Jackie Joyner-Kersee – “A Kind Of Grace” – born March 3, 1962

When she was born on 3 March 1962, she was named Jacqueline after the wife of U.S. President John F. Kennedy because, in the words of her grandmother, “Someday this girl will be the First Lady of something”. She was right.

Three centimetres from victory

Daughter of Mary and Alfred Joyner…One of four children…Won the National Junior Pentathlon championships four times during her teenage years…Attended Lincoln Senior High School where she received honors in track, basketball and volleyball…Won the USA Track & Field’s Jesse Owens Award in 1986 and 1987…Named the Greatest Female Athlete of the 20th Century by Sports Illustrated…Inducted into the National Track & Field Hall of Fame…Created the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Youth Center Foundation and helped establish Athletes for Hope…Served on the board of USA Track & Field

Named the Greatest Female Athlete of the 20th Century by Sports Illustrated, four-time Olympian Jackie Joyner-Kersee was the first woman to win back-to-back Olympic gold medals in the heptathlon, the first African American woman to win an Olympic medal in the long jump and the first athlete to score more than 7,000 points in the heptathlon. Born in East St. Louis, Illinois, Joyner-Kersee played a number of sports in high school and earned a basketball scholarship to UCLA, where she met her coach and future husband, Bob Kersee. She won the silver medal in the heptathlon at the Olympic Games Los Angeles 1984, and became the first woman to score over 7,000 points in the heptathlon when she accomplished the feat at the 1986 Goodwill Games.

Joyner-Kersee won gold medals in the heptathlon and the long jump in her second Games, and earned a total of six medals throughout her Olympic career. She retired after the Atlanta 1996 Games and briefly played professional women’s Basketball in the American Basketball League.

Following her athletic career, Joyner-Kersee advocated for racial equality and social reform as a philanthropist and public speaker. She also founded the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Foundation in 1988 to provide communities with more access to academics and athletics

Jackie Joyner-Kersee, was raised in East St. Louis, and her JJF Foundation remains committed to ensuring that all children have access to high quality after school programs, safe recreational places within their communities, and caring adults to help them achieve their dreams. Jackie is the heart and soul of this organization, and serves as living proof that kids in East St. Louis can dare to dream big and if they have the drive and determination, they can accomplish anything they desire.

“It is better to look ahead and prepare than to look back and regret.”

“If I stop to kick every barking dog, I am not going to get where I’m going.”

“I don’t think being an athlete is unfeminine. I think of it as a kind of grace.”

SOURCE: Olympic.coom ; USTF Hall Of Fame; JJK “Foundation