Florence GRIFFITH-JOYNER

In 1983, Florence Griffith graduated with a degree in Psychology from UCLA. She finished off her college track career at the NCAA Championships in Houston where, in one day (June 4) she won the 400m title in 50.94sec and finished second to Merlene Ottey (Jamaica) for the 200m title. It was at the latter distance that Griffith made her mark in 1983, at her first outing in a major international championship. At the US national championships in Indianapolis on 19 June Griffith ran third in 22.23sec behind Evelyn Ashford and Chandra Cheeseborough. That third placing qualified her to compete at the inaugural World Championships in Helsinki in August. Griffith won her semi-final in a wind-assisted 22.41sec and on that form was considered a good chance for a medal in the final, although she was up against some strong opposition. The gold medal contest became a match race between Marita Koch (East Germany) and Ottey with Koch prevailing. Griffith battled Kathy Cook (Great Britain) for the bronze medal, but Cook pulled away to deny Florence a place on the podium.

Following the World Championships, she recorded another fast time at Zurich, finishing third in 22.27sec again behind Ottey and Cook. Griffith also appeared prominently in the 100m world rankings recording a fastest time of 11.06sec at Brussels on 26 August, two days after running a wind-assisted time of 10.96secs to down Ottey at Zurich. For a brief time during 1983, she was engaged to marry Greg Foster, a fellow UCLA graduate, who won the 100m hurdles final at the Helsinki World Championships. It was also during this year that she started growing the fingernails on her left hand, which quickly became the trademark by which she was most recognised. (Ron Casey)

 During 1984, Florence Griffith continued to improve upon the form which had resulted in her placing 4th in the 200m at the World Championships at Helsinki the previous year. On 26 May, she ran a wind-assisted 22.16sec over 200m in narrowly losing to Valerie Brisco-Hookes (USA). At the Olympic Trials at Los Angeles in June, she finished second in the 200m to qualify for her first Olympic Games team. She also attempted to qualify for the 400m at the Olympic Trials, and although she failed in this endeavour, she still ran a creditable 6th in the final. At the Olympic Games in August, Griffith began fast and just got faster. She breezed through the first two rounds in 22.56sec and 22.33sec. She then won her semi-final in 22.27sec while Valerie Brisco-Hookes won the other semi-final in 22.28sec. Brisco-Hookes won the final easily in 21.81sec, but Griffith finished second in a personal best time of 22.04sec.

In the process she had the satisfaction of beating Merlene Ottey (Jamaica) and Kathy Cook (Great Britain), who had shut her out of the medals at the previous year’s World Championships. After the race, old team mates Brisco-Hookes and Griffith, who were both trained by Bob Kersee, paraded a US flag around the track in celebration of their one-two finish (see photo above). Of equal interest to the media besides her running were Griffith's long fingernails, three of which were painted red, white and blue, and a fourth was covered in gold polish during the Olympics. Following the Olympic Games at the ISTAF meet in West Berlin, she twice lowered her personal best time for 100m, winning her heat in 11.02sec, and finishing second to Evelyn Ashford (USA) in the final in a time of 10.99sec. (RC)

Florence Griffith's form in 1985 was not as good as it was in the previous year, when she won an Olympic silver medal, but it was still good enough to rate her highly in the world rankings in both the 100m and 200m. At West Berlin on 23 August she ran 4th over 100m in a blanket finish won by Alice Brown (USA) in 11.06sec, with Griffith only 0.1sec behind. At Rome on 7 September she won the Grand Prix event in 11.00sec, a time beaten by only 5 other women in 1985. In the 200m, she recorded her fastest time of 22.46sec at Cologne on 25 August, which made her the 7th fastest performer during 1985. She followed that with another win at Rieti in 22.50sec on 4 September. In addition, before started her European season, she recorded a time of 50.89sec over 400m at Los Angeles on 8 June.

Griffith had a very short European season in 1986, setting her fastest times for the year in West Berlin of 23.51sec for 200m, and 11.42sec for 100m. Since her Olympic silver medal in 1984, Griffith's times had got steadily slower, with her only improvement coming in the length of the fingernails on her left hand (see photo above). In September, she went into virtual semi-retirement from the track, and worked full-time at a bank. However, her coach, Bob Kersee made an assessment of Florence in a Track and Field News interview in 1985 which prophetically foreshadowed what was to come. He stated that 'She has a burning desire to be successful - she doesn't really seem like she can have killing instinct, but when Florence sets her mind to do something, she gets the job done'. (Ron Casey)