Residences Hometown: East St. Louis, Illinois. Louis, Illinois , Follow Me Twitter. Athlete Profile. Our Sport. Our team. Our journey. Join our team. Competing in her first Olympics, in Los Angeles, Joyner-Kersee earned a silver medal in the heptathlon, a seven-event competition that includes the meter run, meter run and meter hurdles.
Building on her impressive showing at the Goodwill Games, Joyner-Kersee made a splash at the Seoul Games by accumulating a record 7, points in the heptathlon to win gold. Additionally, she became the first American woman to win gold in the long jump. With her successful follow-up at the Barcelona Games, Joyner-Kersee became the first woman to win consecutive Olympic gold medals in the heptathlon.
She added a bronze in the long jump. Joyner-Kersee's last Olympic run came in when she took home another bronze medal in the long jump at the Summer Games in Atlanta, Georgia. She did not compete in the heptathlon that year due to a pulled hamstring. She claimed the national heptathlon championship eight times and the national long jump title nine times, setting the American record with her leap of 24 feet, 7 inches in Joyner-Kersee also thrived in the hurdles, setting national records at distances of 50, 55 and 60 meters.
After announcing her retirement from track in the summer of , Joyner-Kersee briefly attempted a career as a professional basketball player. She soon came out of retirement with the goal of making the U. Olympic team for the fifth time but fell short at the Olympic trials. In February , she formally retired for good, at age Having created the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Youth Center Foundation, to encourage underprivileged youth in her hometown to play sports, the athletic great devoted more time to the endeavor in retirement.
According to its website, the organization aims to "educate, encourage and assist athletes in their efforts to contribute to community and charitable causes. In , she became a spokesperson for the cable TV company Comcast.
Their relationship became romantic after years spent working together as friends, and they were married on January 11, When Al Joyner was wed to a sprinter named Florence Griffith, the stage was set for the emergence of a track and field "family" of champions: Jackie Joyner-Kersee and Florence Griffith Joyner.
The two women were among an elite cadre of track stars coached by Bob Kersee in preparation for the Olympic Games. In , Joyner-Kersee was ranked third in the world heptathlon. She changed that ranking forever at the Goodwill Games in Moscow. There she set a world record in the event with 7, points-more than points higher than her nearest competitor in history.
Just three weeks later she broke her own record with a score of 7, points in Houston, Texas, where temperatures reached degrees during competition. Her devotion to the heptathlon was recognized by numerous awards, including the Sullivan Award for best amateur athlete and the coveted Jesse Owens Award.
Joyner-Kersee's performance at the Olympics was nothing short of phenomenal. Not only did she win a gold medal in the heptathlon, she also took the gold medal in the long jump, flying 24 feet, 3. Her heptathlon score of 7, points was her fourth world record, and many predicted it would probably stand for several years.
Joyner-Kersee's achievement in the Olympics was particularly exciting because multi-event track competitions and the long jump had been dominated by countries of the former Soviet Bloc, where steroid use among athletes was acceptable.
Joyner-Kersee became not only the first American woman to win a gold medal in the Olympic long jump, she also became the first athlete in 64 years to win a gold in both a multi-event and a single event. Much attention has been focused over the years on the relationship between Jackie Joyner-Kersee and her coach and husband, Bob.
The pair have been spotted quarreling during competition. Kersee is an exacting man who makes his demands well known. The coach told the Chicago Tribune that he and his wife try not to take their disagreements home with them at night. We enjoy sports so much, and we enjoy one another so much, it would be a shame if we let track and field get in the way of our personal life, or our personal life get in the way of track and field. Joyner-Kersee has not been able to break her Olympic heptathlon record.
Since then she has re-injured her hamstring and had moments when she lacked the resolve to continue. The incessant prodding of Kersee has kept her at the top of the world standings, however. In , she sought to become the fourth woman in Olympic history to win four gold medals. Her performance in the heptathlon earned her another gold, but she could only turn in a bronze medal performance in the long jump.
The year-old Joyner-Kersee was gracious about her defeat in the long jump, because the winner was her close friend, Heike Drechsler, of Germany. Joyner-Kersee told the Los Angeles Times that she was thrilled for her rival.
Into the s, Joyner-Kersee continued to compete in track and field, stating that she wanted to end her Olympic career on American soil. She entered the Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, but was suffering from an injury to her right hamstring.
She came away with another bronze in the long jump and withdrew from the heptathlon. Although she did not plan to compete in another set of Olympic games, Joyner-Kersee had no plans to abandon the sport.
For some time, Joyner-Kersee had indicated that she might look to other sports besides track and field. She did not end up spending much time on the court, though, and left in mid-season due to concerns over possible injuries. Joyner-Kersee continued to compete in track and field events once she gave up her basketball career while also keeping busy with other projects.
She functioned as a spokesperson for Nike's PLAY Participate in the Lives of America's Youth program, helping to raise funds for youth activity centers and providing scholarship money to youth through the Joyner-Kersee Community Foundation. She also worked with children in her hometown of East St. Louis, Illinois. After many years of trying to rebuild the crumbling Mary E.
Brown Community Center, she announced in that the Joyner-Kersee Community Foundation would provide funds to build a new recreational facility on 37 acres in the center of East St. In addition to basketball courts, ball fields, and indoor and outdoor tracks, the center was to be equipped with computers, a library, and other educational resources.
She registered to become an agent with the National Football League Players Association in and founded a sports management company to represent athletes in a number of sports. By the end of the year she had signed three NFL players to her list. In addition, she won the heptathlon in the Goodwill Games in July of , marking the end of her illustrious career. She officially retired at age 36 on August 1, , with a long jump in her hometown that was mostly ceremonial.
0コメント