Jackie Joyner-Kersee

Jackie Joyner-Kersee isn't just a great athlete; to me she's the benchmark by which heptathletes are still measured. Six Olympic medals across four Games, mastering both the heptathlon and the long jump, is a level of versatility that borders on absurd. But what genuinely moves me is the arc: rising out of hardscrabble East St. Louis and then pouring herself back into that community long after retiring. The Sullivan Award and Living Legend honors only confirm what the times already told us. Greatness measured in stopwatches is rare; greatness measured in character is rarer, and she has both.

Name (English)

Jackie Joyner-Kersee

Name (Japanese)

ジャッキー・ジョイナー＝カーシー

Reading

じゃっきー・じょいなー＝かーしー

Born

March 3, 1962 (age 64)

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Pisces / Tiger

Origin

East St. Louis, Illinois, United States

Height

178 cm

Occupation

basketball player / athletics competitor / long jumper / heptathlete / athlete

High school

East St. Louis Lincoln High School

University

University of California, Los Angeles

Awards & achievements

• Library of Congress Living Legend
• 2015 Honda Sports Award for Track & Field
• 1987 Associated Press Athlete of the Year
• 1992 Phoenix Award
• 2021 Doctor of Humane Letters
• 1998 Doctor of Humane Letters
• 2008 Doctor of Humane Letters
• 1986 James E. Sullivan Award

• Xhttps://x.com/JJoynerKersee
• Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackie%20Joyner-Kersee
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%B8%E3%83%A3%E3%83%83%E3%82%AD%E3%83%BC%E3%83%BB%E3%82%B8%E3%83%A7%E3%82%A4%E3%83%8A%E3%83%BC%EF%BC%9D%E3%82%AB%E3%83%BC%E3%82%B7%E3%83%BC
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q209390

Tags

• Illinois
• basketball player
• athletics competitor
• long jumper

Last updated

2026-06-20

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.