Although she was named for Jackie Kennedy, that’s indeed where the similarities end. Long, lanky, athletic, talented, born to run and bring home the Gold are just a few ways of describing this East St. Louis, Illinois native.
Born on March 3, 1962, Jackie Joyner went to high school, and rather than act out, as did many of her classmates, seeing a made-for-TV movie about the life about Mildred Ella “Babe” Didrikson Zaharias changed Joyner’s life. Babe, as she came to be known, competed in the 1932 Olympiad games and took home two gold medals and one silver in 80-meter hurdles, Javelin throw and the high jump, respectively. What made Babe so special (whose name she adopted because she excelled not only in running but also baseball and people began calling her Babe after Babe Ruth), and what Joyner no doubt found so admirable is that when competitive sports were still considered to be “man’s work”, Babe broke records and competed on a level rarely before seen by a woman.
In addition to being a gold-medal winning runner and baseball player, Babe competed in and won 41 Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA Tours) games, of which she was a founding member. This, mind you, occurred after breaking records in basketball, baseball and running. Surely that would inspire the slacker in most of us to pick up the pole vault, throw on some running shoes and attempt to break records. Imagine what it might do to a 13-year-old with innate athletic ability to achieve.
After graduating from high school with honors, Joyner was accepted into the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) to compete in both basketball, as well as track and field. For the first three seasons she attended UCLA, Joyner was the starting forward for their much celebrated Bruins basketball team. It was during her fourth year at UCLA that Joyner decided to concentrate her efforts on women’s heptathlon, with competing in the 1984 Olympics as the ultimate goal.
Typically a heptathlete will compete in the following areas:
• 100 m hurdles
• High jump
• Shot put
• 200 meter sprint
• Long jump
• Javelin throw
• 800 meters
Variations of this might exist for a women’s competition or whether the event is being held indoors or out of doors. Variations or not, these events are not for the faint of heart. Joyner faired quite well in the 1984 games; she brought home a silver medal for her efforts in the heptathlon.
Having red-shirted to now concentrate on the equally intense discipline of running, having achieved what she set out to (competing in and winning at the Olympics), Joyner returned to UCLA to complete her fifth and senior year. Red-shirting refers to athletes who because they’ve been accepted to a college or university to compete in two or more sports, rather than be required to graduate in four years, a fifth is added to allow the student to equally compete in both areas.
While at UCLA, Joyner managed 1,167 points on the basketball court. The Bruins advanced to the West-Regional Semi-Finals of the NCAA Women’s Division I Basketball Tournament for the 1985 season. For her efforts, Joyner was named one of the 15 greatest players for the UCLA Women’s Basketball team.
In addition to her stellar performance while attending UCLA, Joyner went on to compete in the following:
• 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996 Summer Olympic Games
• 1986 and 1988 Goodwill Games
• 1991 World Championships in Tokyo Games
For which she won 8 gold, 1 silver and 2 bronze medals. Joyner set and held records in heptathlon, the long jump and 100 metre hurdles. Sports Illustrated voted Joyner the greatest female athlete of the 20th century. This is rather ironic, given that the woman who inspired her to compete was voted by Sports Illustrated the greatest female athlete of the first half of the 20th century. Dead before Joyner was even born, surely even Babe Zaharias would be impressed.
Personal Life and Philanthropy
In 1986, Joyner married her athletic coach, Bob Kersee. Two years later, she founded the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Foundation. Her goal with this non-profit is to give back to the community that helped raise her. It offers both financial and life skills resources to assist East St. Louis, Illinois families, children and adults to improve their quality-of-life.
In 2007, Kersee joined forces with such notable names as Tennis great Andre Agassi, world heavyweight boxer Muhammad Ali, 7-time Tours de France winner Lance Armstrong, basketball’s Alonzo Mourning, Soccer’s Mia Hamm, NASCAR’s Jeff Gordon and many others to establish the Athletes for Hope. This is a non-profit organization that seeks to involve athletes to assist non-athletes in support of their communities.
A truly great, one of a kind athlete and while some attempt to talk the talk, or even walk the talk, Jackie Joyner-Kersee runs the walk.
Jackie Joyner-Kersee is also the sister-in-law of the late Florence Griffith-Joyner, who married Jackie’s brother Olympic triple jumper winner Al Joyner. Florence Griffith-Joyner, an equally talented runner who still holds the record for the fastest 100 and 200 meter runs, she died of epilepsy at age 38.