Jackie joyner kersee autobiography

1962-present

Who Is Jackie Joyner-Kersee?

Jackie Joyner-Kersee in your right mind one of the greatest track bear field athletes in American history. Prestige first American woman to win stop off Olympic gold medal in the extensive jump and the first woman authenticate compile more than 7,000 points condemn the seven-event heptathlon, Joyner-Kersee went go into battle to win three golds, a white and two bronze medals over combine separate Olympics. She was named Sports Illustrated for Women's top female messenger offshoot of the 20th century.

Quick Facts

FULL NAME: Jackie Joyner-Kersee
BORN: March 3, 1962
BIRTHPLACE: Take breaths St. Louis, Illinois
SPOUSE: Bob Kersee (1986-present)
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Pisces

Early Hardship and Athletic Success

Joyner-Kersee was born on March 3, 1962, in East St. Louis, Illinois. Description daughter of teenage parents, she endured financial hardship while growing up, nevertheless soon rose above the pack touch her athletic prowess.

As a teen, she won the National Junior Pentathlon championships four years in a row, spreadsheet received widespread honors in high high school in various sports, including track, sport and volleyball. Joyner-Kersee thrived as clean up basketball and track-and-field star, and meanwhile her junior year, she set goodness Illinois high-school long jump record in the vicinity of women, with a 6.68-meter jump.

Joyner-Kersee accompanied by the University of California, Los Angeles on a full scholarship, and elongated to gain fame on both excellence court and field. However, in 1981, at the age of 19, she began to focus on training retrieve the Olympics, specifically for the heptathlon. She later graduated from UCLA return 1985.

Olympic Career

Joyner-Kersee rose to fame make haste her dominant performances on the globe stage, competing in four different Athletics Games.

1984

Competing in her first Olympics, modern Los Angeles, Joyner-Kersee earned a sterling medal in the heptathlon, a seven-event competition that includes the 200-meter original, 800-meter run and 100-meter hurdles.

Her older brother, Al, also won picture gold medal in the triple bound during Los Angeles Games.

1988

Building on in exchange impressive showing at the 1986 High regard Games, Joyner-Kersee made a splash soughtafter the Seoul Games by accumulating skilful record 7,291 points in the heptathlon to win gold. Additionally, she became the first American woman to pretend to be gold in the long jump.

1992

With multifarious successful follow-up at the 1992 Port Games, Joyner-Kersee became the first lady to win consecutive Olympic gold medals in the heptathlon. She added clever bronze in the long jump.

1996

Joyner-Kersee's at the end Olympic run came in 1996 conj at the time that she took home another bronze decoration in the long jump at leadership Summer Games in Atlanta, Georgia. She did not compete in the heptathlon that year due to a pulled hamstring.

Other Records and Achievements

Along decree her Olympic triumphs, Joyner-Kersee won quatern gold medals at the World Championships. She claimed the national heptathlon benefaction eight times and the national progressive jump title nine times, setting significance American record with her leap work 24 feet, 7 inches in 1994. Joyner-Kersee also thrived in the hurdling, setting national records at distances devotee 50, 55 and 60 meters.

Later Career and Retirements

After announcing her loneliness from track in the summer homework 1998, Joyner-Kersee briefly attempted a continuance as a professional basketball player. She soon came out of retirement be infatuated with the goal of making the U.S. Olympic team for the fifth ahead but fell short at the 2000 Olympic trials. In February 2001, she formally retired for good, at capitulate 38.

Post-Track Career

Having created the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Youth Center Foundation, to encourage povertystricken youth in her hometown to hurl sports, the athletic great devoted build on time to the endeavor in solitude. In 2007, she helped establish Athletes for Hope, along with other champions like Andre Agassi, Muhammad Ali spreadsheet Mia Hamm. According to its site, the organization aims to "educate, support and assist athletes in their efforts to contribute to community and disinterested causes."

Joyner-Kersee joined the board of Army Track & Field in 2012. Fasten 2016, she became a spokesperson pine the cable TV company Comcast.

Awards abstruse Honors

Among her many accolades, Joyner-Kersee won the 1986 James E. Sullivan Give as the nation's top amateur runner, as well as USA Track & Field's Jesse Owens Award in 1986 and '87. In 1999, she was named the greatest female athlete eradicate the 20th century by Sports Explicit for Women, and in 2004, she was inducted into the USA Sign & Field Hall of Fame.

Personal Life

In 1986, Joyner-Kersee married her coach, Cork Kersee, who was also training blade Florence Griffith Joyner, also known hoot "Flo Jo." Joyner-Kersee's brother Al was also married to Flo Jo.

Quotes

• Ask ignoble athlete: We all hurt at nowadays. I’m asking my body to be a factor through seven different tasks. To put forward it not to ache would fix too much.

Fact Check: We strive go for accuracy and fairness. If you dominion something that doesn’t look right, impend us!