Jackie Joyner-Kersee (b.1962,) fully Jacqueline Joyner-Kersee, née Jacqueline Joyner, is an American track-and-field athlete. Considered one of the greatest female athletes ever, Joyner-Kersee participated in four Olympics, winning six medals and breaking multiple world records.
Born in East St. Louis, Illinois, Joyner-Kersee excelled in sports and academics and graduated from California-Los Angeles. She started as a forward in basketball but became a dominant heptathlete. She set a world record (7,148 points) at the 1986 Goodwill Games in Moscow, becoming the first heptathlon participant to score over 7,000 points.
In 1998 in Seoul, she won Olympic gold with 7,291 points—it was the fourth time she set a world record in the heptathlon. In 1992 in Barcelona, she again won the Olympic gold in the heptathlon. In 1996 in Atlanta, she earned a bronze medal in the long jump before a hamstring sprain forced her to withdraw from the heptathlon.
Joyner-Kersee started numerous philanthropic organizations. Her memoir is A Kind of Grace: The Autobiography of the World’s Greatest Female Athlete (1997.)
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Jackie Joyner-Kersee
The medals don’t mean anything and the glory doesn’t last. It’s all about your happiness. The rewards are going to come, but my happiness is just loving the sport and having fun performing.
—Jackie Joyner-Kersee
Topics: Competition, Performance, Effort
Age is no barrier. It’s a limitation you put on your mind.
—Jackie Joyner-Kersee
Topics: Aging
It is better to look ahead and prepare than to look back and regret.
—Jackie Joyner-Kersee
Topics: Success, Knowledge, Regret, Kindness, Life, Preparation, People, Planning, Compassion, Thought
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