Jacqueline Joyner-Kersee (born March 3, 1962) is an American former

track and field Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includes Competition#Sports, athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name used in North America is derived from where the sport takes place, a ru ...

athlete who competed in both the

heptathlon A heptathlon is a track and field combined events contest made up of seven events. The name derives from the Greek ἑπτά (hepta, meaning "seven") and ἄθλος (áthlos, or ἄθλον, áthlon, meaning "competition"). A competitor in a hep ...

and

long jump The long jump is a track and field event in which athletes combine speed, strength and agility in an attempt to leap as far as possible from a takeoff point. Along with the triple jump, the two events that measure jumping for distance as a gr ...

. She won three gold, one silver, and two bronze

Olympic Olympic or Olympics may refer to Sports Competitions * Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896 ** Summer Olympic Games ** Winter Olympic Games * Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece bet ...

medals at four different Olympic Games. Joyner-Kersee was also a four-time gold medalist (twice each in heptathlon and long jump) at the

world championships A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game ...

. Since 1988, she has held the world record for heptathlon.

Early life

Jacqueline Joyner was born March 3, 1962, in

East St. Louis, Illinois East St. Louis, also known as ESTL, is a city in St. Clair County, Illinois, United States. It is directly across the Mississippi River from downtown St. Louis, Missouri, and the Gateway Arch National Park. East St. Louis is in the Metro East ...

, and was named after

Jacqueline Kennedy Jacqueline Lee Kennedy Onassis ( ; July 28, 1929 – May 19, 1994) was an American writer, book editor, and socialite who served as the first lady of the United States from 1961 to 1963, as the wife of President John F. Kennedy. A popular f ...

, the

First Lady of the United States First Lady of the United States (FLOTUS) is a title typically held by the wife of the president of the United States, concurrent with the president's term in office. Although the first lady's role has never been Code of law, codified or offici ...

. 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 Carol LeGrant Lewis (born August 8, 1963) is an American former track and field athlete who specialized in the long jump. She is the 1983 World Championship bronze medalist, and a 4-time US Champion. Her best long jump of 7.04 meters in 1985 is ...

. She was inspired to compete in multi-disciplinary track & field events after seeing a movie about

Babe Didrikson Zaharias Mildred Ella "Babe" Didrikson Zaharias (; Didrikson; June 26, 1911 – September 27, 1956) was an American athlete who excelled in golf, basketball, baseball, and track and field. She won two gold medals and a silver in track and field at the ...

. 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 ''Sports Illustrated Women'' (previously called ''Sports Illustrated for Women'') and also known as ''SI Women'', was a bimonthly sports magazine covering (according to its statement of purpose) "the sports that women play and what they want to fo ...

'' 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 The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school the ...

(UCLA) from 1980 to 1985 where she starred in both track & field and basketball. 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 had

red-shirted Redshirt, in United States college athletics, is a delay or suspension of an athlete's participation in order to lengthen their period of eligibility. Typically, a student's athletic eligibility in a given sport is four seasons, aligning with the ...

during the 1983–1984 academic year to concentrate on the heptathlon for the

1984 Summer Olympics The 1984 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXIII Olympiad and commonly known as Los Angeles 1984) were an international multi-sport event held from July 28 to August 12, 1984, in Los Angeles, California, United States. It marked the ...

. She scored 1,167 points during her collegiate career, which places her 19th all time for the Bruins games.Usc Women's Basketballs all 2009–2010 Media guide – Copy available at uclabruins.com The Bruins advanced to the West Regional semi-finals of the

1985 NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Tournament The 1985 NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament began on March 14 and ended on March 31 and featured 32 teams. The Final Four consisted of Old Dominion, Northeast Louisiana, Western Kentucky, and Georgia, with Old Dominion defeating Ge ...

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.UCLA Women's Basketball 2006–2007 Media guide – Copy available at uclabruins.com 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 The Honda Sports Award is an annual award in the United States, given to the best collegiate female athlete in each of twelve sports. There are four nominees for each sport, and the twelve winners of the Honda Sports Award are automatically in t ...

) 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

Competition

1984 Summer Olympics

Joyner competed in the

in Los Angeles and won the silver medal in the

. She was the favorite heading into the event, but finished five points behind Australian athlete

Glynis Nunn Glynis Leanne Nunn Order of Australia, OAM (née Saunders; born 4 December 1960) is a former Australian heptathlon, heptathlete, the first Olympic Games, Olympic champion in the event. Biography Born in Toowoomba, Queensland, she began compe ...

. 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 The 1986 Goodwill Games was the inaugural edition of the international multi-sport event created by Ted Turner, which was held from 5 – 20 July 1986. The main stadium was the Luzhniki Stadium, Central Lenin Stadium in Moscow, Russian SFSR, Sov ...

. 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 Bob Kersee is an American athletics coach. Initially intending to become an NFL coach, Kersee instead became a track and field coach at the suggestion of his sisters. His training group is known as Formula Kersee. Early life Kersee was born ...

,Ostler, Scott. (May 12, 1987
"Her Marriage Takes Work, and It Works!"
, work=Los Angeles Times. Retrieved May 23, 2021. she entered the

1988 Summer Olympics The 1988 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIV Olympiad () and officially branded as Seoul 1988 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 17 September to 2 October 1988 in Seoul, South Korea. 159 nations were represe ...

Seoul, Korea Seoul, officially Seoul Special Metropolitan City, is the capital city, capital and largest city of South Korea. The broader Seoul Metropolitan Area, encompassing Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, emerged as the world's List of cities b ...

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 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 Joaquim Carvalho Cruz (born 12 March 1963) is a Brazilian former middle-distance runner, winner of the 800 meters at the 1984 Summer Olympics. He is one of only ten men, and in August 1984 became the second man, to run the 800 metres in less th ...

. This continued the following season in 1989 when

Darrell Robinson Darrell Robinson (born December 23, 1963) is an American former track and field athlete who specialized in the 400-meter dash. He set a US high school national record of 44.69 seconds in the 400 m at the age of 18. He was in the world's ...

accused Joyner-Kersee's husband and coach, Bobby Kersee, of distributing performance-enhancing drugs. Years later, doping insider

Victor Conte Victor Conte Jr. (born July 10, 1950) is an American musician and businessman who was the founder and president of Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative (BALCO), which is now defunct. BALCO was a sports nutrition center in California. In the late se ...

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 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 The 1992 Summer Olympics (, ), officially the Games of the XXV Olympiad (, ) and officially branded as Barcelona '92, were an international multi-sport event held from 25 July to 9 August 1992 in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Beginning in 1994 ...

Barcelona, Spain Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a pop ...

, 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 Heike Gabriela Drechsler (; ; born 16 December 1964) is a German former track and field athlete who represented East Germany and later Germany. One of the most successful long jumpers of all-time, she is a former world record holder and ranks ...

of Germany.

1996 Summer Olympics

At the Olympic Trials, Joyner-Kersee sustained an injury to her right hamstring. When the

1996 Summer Olympics The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

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 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.

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 The Goodwill Games were an international sports competition created by Ted Turner in reaction to the political troubles surrounding the Olympic Games of the 1980s. In 1979, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan caused the United States and other ...

, 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 Comcast Corporation, formerly known as Comcast Holdings,Before the AT&T Broadband, AT&T merger in 2001, the parent company was Comcast Holdings Corporation. Comcast Holdings Corporation now refers to a subsidiary of Comcast Corporation, not th ...

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 o
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 USA Track & Field (USATF) is a United States national governing body for the sports of track and field, cross country running, road running, and racewalking (known as the sport of athletics outside the US). The USATF was known between 1979 and 1 ...

the national governing body of the sport.

Awards and honors

* 1983 Broderick Award (now

) * 1985 Broderick Award (now

) * 1986 James E. Sullivan Award * 1986

Jesse Owens Award The Night of Legends is an annual track and field awards ceremony that announces the highest accolades given out by USA Track & Field (USATF), namely the Jesse Owens Male Athlete of the Year Award and the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Female Athlete of ...

Jesse Owens Award
usatf.org * 1987

* 1988

Missouri Athletic Club The Missouri Athletic Club (often referred to as the MAC), founded in 1903, is a private city and athletic club with two locations. The Downtown Clubhouse is in Downtown St. Louis, Missouri, USA and the West Clubhouse is located in the St. Lou ...

Jack Buck Awards
Sports Personality of the Year Award and Carl O. Bauer Award
* 1992 George Thomas "Mickey" Leland Award from the

Congressional Black Caucus Foundation The Congressional Black Caucus Foundation (CBCF) is an American educational foundation. It conducts research on issues affecting African Americans, publishes a yearly report on key legislation, and sponsors issue forums, leadership seminars and ...

World Athletics Awards The World Athletics Awards are annual awards to honor athletes participating in events within the sport of athletics. These are organised by World Athletics and include track and field, cross country running, road running, and racewalking. The ...

:: World Athlete of the Year (Women): 1994 * 1997 Jack Kelly Fair Play Award * 2000

St. Louis Walk of Fame The St. Louis Walk of Fame honors notable people from St. Louis, Missouri, who made contributions to the culture of the United States. All inductees were either born in the Greater St. Louis area or spent their formative or creative years ther ...

inductee * 2005 was inducted as a Laureate of

The Lincoln Academy of Illinois The Lincoln Academy of Illinois is a not-for-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to recognizing contributions made by living Illinoisans. Named for Abraham Lincoln, the Academy administers the Order of Lincoln, the highest award given b ...

and awarded the Order of Lincoln (the State's highest honor) by the Governor of Illinois in the area of Sports * 2010

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

Silver Anniversary Awards honoree * 2011

Dick Enberg Richard Alan Enberg (January 9, 1935 – December 21, 2017) was an American sportscaster. Over the course of an approximately 60-year career, he provided play-by-play of various sports for several radio and television networks, including N ...

Award, College Sports Information Director of America (CoSIDA) * 2021

Webster University Webster University is a private university with its main campus in Webster Groves, Missouri, United States. It has multiple branch locations across the United States and countries across Europe, Asia, and Africa. The university has an alumni net ...

Doctor of Humane Letters Since 1981, the

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 the

International Sports Hall of Fame The International Sports Hall of Fame (ISHOF) is a section 501(c)(3) non-profit organization established in 2012 by Dr. Robert M. Goldman to honor exceptional athletes and sporting figures for their accomplishments and dedication to furthering ...

Current world records

Joyner-Kersee holds the world record in heptathlon along with the top six all-time best results. Her

record of 7.49 m is second on the long jump all-time list.

Personal bests

;Personal bests : *

100 metres hurdles The 100 metres hurdles, or 100-meter hurdles, is a track and field event run mainly by women (the male counterpart is the 110 metres hurdles). For the race, ten hurdles of a height of are placed along a straight course of . The first hurdle is ...

: 12.61 s *

Long jump The long jump is a track and field event in which athletes combine speed, strength and agility in an attempt to leap as far as possible from a takeoff point. Along with the triple jump, the two events that measure jumping for distance as a gr ...

: 7.49 m (still currently #2 all time, 3 cm behind the world record and she did it twice) *

High jump The high jump is a track and field event in which competitors must jump unaided over a horizontal bar placed at measured heights without dislodging it. In its modern, most-practiced format, a bar is placed between two standards with a crash mat f ...

: 1.93 m *

200 m The 200 metres, or 200-meter dash, is a Sprint (running), sprint running event. On an outdoor 400-metre racetrack, the race begins on the curve and ends on the home straight, so a combination of techniques is needed to successfully run th ...

: 22.30 s *

Shot put The shot put is a track-and-field event involving "putting" (throwing) a heavy spherical Ball (sports), ball—the ''shot''—as far as possible. For men, the sport has been a part of the Olympic Games, modern Olympics since their 1896 Summer Olym ...

: 16.84 m *

Javelin throw The javelin throw is a track and field event where the javelin, a spear about in length, is thrown as far as possible. The javelin thrower gains momentum by running within a predetermined area. Javelin throwing is an event of both the men's de ...

: 50.12 m *

800 m The 800 metres, or 800 meters ( US spelling), is a common track running event. It is the shortest commonly run middle-distance running event. The 800 metres is run over two laps of an outdoor (400-metre) track and has been an Olympic event sin ...

: 2 min 8.51 s

TV appearances

In 2000, Joyner-Kersee played herself in an episode of ''

The Jersey ''The Jersey'' is an American comedy television series based on the '' Monday Night Football Club'' books by Gordon Korman. The series aired on Disney Channel from January 30, 1999, to March 23, 2004. Premise Nicholas "Nick" Lighter, Morgan ...

'' called "Legacy" where Nick Lighter (played by

Michael Galeota Michael James Galeota (August 28, 1984 – January 10, 2016) was an American actor. He was best known for his role as Nick Lighter in the Disney Channel series ''The Jersey''. Early life Galeota was born in Smithtown, New York. He had three br ...

) uses a magical jersey by jumping into her body as he is coached by her husband (

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 Billie Jean King (née Moffitt; born November 22, 1943), also known as BJK, is an American former World number 1 ranked female tennis players, world No. 1 tennis player. King won 39 Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Slam titles: 12 in singles, 16 in w ...

. 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 jump The triple jump, sometimes referred to as the hop, step and jump or the hop, skip and jump, is a track and field event, similar to long jump. As a group, the two events are referred to as the "horizontal jumps". The competitor runs down the tr ...

Al Joyner Alfrederick Joyner (born January 19, 1960) is an American track and field coach and former athlete. He was born in East St. Louis, Illinois. He is the 1984 Olympic gold medalist in the triple jump. He was also the coach and husband of the late ...

, who was married to Olympic track champion

Florence Griffith Joyner Florence Delorez Griffith Joyner (born Florence Delorez Griffith; December 21, 1959 – September 21, 1998), also known as Flo-Jo, was an American track and field athlete and the fastest woman ever recorded. She was married to Al Joyner, a 198 ...

. Jackie married her track coach,

, in 1986.Jackie Joyner-Kersee
. Sports Reference Joyner-Kersee suffered from severe

asthma Asthma is a common long-term inflammatory disease of the airways of the lungs. It is characterized by variable and recurring symptoms, reversible airflow obstruction, and easily triggered bronchospasms. Symptoms include episodes of wh ...

throughout her athletic career.

References

External links

* * * * * *
The Jackie Joyner Kersee Foundation
which helps children and adults in the East St. Louis, Illinois/St. Louis, Missouri area {{DEFAULTSORT:Joyner-Kersee, Jackie 1962 births Living people Sportspeople from East St. Louis, Illinois Track and field athletes from Illinois American women's basketball players American heptathletes American female long jumpers African-American track and field athletes Olympic gold medalists for the United States in track and field Olympic silver medalists for the United States in track and field Olympic bronze medalists for the United States in track and field Athletes (track and field) at the 1984 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1988 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1992 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1996 Summer Olympics Pan American Games gold medalists for the United States in athletics (track and field) Athletes (track and field) at the 1987 Pan American Games World Athletics Championships athletes for the United States World Athletics Championships medalists World Athletics record holders World record setters in athletics (track and field) Richmond Rage players UCLA Bruins women's track and field athletes UCLA Bruins women's basketball players James E. Sullivan Award recipients Medalists at the 1996 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1992 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1988 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1984 Summer Olympics Goodwill Games medalists in athletics Track & Field News Athlete of the Year winners World Athletics Championships winners Competitors at the 1998 Goodwill Games Competitors at the 1986 Goodwill Games Competitors at the 1990 Goodwill Games Competitors at the 1994 Goodwill Games Medalists at the 1987 Pan American Games 21st-century African-American sportswomen 21st-century American sportswomen 20th-century African-American sportswomen 20th-century American sportswomen NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships winnersfeeefeerwjefwefweww