Jackie Joyner-Kersee (born March 3, 1962) is generally considered as the best all-around female athlete in the world and the all-time greatest heptathlete. She has won three gold, one silver and one bronze Olympic medals. She was named after Jackie Kennedy. She lives in East St. Louis, Illinois.

Kersee was the first woman to score 7,000 points in a heptathlon event (during the 1986 Goodwill Games). She was inspired to compete in multi-discipline events after seeing a 1975 television movie about "Babe" Didrikson.

Jacqueline Joyner was born in East St. Louis, Illinois and went to UCLA. She is the sister-in-law of Florence Griffith Joyner. Her brother, Al Joyner, is also an important runner. Sports Illustrated voted her the greatest female athlete of the 20th century.

Along with the sudden death of her sister-in-law, Joyner-Kersee endured other great tragedies as a young child: When she was 11, she saw a man get killed. A few years later, she called her grandmother to talk, only to find out her grandmother too, had been killed.

International Games Competed In

• 1983 IAAF World Championships in Athletics, Helsinki
• 1984 Summer Olympics, Los Angeles
• 1986 Goodwill Games, Moscow
• 1987 IAAF World Championships in Athletics, Rome
• 1987 Pan American Games, Indianapolis
• 1988 Summer Olympics, Seoul
• 1992 Summer Olympics, Barcelona
• 1993 IAAF World Championships in Athletics, Stuttgart

External link

• Relays Hall of Fame (http://vm.mtsac.edu/relays/HallFame/Joyner.htm)

See also: Famous women in history