Jackie Joyner-Kersee

Lore & Background

Jacqueline Joyner was born March 3, 1962, in East St. Louis, Illinois, and was named after Jacqueline Kennedy. She found her love for running at the age of 9 when she joined a special community track program. In high school, she qualified for the finals in the long jump at the 1980 Olympic Trials, finishing 8th. She was inspired to compete in multi-disciplinary track & field events after seeing a movie about Babe Didrikson Zaharias. Joyner attended UCLA from 1980 to 1985 on an athletic scholarship, starring in track & field and basketball. While in college, her mother died suddenly of meningitis; her coach, Bob Kersee, helped her grieve, and the two got married after she graduated. She graduated with a bachelor's degree in history in 1986.

Reader's Guide

Joyner-Kersee's significance lies in her sustained excellence across four Olympic Games and her enduring world record in the heptathlon. At the 1988 Seoul Olympics, she set the still-standing heptathlon world record of 7,291 points and won gold in the long jump with an Olympic record of 7.40 m. She was the first American woman to earn a gold medal in either event. Her career included allegations of drug use, which she consistently denied. After retiring, she became a philanthropist focused on children's education, racial equality, and women's rights, founding the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Foundation and co-founding Athletes for Hope. She also served on the board of directors for USA Track & Field. In 2013, the female Jesse Owens Award was renamed the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Award.

Did You Know?

• She was named after Jacqueline Kennedy, the First Lady of the United States.
• She was inspired to compete in multi-disciplinary events after seeing a movie about Babe Didrikson Zaharias.
• She became the first woman to score over 7,000 points in a heptathlon event during the 1986 Goodwill Games.
• She was the first American woman to earn a gold medal in long jump and the first American woman to earn a gold medal in heptathlon.
• In 1996 she signed to play professional basketball for the Richmond Rage of the American Basketball League.

Career & Olympic Dominance

Across four separate Olympic Games, Joyner-Kersee collected three gold medals, one silver, and two bronze. At the World Championships, she claimed four gold medals, splitting them evenly between the heptathlon and the long jump. Her heptathlon world record of 7,291 points, set in Seoul in 1988, has stood unbroken since. She became the first woman ever to score over 7,000 points in a heptathlon event during the 1986 Goodwill Games. In 1988 she made history as the first American woman to earn a gold medal in long jump and the first American woman to earn a gold medal in heptathlon. That same year she received the James E. Sullivan Award as the top amateur athlete in the United States.

Triumph, Injury, and Resilience

Joyner-Kersee's competitive career was marked by dramatic highs and painful setbacks. At the 1984 Los Angeles Games, the favorite in the heptathlon finished just five points behind Australia's Glynis Nunn for silver, while placing fifth in the long jump. Four years later in Seoul, she won gold in both events, setting the heptathlon world record and an Olympic long jump record of 7.40 m. At the 1991 World Championships, after securing the long jump title with a 7.32 m jump, she slipped on the take-off board, careened headfirst into the pit, strained a hamstring, and pulled out of the heptathlon during the 200 m. In Barcelona in 1992, she earned her second Olympic gold medal in the heptathlon and added a bronze in the long jump behind her friend Heike Drechsler. By Atlanta in 1996, a hamstring injury sustained at the Olympic Trials left her in pain; she withdrew from the heptathlon after the 100 m hurdles but recovered enough to medal in the long jump with a 7.00 m leap.

UCLA: Dual Sport, Loss, and Love

From 1980 to 1985, Jacqueline Joyner attended UCLA on an athletic scholarship, starring in both track & field and basketball. She started at forward for each of her first three seasons and again in her senior year, scoring 1,167 career points to rank 19th all time for the Bruins. She redshirted the 1983–84 academic year to concentrate on the heptathlon for the 1984 Summer Olympics. In track, she won the Broderick Award as the nation's best female collegiate track and field competitor in 1983 and 1985, and was awarded the Honda-Broderick Cup as the nation's best female collegiate athlete in 1985. While in college, her mother died suddenly of meningitis; her coach, Bob Kersee, helped her grieve, and the two got married after she graduated. She graduated with a bachelor's degree in history in 1986. In 1998 she was honored as one of the 15 greatest players in UCLA women's basketball, and in 2001 a vote among 976 NCAA member schools named her the top woman collegiate athlete of the past 25 years.

Legacy, Scrutiny, and Life Beyond the Track

Born in East St. Louis, Illinois, and named after Jacqueline Kennedy, Joyner-Kersee first discovered running at age nine through a community track program. A film about Babe Didrikson Zaharias inspired her to pursue multi-event competition; fifteen years later, Sports Illustrated for Women magazine voted Joyner-Kersee the greatest female athlete of all time, just ahead of Zaharias. Her legacy has not been free of scrutiny. At the 1988 Games she faced allegations of drug use from Brazilian runner Joaquim Cruz. In 1989, Darrell Robinson accused her husband and coach, Bobby Kersee, of distributing performance-enhancing drugs. Doping insider Victor Conte asserted that in 1988 he personally witnessed an Olympic official notifying 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. After retiring, she turned to philanthropy, founding the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Foundation to encourage young people in East St. Louis to pursue athletics and academics, and co-founding Athletes for Hope in 2007. She also served on the board of directors for USA Track & Field.