Career
He is the current World recordholder in the, now rarely run 440-yard hurdles, the predecessor to the 400 hurdles of today, but just over seven feet longer in distance. In 1974 he was named United States Olympic Committee "Male Athlete of the Year."
Bolding was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and was a 1968 graduate of United States Grant High School in Oklahoma City. Bolding was 6th at the 1972 Olympic Trials while still in college.
At the end of the season, he was on the August 1974 cover of Track and Field News captioned "Bolding Burns Barriers." In the 1976 Olympic Trials, he was in the lead at the halfway point going into a strong wind on the backstretch, but was passed by upstart Edwin Moses around the turn.
Maintaining second until over the last hurdle, he "almost crumpled" and was passed by Mike Shine and a fast closing Quintin Wheeler into a non-qualifying fourth place. Moses and Shine would finish 1–2 in the Olympics.
Bolding died, aged 61, in Stillwater, Oklahoma.