Michael Carter is best known in track and field for setting the American national high school record of 81 feet 3½ inches in the 12 pound shot put, adding more than nine feet to the previous record. He set this mark at the 1979 Golden West Invitational track and field meet while competing for Thomas Jefferson High School of Dallas, Texas. No high school athlete has come within four feet of this record since. In 2004 this record was selected by USA Track & Field as the 16th greatest moment in American track and field over the previous quarter century, the only high school mark to make the top 25 greatest moments.
Carter attended Southern Methodist University on a football scholarship. He was a member of both the 1981 and 1982 undefeated team, as the immovable object in the center of the defensive line. He also won four indoor and three outdoor NCAA shot put championships. He was part of the SMU 1983 NCAA Men's Outdoor Track and Field Championship team. After graduating, he won the silver medal in the shot put at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
A 6'2", 285-lb. nose tackle, Carter was selected by the San Francisco 49ers in the fifth round of the 1984 NFL Draft. As a professional American football player, he played his entire National Football League career with the 49ers from 1984-1992. He was a three-time Pro Bowl selection and a three-time Super Bowl winner.
Carter is the only athlete to win an Olympic medal and a Super Bowl ring in the same year. He held the Jesuit-Sheaner Relays shot put meet record from 1979 to 2016 with a throw of 70-0¼ and is a member of the Texas Track and Field Coaches Association Hall of Fame.
Michael is married and has three children. One of those three children being Olympic shot putter Michelle who won the 2006 NCAA outdoor shot put championship, the 2008 United States Olympic Team Trials in addition to the 2009, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016 National Championship. Like her father, Michelle Carter is an Olympic athlete in the shot put. She finished fifteenth at the 2008 Olympic Games, fifth at the 2012 Olympic Games and won the Gold medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics. Michelle also holds the female national high school record in the Shot Put.