Jackie Joyner-Kersee is an American Olympic legend. She started her training for the Olympics after seeing a teenage Evelyn Ashford competing at the 1976 Montreal games. Jackie has also said she was inspired by “Babe” Didrikson Zaharias, one of the most successful multi-sport athletes in American history. Jackie grew up in a family that didn’t have as many resources as other Olympic hopefuls. Talking about her track training as a kid she said “We went to the park and ran in the dirt, when we were young we didn’t know any better” but she worked hard and had the support of her family help her through.
Jackie went to UCLA where she was a Track and Basketball star. While attending UCLA she was diagnosed with severe asthma, a condition she had been hiding and struggling to accept. With her condition under control she excelled in her time at UCLA and was voted Top Woman Collegiate Athlete of the Past 25 Years by NCAA member schools in 2001. In 1984 in her last year at UCLA she entered her first Olympics, the 1984 Los Angeles games. She took the silver medal after being a favorite in the heptathlon.
In 1988 she took home the gold in the Heptathlon and the Long Jump. She was the first American woman to get gold in either event. In 1986 and ’87 Jackie won the Jessie Owens award for her track performances and setting multiple world records. Her record for the heptathlon set in 1988 still stands. She also took the gold in the 92’ Olympics in Barcelona in the Long Jump, but in ’96 she suffered a hamstring injury and still managed to take home a bronze medal. Starting in the late 90’s Jackie Joyner-Kersee took on new tasks, advocating for social causes, women’s sports, and children’s health care.
