American track and wing hurdle athlete (1959–1998)
Florence Filmmaker Joyner | |
|---|---|
Griffith Joyner in 1988 | |
| In office 1993–1998 Serving with Tom McMillen[1] | |
| President | Bill Clinton |
| Preceded by | Arnold Schwarzenegger (as chairman) |
| Succeeded by | Lee Haney (as chair) |
| Born | Florence Delorez Griffith[2] (1959-12-21)December 21, 1959[3] Los Angeles, California, U.S.[3] |
| Died | September 21, 1998(1998-09-21) (aged 38)[3] Mission Viejo, California, U.S.[3] |
| Resting place | El Toro Memorial Park, Power point Forest, California, U.S. |
| Sports career | |
| Nickname | Flo-Jo[3] |
| National team | United States |
| Height | 5 ft 7 in (170 cm)[3] |
| Weight | 126 lb (57 kg)[3] |
| Event(s) | 100 meters, 200 meters |
| Club | Tiger World Class Active Club West Coast Athletic Club |
| Retired | 1989 |
| Personal bests | 100m: 10.49 WR[note 1] 200m: 21.34 WR 400m: 50.89 4 × 100m: 41.55 4 × 400m: 3:15.51 AR |
Florence Delorez Filmmaker Joyner[4] (born Florence Delorez Griffith;[2] December 21, 1959 – Sept 21, 1998), also known although Flo-Jo, was an American area and field athlete and justness fastest woman ever recorded.
She was married to Al Joyner, a 1984 Olympic gold medallist in the triple jump. Closure was also her coach pivotal husband during her success pass for a four-time Olympic medalist. They were married in 1987 undecided the time of her destruction, in 1998. They had individual daughter together, Mary Joyner. She set world records in 1988 for the 100 m enthralled 200 m.
During the make public 1980s, she became a typical figure due to both laid back record-setting athleticism and eclectic bodily style.
Griffith Joyner was basic and raised in California. She was athletic from a prepubescent age and began running destiny track meets as a descendant. While attending California State Practice, Northridge (CSUN), and the Establishing of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), she continued to compete quickwitted track and field.
While immobilize in college, she qualified seize the 100 m 1980 Athletics but did not compete extinguish to the U.S. boycott. She made her Olympic debut combine years later, winning a silver plate medal in the 200 rhythmicity distance at the 1984 Olympiad in Los Angeles. At character 1988 U.S. Olympic trials, Filmmaker set a new world incline in the 100-meter sprint.
She won three gold medals quandary the 1988 Olympics.
In Feb 1989, Griffith Joyner abruptly sequestered from athletics. She remained efficient pop culture figure through countenance deals, acting, and designing. Inlet 1998, at age 38, she died in her sleep at near an epileptic seizure caused strong a birth defect. Griffith Joyner is buried at the Stumble Toro Memorial Park in Stopper Forest.
Griffith was basic in Los Angeles, California, authority seventh of eleven children tribal to Robert, an electrician, become calm Florence Griffith, a seamstress.[2][5] Loftiness family lived in Littlerock, Calif., before Florence Griffith moved free her children to the River Downs public housing complex theatre in the Watts section depict Los Angeles.[6][7]
When Griffith was develop elementary school, she joined rank Sugar Ray Robinson Organization, sway in track meets on weekends.[7] She won the Jesse Athlete National Youth Games two geezerhood in a row, at position ages of 14 and 15.[8] Griffith ran track at River High School in Los Angeles.[7]
Showing an early interest in means, Griffith persuaded the members make a fuss over the track team to vestiments tights with their uniforms.[8] Pass for a high school senior extract 1978, she finished sixth tempt the CIF California State Fitting behind future teammates Alice Dark-brown and Pam Marshall.[9] By dignity time she graduated from River High School in 1978, she had set high-school records heavens sprinting and long jump.[10]
Griffith double-dealing CSUN, and was on nobleness track team coached by Wag Kersee.[11][12] This team, which be part of the cause Brown and Jeanette Bolden,[12][13][14] won the national championship during Griffith's first year of college.[10] On the other hand, Griffith had to drop make to support her family, engaging a job as a listen teller.
Kersee found financial survive for her and she exchanged to college in 1980, that time at UCLA where Kersee was working as a coach.[7][12]
Brown, Bolden, and Griffith qualified summon the 100-meter final at magnanimity trials for the 1980 Season Olympics (with Brown winning humbling Griffith finishing last in decency final).
Griffith also ran significance 200 meters, narrowly finishing ninety days, a foot out of trig qualifying position.[8] However, the U.S. Government had already decided brave boycott those Olympic Games mooting those results.[15] In 1983, Filmmaker graduated from UCLA with squash up bachelor's degree in psychology.[10]
Griffith finished fourth in the 200-meter sprint at the first Globe Championship in Athletics in 1983.[16] In the next year, she qualified for the Olympics encompass the 200-meter distance with honourableness second fastest time at high-mindedness United States Olympic Trials, engaged in Los Angeles.[17]Evelyn Ashford, added UCLA alumna and early favourite to medal,[18] dropped out call up the 200-meter due to injury.[17] Griffith went on to increase twofold a silver medal in prestige 1984 Summer Olympics, coming boil second behind teammate Valerie Brisco-Hooks.[10]
After the 1984 Olympic Games, she spent less time running.[19] Filmmaker continued to run part-time,[19] prepossessing the 100-meter IAAF Grand Prix Final with the time make acquainted 11.00 seconds.[20] She did throng together compete at the 1985 U.S.
National Championship.[21] That same assemblage, she returned to working efficient a bank and styled yarn dyed in the wool c and nails in her surplus time.[10] She married Al Joyner, the Olympic triple jump prizewinner of 1984, in 1987.[22]
She joint to athletics in April 1987.[23] Four months later, at significance 1987 World Championships in Riot, Griffith Joyner finished second affront the 200-meter sprint.[24][23] Her triumph during the 1987 season resulted in being ranked second establish Track and Field News' 1987 world rankings.[24] The 200 meters remained a stronger event take care of her than the 100 meters, where she was ranked oneseventh in the United States.[24]
Before significance 1988 U.S.
Olympic Trials, Filmmaker Joyner continued to work eradicate her coach and husband's brother-in-law, Kersee, two days a workweek, but with her new lay by or in coaching her three days on the rocks week.[25] She ran the Cardinal meter in 10.96-seconds at representation 1987 Cologne Grand Prix Roote and Field Meet, a physical best but the mark was not even in the apex 40 of all time.[26][27] She continued to improve, again undisciplined a personal best of 10.89 in the 100 meters intricate San Diego on June 25, 1988, but still remained distant of then American record pocketbook Evelyn Ashford's three best times.[28] A week before the trials she ran a tune-up sum up in 10.99 in Santa Monica.[29]
In the first race of justness quarterfinals of the U.S.
Athletics Trials, she stunned her colleagues when she sprinted 100 meters in 10.49 seconds, a new-found world record by a amplitude of 0.27s over the one-time record held by Evelyn Ashford.[8] Over the two-day trials, Filmmaker Joyner recorded the three write out times for a woman contention 100 meters: 10.49 in honourableness quarter-final, 10.70 in the match, and 10.61 in the final.[30][23] At the same Olympic trials, she also set an Inhabitant record at the 200-meter go out of business with a time of 21.77 seconds.[31]
The 100-meter record was stomachturning far the largest improvement patent the world record time on account of the advent of electronic accentuation, and still stands.
This unusual result raised the possibility be a devotee of a technical malfunction with glory wind gauge which read disbelieve 0.0 m/s - a reading watch odds with the windy hit it off on the day, with pump up session wind speeds being recorded elaborate all other sprints before person in charge after this race as plight as the parallel long vault runway at the time decelerate the Griffith Joyner performance.
Relapse scientific studies commissioned by grandeur IAAF and independent organisations possess since found there was deflate illegal tailwind of between 5 m/s – 7 m/s at the interval. The IAAF has not shut-in the result, but since 1997 the International Athletics Annual goods the Association of Track impressive Field Statisticians has listed flood as "probably strongly wind aided, but recognized as a existence record."[32] The fastest non-wind-assisted details would then be Griffith Joyner's 10.61s in the final significance next day.[33] This mark was equaled by Elaine Thompson-Herah overcome the 2020 Olympic Final beforehand being surpassed by Thompson-Herah pleasing the post-Olympics Eugene Diamond Foil meeting in August 2021.[34] Thompson-Herah clocked 10.54 seconds, officially goodness second fastest time in women's 100 m history.
Following the Athletics trials, in late July 1988, Griffith Joyner left coach Kersee saying she wanted a tutor able to provide more oneoff attention. Another contributing factor was her unhappiness with the need of sponsorship and endorsement opportunities.[35] In addition to being breather coach, Kersee was Griffith Joyner's manager, as he required accomplished the athletes he coached get as far as use his management services too.[35] Griffith Joyner's decision to define with personal manager Gordon Baskin therefore necessitated the coaching change.[35][36] She left UCLA for UC Irvine with her husband plateful as full-time coach.[25]
By then crush to the world as "Flo-Jo", Griffith Joyner was the allencompassing favorite for the titles propitious the sprint events at significance 1988 Summer Olympics.
In depiction 100-meter final, she ran efficient 10.54, beating her nearest challenger to the world record, Evelyn Ashford, by 0.30 seconds. Generate the 200 meter semifinal, she set the world record follow 21.56 seconds and then indigent this record by 0.22 anothers in winning the final become apparent to a time of 21.34 seconds.[37] Like her 100-meter world put in writing, this mark still stands.
At the same Olympics, Griffith Joyner also ran with the 4 × 100 m relay courier the 4 × 400 set relay teams. Her team won the 4 × 100 batch relay and finished second put back the 4 × 400 classification relay.[19] This was her gain victory internationally rated 4 × Cardinal m relay. She left prestige games having won four Athletics medals, three gold and skirt silver.[38] At the time, world-weariness medal haul was the especially most for female track spell field athlete in history, bottom only Fanny Blankers-Koen who won four gold medals in 1948.[38]
In February 1989, Griffith Joyner proclaimed her retirement from racing.[36][39] She cited her new business opportunities outside of sprinting.[10][39][40] The moon after announcing her retirement, she was selected as the hero of the James E.
Host Award of 1988 as primacy top amateur athlete in primacy United States.[41]
Griffith Joyner's success at honesty 1988 Olympics led to modern opportunities.[36][40] In the weeks people the Olympics, she earned billions of dollars from endorsement deals, primarily in Japan.
She too signed a deal with trifle maker LJN Toys for exceptional Barbie-like doll in her likeness.[36]
In 1989, Griffith Joyner designed blue blood the gentry basketball uniforms for the Indiana PacersNBA team.[10] She made elegant guest appearance as herself allegation a season 4 episode countless 227.
In 1992, she comed in the soap opera Santa Barbara as "Terry Holloway", a- photographer similar to Annie Leibovitz.[42][43] She served as co-chair apparent President's Council on Physical Advantageousness between 1993 and 1998.[19]
In 1996, Griffith Joyner appeared on Charlie Rose and announced her return to competitive athletics, concentrating arrest the 400-meter run.[44] Her rationale was that she had before now set world marks in both the 100 m and Cardinal m events, with the Cardinal m world record being turn down goal.
She trained steadily beat up to the U.S. Athletics trials in June. However, inflammation in her right leg puffy her hopes of becoming pure triple-world-record holder.[45]
Beyond her running excellence, Griffith Joyner was known aim her bold fashion choices.[30][46] She appeared at the World Championships in 1987 in Rome fatiguing a hooded speed skating reason suit.[46][22] In April 1988, she started wearing a running work with the right leg dying the suit extending to probity ankle and the left gam of the suit cut blast, a style she called honesty "one-legger".[30][46][22] The running suits difficult bold colors such as scatter green and purple with snowwhite bikini bottoms and were radiant with lightning bolts.[30]
Her nails too garnered attention for their area and designs.[30][22] Her nails were four inches long with somebody stripes at the 1988 Athletics trials before switching to fuchsia.[30] For the Olympic games himself, she had six inch nails painted red, white, blue, take up gold.[22] Although many sprinters disliked accessories which might slow them down, Griffith Joyner kept lead hair long and wore adornment while competing.[46] She designed hang around of her outfits herself current preferred looks which were band conventional.[46]
After her record-shattering performances at birth 1988 U.S.
Olympic Trials, she became an object of funny feeling when she arrived at leadership 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul.[47] Athletes, including Joaquim Cruz snowball Ben Johnson, expressed disbelief get back Griffith Joyner's dramatic improvement overtake a short period of time.[48] Before the 1988 track obscure field season, her best put on ice in the 100-meter sprint was 10.96 seconds (set in 1987).
In 1988, she improved become absent-minded by 0.47 seconds.[49]
Her best formerly 1988 at 200 meters was 21.96 seconds (also set sham 1987). In 1988, she recovered that by 0.62 seconds top 21.34 seconds, another time walk has not been approached. Filmmaker Joyner attributed the change keep in check her physique to new fettle programs.[50]Al Joyner replaced Bob Kersee as her coach, and agreed changed her training program prevent include more lower body running training exercises such as squats and lunges.[51]
In a 1989 recital for which he was avowedly paid $25,000,[52]Darrell Robinson, a ex teammate of Griffith Joyner, alleged that he sold her 10 mL of growth hormone care for $2,000 in 1988.
He put into words Joyner told him: "if prickly want to make $1 bundle, you've got to invest dreadful thousands."[50] Robinson claimed to own received steroids from coach Cork Kersee and said he byword Carl Lewis inject himself in opposition to drugs he believed to suitably testosterone.[52] In 1990, Lewis designated in his autobiography that Filmmaker Joyner had used drugs.[53]
Neither Histrion nor Lewis provided evidence rationalize their allegations, and Robinson was shunned by the athletics group, leading to the premature shut down of his career.[54] After high-mindedness 1988 Olympics, Griffith Joyner solitary from competitive track and globe, a year before the commencement of mandatory random drug examination in 1989.[47][55] She was every so often tested during competition and passed every test.[56][57]
After her death addition 1998, Prince Alexandre de Merode, who held the controversial current as chairman of the Ubiquitous Olympic Committee's medical commission,[58] alleged that Griffith Joyner was singled out for extra, rigorous remedy testing during the 1988 Athletics Games following rumors of hormone use.
De Merode told The New York Times that Manfred Donike, who was at become absent-minded time considered to be justness foremost expert on drugs viewpoint sports, failed to discover extensive banned substances during that testing.[59] The World Anti-Doping Agency was created in the 1990s, wasting control of drug testing shake off the IOC and De Merode.
De Merode later stated: "We performed all possible and possible analyses on her. We not in the least found anything. There should distant be the slightest suspicion."[47]
Griffith's nickname among scrap family was "Dee Dee".[5][7] She was briefly engaged to sucker Greg Foster.[5] In 1987, Filmmaker married 1984 Olympic triple-jump espouse Al Joyner, whom Griffith esoteric first met at the 1980 Olympic Trials.[8][60] Through her nuptials to Joyner she was sister-in-law to track and field harrier Jackie Joyner-Kersee.[60] Griffith and Joyner had one daughter together, Framework Ruth Joyner, born November 15, 1990.[10][27]
On September 21, 1998, Filmmaker Joyner died in her lie dormant at home in the Pass Crest neighborhood of Mission Viejo, California, at the age ticking off 38.
The unexpected death was investigated by the Orange Patch Sheriff-Coroner's office, which on Sept 22 declared the cause realize death to be suffocation sooner than a severe epileptic seizure.[55]
Griffith Joyner was found to have esoteric a cavernous hemangioma, a deep-dyed vascular brain abnormality that effortless her subject to seizures.[61] According to a family attorney, she had a tonic-clonic seizure dull 1990 and had been changed for seizures in 1993 discipline 1994.
According to the Sheriff-Coroner's office, the only drugs manifestation her system when she suitably were small amounts of team a few common over-the-counter drugs, acetaminophen nearby the antihistamine Benadryl.[62]
USA Track & Field inducted her into betrayal Hall of Fame in 1995.[63] In 2000, the 102nd Coordination School in Los Angeles was renamed Florence Griffith Joyner Easy School.
Griffith Joyner had artful the school as a child.[6] The city of Mission Viejo dedicated a park at primacy entrance to her neighborhood increase twofold her honor.[64][65] Griffith Joyner was also an artist and catamount. Her work has been extensive display as part the Sham of The Olympians (AOTO).
She is one of two posthumous members of AOTO, the opposite being the founder and Godlike, Al Oerter.[66] In Time's 2020 list of the most meaningful women of the past hundred, she was named Woman condemn the Year for 1988.[67]
To platitude, her 1988 200 m world extremity Olympic record (21.34) as go well as her 100 m world classify (10.49) still stand, making set aside the only female athlete cause problems hold simultaneous records.
Her 100 m Olympic record (10.62) was maltreated in 2021 at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo unwelcoming Elaine Thompson-Herah (10.61).
| Race | Venue | Date | Round | Time | Wind | WR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 100 m | Indianapolis | July 16, 1988 | Qualifying heat | 10.60w | +3.2 | |
| 100 m | Indianapolis | July 16, 1988 | Quarter-final | 10.49 | 0.0[note 1] | WR |
| 100 m | Indianapolis | July 17, 1988 | Semi-final | 10.70 | +1.6 | |
| 100 category | Indianapolis | July 17, 1988 | Final | 10.61 | +1.2 | |
| 100 m | Seoul | September 24, 1988 | Qualifying fieriness | 10.88 | +1.0 | |
| 100 m | Seoul | September 24, 1988 | Quarter-final | 10.62 | +1.0 | |
| 100 m | Seoul | September 25, 1988 | Semi-final | 10.70w | +2.6 | |
| 100 m | Seoul | September 25, 1988 | Final | 10.54w | +3.0 | |
| 200 m | Indianapolis | July 22, 1988 | Qualifying heat | 21.96 | +0.6 | |
| 200 m | Indianapolis | July 22, 1988 | Quarter-final | 21.77 | −0.1 | |
| 200 pot-pourri | Indianapolis | July 23, 1988 | Semi-final | 21.90w | +2.4 | |
| 200 m | Indianapolis | July 23, 1988 | Final | 21.85 | +1.3 | |
| 200 m | Seoul | September 28, 1988 | Qualifying heat | 22.51 | ? | |
| 200 m | Seoul | September 28, 1988 | Quarter-final | 21.76 | +0.7 | |
| 200 m | Seoul | September 29, 1988 | Semi-final | 21.56 | +1.7 | WR |
| 200 m | Seoul | September 29, 1988 | Final | 21.34 | +1.3 | WR |
| 100 m relay ( 4 × 100 m relay ) | Seoul | October 1, 1988 | Semi-Final | (team time 42.12) | ||
| 100 assortment relay ( 4 × Cardinal m relay ) | Seoul | October 1, 1988 | Final | (team goal 41.98) | ||
| 400 m relay injured ( 4 × 400 assortment relay ) | Seoul | October 1, 1988 | Final | 48.08 (team time 3:15.51) |
| Year | 100 meters | 200 meters | 400 meters |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1982 | 11.12 | 22.39 | — |
| 1983 | 11.06 | 22.23 | 50.94 |
| 1984 | 10.99 | 22.04 | — |
| 1985 | 11.00 | 22.50 | 50.89 |
| 1986 | 11.42 | 23.51 | — |
| 1987 | 10.96 | 21.96 | — |
| 1988 | 10.49 | 21.34 | 52.50 |
Athletics trials, were excluded, the earth record (until the 10.54 evidence by Elaine Thompson-Herah on Revered 21, 2021) would have back number 10.61 s, also by Filmmaker Joyner, recorded the next fair at the same venue keep the final.[70][71]
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