FANNY BLANKERS-KOEN, a Dutch mother of four children, was a sensation at the 1948 Summer Games in London. She was the first woman to capture four Olympic gold medals: 80-meter hurdles, 100-meter and 200-meter dashes, anchor leg of the 4 X 100-meter relay team.
WILMA RUDOLPH, a member of the esteemed Tennessee State track team, won gold medals in the 100 and 200-meter dashes and 4 X 100 relay at the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome. The country fell in love with the beautiful, charming Wilma who overcame leg infirmities from polio to run like a goddess of the hunt.
Twenty-eight years later, at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea, two American women, both former UCLA athletes, mesmerized sports fans worldwide. FLORENCE GRIFFITH-JOYNER (Flo-Jo) of the chiseled physique, incandescent smile, striking running clothes, and brightly painted, dagger-length fingernails was a force of nature who duplicated Wilma Rudolph’s feat as she won gold medals in the 100 and 200-meter sprints and the 4 X 100-meter relay. Flo-Jo still holds the women’s world record of 10.49 for 100 meters and 21.34 for 200 meters, and no one has come close to threatening them. In 1988, she won the Sullivan Trophy as the outstanding U.S. amateur athlete. Flo-Jo married Jackie Joyner-Kersee’s brother Al Joyner, 1984 Olympic triple jump champion, in 1987.15 Tragically, Florence Griffith-Joyner died in her sleep in 1998 at age 38.
JACKIE JOYNER-KERSEE is America’s greatest female athlete. Among a string of track & field records, she won gold medals in the long jump and heptathlon at the Seoul Games. The heptathlon is an athletic competition in which athletes compete in seven events over two days. The first day’s events include 100-meter hurdles, high jump, shot put, and 200-meter dash. Day two’s competition consists of the long jump, javelin and 800-meters. Jackie Joyner-Kersee has the still-standing record of 7,291 points in the women’s heptathlon.16
She was also one of UCLA’s top women’s basketball players, scoring over 1,000 points during her career. Jackie Joyner grew up in an underprivileged area of East St. Louis, Illinois. She was introduced to track & field when a Title 1X federal grant provided money for a coach and a small track. This pathway gave Jackie the chance she otherwise might not have had. In her hometown retirement from competitive athletics, she helps young people achieve their goals.
SOURCES
15 Courtesy of USA Track&Field, http://www.usatf.org/HallOfFame/TF/showBio.asp?HOFIDs=63, available as of 11/11/07
16 Courtesy of USA Track&Field, http://www.usatf.org/HallOfFame/TF/showBio.asp?HOFIDs=201, available as of 11/11/07