After the career of his older brother Hayes Alan Jenkins , he dominated the men's competition from 1957 to 1960 and continued the winning streak of the Americans, which began by Richard Button in 1948 and was continued by his brother in 1953. In 1957 and 1958 he was world champion in front of his compatriot Tim Brown and in 1959 in front of the Canadian Donald Jackson . In 1960 he won the gold medal in front of a home crowd at the Olympic Games in Squaw Valley and succeeded his brother, who had become Olympic champion in Cortina d'Ampezzo four years earlier, at the Olympic Games . The two brothers together won seven world championships and two Olympic Games in a row, making them the most successful pair of brothers in the history of figure skating.
After retiring from active sport, Jenkins studied medicine and became an internist .