard/400-me­tre dis­tance, and he still holds Yale’s record in the 600-yard/500-me­tre event.