Athletes

Jackie Joyner-Kersee is a member of the International Women's Sports Hall of Fame (2003). The winner of six Olympic medals, three of which are gold (1992-heptathlon; 1988-heptathlon, long jump), Joyner-Kersee has held the heptathlon world record (currently 7,291 points) since 1986 and also holds the national long jump record (7.49m). She retired from athletics after the 1998 Goodwill Games, having won her fourth consecutive heptathlon title. At the 1996 Olympic Games she took the bronze medal in the long jump. Joyner-Kersee became the first woman to win consecutive Olympic gold medals in the heptathlon at the 1992 Olympic Games and set a world record of 7,291 points in the sport at the 1988 Olympic Games. She also won an Olympic bronze in the long jump in 1992 and gold in the event in 1988. Winning her first Goodwill Games heptathlon event in 1986, Joyner-Kersee became the first woman to score more than 7,000 points. In 1988, she became the first woman to be awarded The Sporting News Athlete of the Year Award. She was also the first athlete to become a two-time winner of the Jesse Owens Award (1986-87) and was named the 1987 Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year. After winning a silver medal in the heptathlon at the 1984 Olympic Games, Joyner-Kersee was voted the 1984 Female Athlete of the Year by U.S. Track and Field, the U.S. Olympic Committee and the International Amateur Athletic Federation. She also was a three-time winner of Track and Field News Athlete of the Year. Joyner-Kersee was chair of the St. Louis Sports Commission from 1997 to 2000. She is the founder and chair of the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation, created to provide youth, adults, and families with the resources to improve their quality of life and to enhance communities worldwide. In 2000 the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Foundation proudly opened the doors of the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Center in Joyner-Kersee's hometown of East St. Louis, Ill. The JJK Center provides services to thousands of families and youth in the metropolitan St. Louis area. She sat on the Women's Sports Foundation Board of Trustees from 1995 until 2000 and won the inaugural Wilma Rudolph Courage Award in 1996. Joyner-Kersee won the Foundation's Amateur Sportswoman of the Year Award three times (1987, 1988 and 1992) and received the 1988 Flo Hyman Memorial Award. She is also highlighted in the Foundation's book "SuperWomen: 100 Women - 100 Sports." In 2007 she received on the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) highest honors as a recipient of the IOC Women and Sport Trophy for her active role in the advancement of girls through sport. On Aug. 30, 2007, she spoke to community members and political leaders at the University of Hawaii about Title IX and its impact on her as an athlete and a woman in general. Joyner-Kersee is continuously traveling the country as a motivational speaker. (11/07)