Jackie Joyner-Kersee Biography

Quick Facts

NAME: Jackie Joyner-Kersee
OCCUPATION: Track and Field Athlete
BIRTH DATE: March 03, 1962 (Age: 50)
EDUCATION: University of California at Los Angeles
PLACE OF BIRTH: East St. Louis, Illinois

ZODIAC SIGN: Pisces

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Best Known For

Jackie Joyner-Kersee is a retired American athlete, ranked among the all-time greatest athletes in the women's heptathlon as well as in the women's long jump.

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Jackie Joyner-Kersee

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' Jackie Joyner-Kersee', Biography.com,(2012) http://www.biography.com/people/jackie-joyner-kersee-9358710 [accessed May 22, 2012]

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Jackie Joyner-Kersee [Internet]. Biography.com; 2012 [cited 2012 May 22]. Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/jackie-joyner-kersee-9358710.

Bluebook Style

Jackie Joyner-Kersee, http://www.biography.com/people/jackie-joyner-kersee-9358710 (last visited May 22, 2012).

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Jackie Joyner-Kersee, http://www.biography.com/people/jackie-joyner-kersee-9358710 (last visited May 22, 2012).

Synopsis

Jackie Joyner-Kersee (b. March 3, 1962) is a retired American athlete, ranked among the all-time greatest athletes in the women's heptathlon as well as in the women's long jump. She won three gold, one silver, and two bronze Olympic medals, in those four different events. Sports Illustrated for Women magazine voted Joyner-Kersee the Greatest Female Athlete of the 20th century.

Profile

Track and field athlete. Born Jacqueline Joyner on March 3, 1962, in East St. Louis, Illinois. Joyner-Kersee attended UCLA, where she starred in both track and basketball. One of the greatest female athletes in history, she won a silver medal in the heptathlon in the 1984 Olympics and gold medals in the 1988 and 1992 Games. She also won a gold medal in the long jump in 1988 and a bronze at the 1992 Olympics. Joyner-Kersee is the heptathlon world record-holder and American record-holder in the long jump.

Jackie married her controversial coach, Bob Kersee, in 1986. Joyner-Kersee's brother, Al Joyner, is also an Olympic gold medalist, having won the Olympic triple jump in 1984. Her sister-in-law is the late track star Florence Griffith Joyner. A sufferer of exercise-induced asthma, Joyner-Kersee officially retired from track and field in 2001 at age 38. After her retirement, she started the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Youth Center Foundation to encourage kids in her underprivileged hometown to play sports.