Jackie Joyner-Kersee/세기의 철녀

Jackie Joyner-Kersee/세기의 철녀

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, where she starred in both track and basketball. She is the sister-in-law of Florence Griffith Joyner. Her brother, Al Joyner, is also an Olympic gold medalist, having won the Olympic triple jump in 1984. 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. Also, when she was a freshman at UCLA, she suddenly had to return home when her 37-year-old mother contracted a rare form of meningitis. By the time she arrived, her mother was in a coma and brain dead. Since her father could not bring himself to have life support removed from his wife, it fell to Jackie and Al to authorize removal, which they did.

Perhaps her greatest challenge, however, was physical. She suffers from exercise-induced asthma, and on more than one occasion had to be hospitalized following an event.



[조이너 커시] `굿바이 필드' 7월 25일 `JJK의 날' 선포 /1998년

서울올림픽에 참가, 한국인에게도 잘 알려진 '철녀' 재키 조이너 커시(36·미국)가 화려한 육상 인생을 마감한다.

그녀는 이번 주 미국서 열리는 두대회에 참가해 육상인으로 마지막 불꽃을 사른 뒤 은퇴하겠다고 밝혔다.

커시의 마지막 대회는 19∼22일 열리는 '굿윌게임'(뉴욕)과, 고향 세인트루이스 부근서 25일 열릴 전미오픈육상.


전미오픈육상 주최측은 25일을 커시의 이름을 따 'JJK 송별일'로 선포, 아쉬움을 나타냈다.

세인트루이스의 빈민가에서 자란 커시는 86년 코치이자 현재 남편 인 보브커시와 만난 뒤 신기록 제조기로 변했다.

서울올림픽에서 세운 여자7종경기 세계신기록(총점 7,291)은 아직 껏 깨지지 않고 있으며, 여자7종경기의 역대 상위 11위까지 기록이 모두 그녀 차지다.

또다른 주종목인 멀리뛰기에서도 서울올림픽 금메달을 비롯 세계육 상선수권 2회 제패란 위업을 세웠다.

그녀는 서울올림픽 여자 100m 금메달리스트이자 여자 100m 세계기 록 보유자인 플로렌스 그리피스 조이너의 시누이이기도 하다.

1천만달러를 들여 고향에 불우청소년을 돕는 '재키 조이너 커시 청 년센터'를 설립, 운영하고 있는 그녀는 송별식을 앞두고 "고향 어린이들 이 '당신이 했으면 나도 할 수 있다'고 말할 때 눈물이 날 정도로 보람을 느낀다"고 말했다.