Jackie Joyner-Kersee
A Kind of Grace
Jackie Joyner-Kersee possesses Olympic medals for track and field and a world record, as well as the next five highest scores.
After gaining an Olympic silver medal in 1984 when she was edged by less than a second for first, she captured gold at both the 1988 and 1992 Games. "She's the greatest multi-event athlete ever, man or woman," said Bruce Jenner, an expert on multi-events as the 1976 Olympic decathlon champion.
In the long jump, she tied the then-world record of 24 feet, 5½ inches at the 1987 Pan-Am Games. By winning a gold (1988) and two bronzes (1992 and 1996) in that event, she became the most decorated woman in U.S. Olympic track and field history with six medals total.
In her rise to excellence, she overcame poverty and tragedy, discrimination and disease. Sport was her way out. "I don't think being an athlete is unfeminine," she said. "I think of it as a kind of grace."
Her path to greatness was made easier thanks to the people who loved her deeply.
"She was shaped by a mother who bound her to excellence, by an older brother who was an admirer, defender and soul mate, and by a coach who demanded the best use of her gifts and did it so selflessly that she eventually married him," wrote Kenny Moore of Sports Illustrated. "Whereupon she bloomed even more grandly."
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