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Jackie Joyner-Kersee, American track-and-field
athlete, who won the heptathlon event (an all-around event)
at the Olympic Games in 1988 and 1992. She is considered one
of the greatest female athletes. She was born Jacqueline Joyner
in East Saint Louis, Illinois, and educated at the University
of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). In 1976, at the age of
14, she won her first of four consecutive United States junior
national titles in the pentathlon. After graduating from high
school in 1980 she accepted a basketball scholarship to UCLA,
where her coach and future husband, Bob Kersee, encouraged her
to train for multiple-event contests. In 1983 she and her brother,
Al Joyner, a triple jumper, represented the United States at
the track-and-field world championships in Helsinki, Finland.
They also competed in the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, where
she won the silver medal in the heptathlon?a two-day event in
which athletes compete in the 100-meter hurdles, high jump,
shot put, and 200-meter dash on the first day and in the long
jump, javelin, and 800-meter race on the second day. (Al Joyner
won the gold medal in the triple jump at the 1984 games.) She
married Kersee in 1986, and that same year she gave up basketball
to concentrate on the heptathlon, setting two world records
within one month. For her accomplishments in 1986, she won the
James E. Sullivan Memorial Award, given annually by the AAU
to the outstanding amateur athlete in the country. Jackie continued
her success in 1987, winning the heptathlon at the U.S. outdoor
track-and-field championships; at the Pan American Games in
Indianapolis, Indiana; and at the world championships in Rome,
where she also won the gold medal in the long jump event. In
1988 she won the gold medal in the heptathlon at the Olympics
in Seoul, South Korea, setting a world record in the event.
At the 1988 games Joyner-Kersee also won the gold medal in the
long jump, with a leap of 24 ft 3 1/2 in (7.3 m). At the
1991 world championships in Tokyo she won the long jump again.
At the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, Spain, she repeated her title
in the heptathlon. She also placed third in the long jump. Joyner-Kersee
overcame illness in 1993 to continue her dominance in the heptathlon
by earning the gold medal in the event at the world championships
in Stuttgart, Germany. |
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