Jackie Joyner-Kersee · Lablypedia

Early life

Jacqueline Joyner was born March 3, 1962, in East St. Louis, Illinois, and was named after Jacqueline Kennedy, the First Lady of the United States. She was born into a poor family. She found her love for running at the age of 9 when she joined a special community track program. She played basketball, volleyball, and ran track and field in high school. As a high school athlete at East St. Louis Lincoln Senior High School, she qualified for the finals in the long jump at the 1980 Olympic Trials, finishing 8th behind another high schooler, Carol Lewis. She was inspired to compete in multi-disciplinary track & field events after seeing a movie about Babe Didrikson Zaharias. Didrikson, the track star, basketball player, and pro golfer, was chosen the "Greatest Female Athlete of the First Half of the 20th Century. Fifteen years later, Sports Illustrated for Women magazine voted Joyner-Kersee the greatest female athlete of all time, just ahead of Zaharias.

UCLA

Joyner attended college at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) from 1980 to 1985 where she starred in both track & field and basketball. She attended the school on an athletic scholarship. While she was in college, her mother died suddenly of meningitis. Joyner's coach, Bob Kersee, helped Joyner grieve the loss of her mother. After she graduated, the two got married.

In basketball, she was a starter at forward for each of her first three seasons (1980–81, 81–82, and 82–83) as well as in her senior (fifth) year, 1984–1985. She redshirted during the 1983–84 academic year to concentrate on the heptathlon for the 1984 Summer Olympics. She scored 1,167 points during her collegiate career, placing her 19th all time for the Bruins games. The Bruins advanced to the West Regional semifinals of the 1985 NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Tournament before losing to eventual runner-up Georgia.

She was honored on February 21, 1998, as one of the 15 greatest players in UCLA women's basketball. In April 2001, Joyner-Kersee was voted the "Top Woman Collegiate Athlete of the Past 25 Years." The vote was conducted among the 976 NCAA member schools.

In track, Joyner won the Broderick Award (now the Honda Sports Award) as the nation's best female collegiate track and field competitor in 1983 and in 1985, and was awarded the Honda-Broderick Cup, given to the nation's best female collegiate athlete in 1985.

Joyner graduated with a bachelor's degree in history in 1986.

UCLA statistics

Source

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Competition

1984 Summer Olympics

Joyner competed in the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles and won the silver medal in the heptathlon. She was the favorite heading into the event, but finished five points behind Australian athlete Glynis Nunn. She also placed fifth in the long jump.

1986 Goodwill Games

Joyner became the first woman to score over 7,000 points in a heptathlon event during the 1986 Goodwill Games. In 1986, she received the James E. Sullivan Award as the top amateur athlete in the United States.

1988 Summer Olympics

Now known as Jackie Joyner-Kersee after marrying her coach Bob Kersee, she entered the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, Korea and earned gold medals in both the heptathlon and the long jump. At the Games, she set the still-standing heptathlon world record of 7,291 points. Five days later, Joyner-Kersee won her second gold medal, leaping to an Olympic record of 7.40 m (24 ft 3+1⁄4 in) in the long jump. She was the first American woman to earn a gold medal in long jump as well as the first American woman to earn a gold medal in heptathlon.

At the 1988 Games she faced allegations of drug use from Brazilian runner Joaquim Cruz. This continued the following season in 1989 when Darrell Robinson accused Joyner-Kersee's husband and coach, Bobby Kersee, of distributing performance-enhancing drugs. Years later, doping insider Victor Conte asserted that in 1988 he personally witnessed an Olympic official at the Seoul games notifying Bobby Kersee that Joyner-Kersee had tested positive for PED use. Joyner-Kersee has consistently maintained that she competed throughout her career without performance-enhancing drugs.

1991 World Championships

During the long jump event at the 1991 World Championships, having already won with a 7.32 m (24 ft 1⁄4 in) jump, Joyner-Kersee slipped on the take-off board and careened headfirst into the pit. She strained a hamstring and subsequently pulled out of the heptathlon during the 200 m at the end of the first day.

1992 Summer Olympics

In the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain, Joyner-Kersee earned her second Olympic gold medal in the heptathlon. She also won the bronze medal in the long jump which was won by her friend Heike Drechsler of Germany.

1996 Summer Olympics

At the Olympic Trials, Joyner-Kersee sustained an injury to her right hamstring. When the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta began, Joyner-Kersee was not fully recovered by the time the heptathlon started. After running the first event, the 100 m hurdles, she withdrew due to pain. She was able to recover to compete in the long jump; her final jump of 7.00 m (22 ft 11+1⁄2 in) was vaulted into the bronze medal position.

Professional basketball career

In 1996 Joyner-Kersee signed to play pro basketball for the Richmond Rage of the fledgling American Basketball League. She appeared in 17 games, with a high of 15 points scored.

1998 Goodwill Games

Returning to track, Joyner-Kersee won the heptathlon at the 1998 Goodwill Games, scoring 6,502 points.

2000 Olympic trials

Two years after retiring, Joyner-Kersee tried to qualify for the long jump event at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia. She placed sixth in the trials at 21–10 ¾, and did not make the Olympic team.

Post-athletic career

Joyner-Kersee is a philanthropist in children's education, racial equality and women's rights. She is a founder of the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Foundation, which encourages young people in East St. Louis to pursue athletics and academics. She collaborated with Comcast to create the Internet Essentials program in 2011, which provides high-speed internet access to low-income Americans.

In 2007, Joyner-Kersee was one of the co-founders of Athletes for Hope, a charitable organization that helps professional athletes get involved in charitable causes and inspires millions of non-athletes to volunteer and support the community.

She served on the board of directors for USA Track & Field the national governing body of the sport.

Current world records

Joyner-Kersee holds the world record in heptathlon along with the top six all-time best results. Her long jump record of 7.49 m is second on the long jump all-time list.

Personal bests

Personal bests

100 metres hurdles : 12.61 s
Long jump : 7.49 m (still currently #2 all time, 3 cm behind the world record and she did it twice)
High jump : 1.93 m
200 m : 22.30 s
Shot put : 16.84 m
Javelin throw : 50.12 m
800 m : 2 min 8.51

Women in Sports

In an interview with Atlanta Journal and Constitution Joyner reflected on how women's sports have changed over the years. She stated that her high school basketball team would often have to practice late at night because the courts were reserved for the men's basketball team. Joyner noted that now women have their own leagues to play in and female athletes are paid more, not more than men though. Women's sports have become more popular over the years and have gained more attention and fan commitment. Sports like volleyball and softball are popular among female high school athletes. In the interview Joyner noted that more women are becoming involved with the business side of sports, and she herself is a registered sports agent and owns a sports marketing firm.

TV appearances

In 2000, Joyner-Kersee played herself in an episode of The Jersey called "Legacy" where Nick Lighter (played by Michael Galeota) uses a magical jersey by jumping into her body as he is coached by her husband (Bob Kersee as himself) on how to put the shot for a track and field competition.

In 2023, Joyner-Kersee appeared on the PBS program Groundbreakers, hosted by Billie Jean King. She and other female athletes had one-on-one discussions about accomplishments in women's sports.

Personal life

Jackie's brother is Olympic champion triple jumper Al Joyner, who was married to Olympic track champion Florence Griffith Joyner. Jackie married her track coach, Bob Kersee, in 1986.

Joyner-Kersee suffered from severe asthma throughout her athletic career.

Joyner-Kersee is an honorary member of Delta Sigma Theta sorority.