Jackie Joyner-Kersee is an Olympic athlete. She has won five Olympic medals for her performance in the heptathlon, an event that combines seven athletic contests. The Olympic heptathlon for women is conducted outdoors across two days, and includes the events of one hundred meter hurdles, the high jump, the shot put, the two hundred meter sprint, the long jump, the javelin throw, and the eight hundred meter middle distance track event. As of early 2007, Jackie Joyner-Kersee has the world record for the heptathlon.
Jackie Joyner-Kersee was born in East St. Louis, Illinois in the year 1962. Her birthday is the third of March. In high school she graduated in the top ten percent of her class, and excelled in various sports including volleyball, basketball and track & field. When Jackie Joyner-Kersee was twelve years old, she was able to long jump nearly seventeen feet. Going to college at UCLA, Jackie Joyner-Kersee participated in basketball and track.
After the death of her thirty seven year old mother in 1981, Jackie Joyner-Kersee was encouraged by a track coach at UCLA, Bob Kersee, who had also lost his mother at a young age. Bob Kersee became Jackie Joyner-Kersee's coach and trained her in the heptathlon. Five years later, Jackie Joyner-Kersee and Bob Kersee were married.
In her Olympic career, Jackie Joyner-Kersee earned her first Olympic silver medal in the heptathlon in the early eighties. In the late eighties she won two Olympic gold medals, for the heptathlon and the long jump. Other Olympic medals that Jackie Joyner-Kersee has achieved include the 1992 gold medal for the heptathlon and the 1996 bronze medal for the long jump.
In early 2007 Jackie Joyner-Kersee is considered one of the greatest female athletes of all time. She has been the first woman to score over seven thousand points in the Olympic heptathlon and has been called "Super Woman" on the cover of Sports Illustrated. As of 2001, Jackie Joyner-Kersee has retired from sports.