 Joyner-Kersee in 2014 | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1962-03-03)March 3, 1962 (age 63)[1] |
| Height | 5 ft 10 in (178 cm)[1] |
| Weight | 154 lb (70 kg)[1] |
| Sport | |
| Country |  United States |
| Sport | Athletics |
Event(s) | Long jump,heptathlon |
| College team | UCLA (1980–1985) |
| Club | Tiger World Class Athletic Club West Coast Athletic Club McDonald's Track Club |
Medal record | |
Jacqueline Joyner-Kersee (born March 3, 1962) is an American formertrack and field athlete who competed in both theheptathlon andlong jump. She won three gold, one silver, and two bronzeOlympic medals at four differentOlympic Games. Joyner-Kersee was also a four-time gold medalist (twice each in heptathlon and long jump) at theworld championships. Since 1988, she has held the world record for heptathlon.
Jacqueline Joyner was born March 3, 1962, inEast St. Louis, Illinois, and was named afterJacqueline Kennedy, theFirst Lady of the United States.[2] 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 atEast 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.[3] She was inspired to compete in multi-disciplinary track & field events after seeing a movie aboutBabe Didrikson Zaharias.[4] 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.
Joyner attended college at theUniversity 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 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 hadred-shirted during the 1983–1984 academic year to concentrate on the heptathlon for the1984 Summer Olympics. She scored 1,167 points during her collegiate career, which places her 19th all time for the Bruins games.[5] The Bruins advanced to the West Regional semi-finals of the1985 NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Tournament before losing to eventual runner-up Georgia.[5]
She was honored on February 21, 1998 as one of the 15 greatest players in UCLA women's basketball.[6] 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.[7]
In track, Joyner won the Broderick Award (now theHonda 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.[8][9][10]
Joyner graduated with a bachelor's degree in history in 1986.[11]
Source[12]
| GP | Games played | GS | Games started | MPG | Minutes per game |
| FG% | Field goal percentage | 3P% | 3-point field goal percentage | FT% | Free throw percentage |
| RPG | Rebounds per game | APG | Assists per game | SPG | Steals per game |
| BPG | Blocks per game | PPG | Points per game | Bold | Career high |
| Year | Team | GP | Points | FG% | FT% | RPG | APG | SPG | BPG | PPG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1984–85 | UCLA | 29 | 368 | 46.5% | 45.9% | 9.1 | 1.4 | 2.1 | 0.1 | 12.7 |
| 1982–83 | UCLA | 28 | 246 | 41.4% | 65.7% | 5.6 | 1.8 | 1.0 | 0.2 | 8.8 |
| 1981–82 | UCLA | 30 | 239 | 38.1% | 67.7% | 5.8 | 2.3 | 1.3 | 0.1 | 8.0 |
| 1980–81 | UCLA | 34 | 314 | 50.6% | 63.3% | 4.6 | 2.3 | 1.2 | 0.0 | 9.2 |
| Career Basketball | UCLA | 121 | 1167 | 44.4% | 58.5% | 6.2 | 2.0 | 1.4 | 0.1 | 9.6 |
Joyner competed in the1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles and won the silver medal in theheptathlon. She was the favorite heading into the event,[13] but finished five points behind Australian athleteGlynis Nunn.[14] She also placed fifth in the long jump.[15]
Joyner became the first woman to score over 7,000 points in a heptathlon event during the1986 Goodwill Games. In 1986, she received theJames E. Sullivan Award as the top amateur athlete in the United States.
Now known as Jackie Joyner-Kersee after marrying her coachBob Kersee,[16] she entered the1988 Summer Olympics inSeoul, 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 ft3+1⁄4 in) in the long jump.[15] 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 runnerJoaquim Cruz.[17] This continued the following season in 1989 whenDarrell Robinson accused Joyner-Kersee's husband and coach, Bobby Kersee, of distributing performance-enhancing drugs.[18] Years later, doping insiderVictor 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.[19] Joyner-Kersee has consistently maintained that she competed throughout her career without performance-enhancing drugs.[20][21]
During the long jump event at the 1991 World Championships, having already won with a7.32 m (24 ft1⁄4 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.
In the1992 Summer Olympics inBarcelona, 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 friendHeike Drechsler of Germany.[15]
At the Olympic Trials, Joyner-Kersee sustained an injury to her right hamstring. When the1996 Summer Olympics inAtlanta 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.[2][22] She was able to recover to compete in the long jump; her final jump of7.00 m (22 ft11+1⁄2 in) was vaulted into the bronze medal position. The TV never showed a replay of Joyner-Kersee's final long jump attempt neither of the last step, raising serious doubts about its validity, particularly by runner-up Niki Xanthou.[23]
In 1996 Joyner-Kersee signed to play pro basketball for theRichmond Rage of the fledglingAmerican Basketball League. She appeared in 17 games, with a high of 15 points scored.[2]
Returning to track, Joyner-Kersee won the heptathlon at the 1998Goodwill Games, scoring 6,502 points.[2]
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.[2][24]
Joyner-Kersee is a philanthropist in children's education, racial equality and women's rights.[25] She is a founder of the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Foundation, which encourages young people inEast St. Louis to pursue athletics and academics.[25] She collaborated withComcast to create the Internet Essentials program in 2011, which provides high-speed internet access to low-income Americans.[25][26][27]
In 2007, Joyner-Kersee was one of the co-founders ofAthletes 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.[28]
She served[when?] on the board of directors forUSA Track & Field the national governing body of the sport.[29]
Since 1981, theJesse Owens Award has been given by USATF (and before its renaming, TAC) to the United States' track and field athlete of the year. In 1996, the award was split to be given to the top athlete of each gender. In 2013, the female award was renamed the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Award. In March 2023, she was inducted into theInternational Sports Hall of Fame.[38]
Joyner-Kersee holds the world record in heptathlon along with the top six all-time best results. Herlong jump record of 7.49 m is second on the long jump all-time list.
| Event | Performance | Wind | Points | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 100 metres hurdles | 12.69 s | +0.5 m/s | 1172 | |
| Long jump | 7.27 m | +0.7 m/s | 1264 | Heptathlon Best; highest score for a single event |
| High jump | 1.86 m | 1054 | ||
| 200 m | 22.56 s | +1.6 m/s | 1123 | |
| Shot put | 15.80 m | 915 | ||
| Javelin throw | 45.66 m | 776 | ||
| 800 m | 2 min 8.51 s | 987 | PB | |
| Total | 7291 | WR |
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.[39]
In 2000, Joyner-Kersee played herself in an episode ofThe Jersey called "Legacy"[40] where Nick Lighter (played byMichael 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 byBillie Jean King.[41] She and other female athletes had one-on-one discussions about accomplishments in women's sports.
Jackie's brother is Olympic championtriple jumperAl Joyner, who was married to Olympic track championFlorence Griffith Joyner. Jackie married her track coach,Bob Kersee, in 1986.[2][15]
Joyner-Kersee suffered from severeasthma throughout her athletic career.[42]
Joyner-Kersee is an honorary member ofDelta Sigma Theta sorority.[43]
Joyner's older brother, Al Joyner is also a track star. He was married to Florence Griffith Joyner "Flo Jo", who was also a well-known female track star.[44]
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
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