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Jackie's birth
On March 3,1962 Jackie Joyner Kersee was born. -
Where It All Started
When Jackie was 9 she entered her first race . The coaches at the at the community centers loved Jackie's talents and helped her enter track meets against kids from other towns Soon Jackie was bringing home trophies. -
Undefeatable
At age 15, Jackie won the AAU's national junior pentathlon championship,she took the title four years in a row,she was undefeatable. -
Graduated
Jackie graduated In 1980 in the top 10 percent of her class . Many colleges offered Jackie scholarships . But one school topped the list for both academics and athletic training : the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). At UCLA Jackie threwherself into sports and schoolwork -
Track and Field World Championship
In summer of 1983, Jackie traveled to the Track and Field World Championships in Helsinki, Finland. The best heptathletes of all, the Eastern European women, would be in Helsinki . There Jackie would face the hardest competition of her career. But Jackie pulled a hamstring during the contest , she walked away from the World Championships without a medal. -
Summer Olympics
The 1984 Summer Olympics were held in Los Angeles. Jackie was looking for a gold medal in the heptathlon. Naming the heptathlon winners is not simple. Officials use a complex math equation that turns an athlete's finishing time or distance in each event into a certain number of points. If you added together Jackie's all time best performances in each seven events, she had one of the highest heptathlon point totals In the world, but the Olympics don't take place on paper. -
Lost
Jackie came to the Games with confidence By the end of the first day of competition,she held a lead over the field of heptathletes.But the next day did not go as well.A sore hamstring hobbled Jackie in the long jump and cut into her lead.The last event,the 800 meter run,Australia's Glynis Nunn was within striking distance.Still ,if Jackie could stay close to Nunn in the race, she'd earn enough points to win the gold medal.When the points came in Nunn posted 6,390 points to Jackie's 6,385 points. -
New Record
After the Olympics Jackie went back to UCLA to finish her degree in history and communications. She played basketball and resumed heptathlon training. The long jump was Jackie's flagship event. In 1985 she set an American record with a jump of 23 feet,9 inches. -
Goodwill Games
In July 1986,at the Goodwill games in Moscow, Russia, Jackie ran, jumped, and threw like superwomen. When the meet ended, Jackie had 6 personal best. She had piled up 7,148 points shattering the world heptathlon record by more the 200! -
The Future is Limitless
Jackie's hard work has paid off. She is living proof that hard work and positive thinking can turn dreams into reality. Jackie Joyner-Kersee has proven that with the right set of mind, the future is limitless.
