With the Olympics starting at the beginning of August, trying to pick an Olympic athlete is difficult because they’re all so talented and each deserve their own spotlight. This week’s spotlight is Jackie Joyner-Kersee. She is known as one of the greatest track and field athletes to ever compete for the US and has certainly earned her place in the history books.
Jackie Joyner-Kersee’s career began due to another athlete. After watching Babe Didrikson Zaharias participating in track and field, Joyner-Kersee was inspired and began competing in multiple track and field activities.
She didn’t have much of a high school sports career, but she did qualify for the Olympic Trials for the long jump.  She attended UCLA where she participated in basketball and track and field. Even though her focus would be on track and field, she had an impressive basketball career. She scored 1,167 points in her career and would later be named one of UCLA’s greatest basketball players ever. She would eventually try her hand at professional basketball in 1996 but to no avail. While she attracted a lot of fans, she wasn’t able to keep up with the other players.
During her time in college, she trained for the 1984 Olympics, the first of the six she would compete in. She earned a silver medal for the heptathlon. In 1988, Joyner-Kersee would make her second trip to the Olympics and bring home a gold medal in the heptathlon and long jump. In 1992, she would bring back another gold medal for the heptathlon and a bronze for the long jump. She participated in her final Olympic games in 1996, earning a bronze medal in the long jump due to a hamstring injury. In 1998, Joyner-Kersee announced her retirement from the Olympics.
In 2000, she tried out for the US Olympic team but failed to qualify. Throughout her career, Joyner-Kersee has received many accolades including the Jesse Owens award in 1986 and 1987; the award is given to track and field athletes, male and female with top performances. In 2013, the female award was renamed the “Jackie Joyner-Kersee Award” while the male award stands as the Jesse Owens award.  Sports Illustrated named her the greatest female athlete of the 20th century.  They named her inspiration Babe Didrikson Zaharias as the second greatest female athlete of the 20th century.
Since her retirement, Joyner-Kersee has kept herself busy. One of her greatest projects has been, the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Foundation which she founded in 1988. Her foundation works to provide “youth, adults, and families with athletic lessons and the resources to improve their quality of life.” The foundation’s main focus is in East St. Louis where Joyner-Kersee grew up. She along with eleven other athletes started the charity, Athletes For Hope which helps other athletes to get involved with charities.
[…] Felix is a four-time recipient of the Jesse Owens award which would later be renamed as the Jackie Joyner-Kersee award. She is the second woman to win it four times after Marion Jones did. She was also named the […]