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By 1996, age had started to catch up with Jackie Joyner-Kersee and
she did not enjoy the dominance that she had during the peak of her
career. The US national championships held at Atlanta in June 1996 also
served as the US selection trials for the Olympic Games held later that
year in the same city. In the heptathlon, Joyner-Kersee qualified for
her fourth Olympic team when she finished second with 6403 points. In
the long jump held eight days later, she won with a wind-assisted leap
of 7.04m, made on her first attempt. A month before the national
championships, Joyner-Kersee had jumped 7.20m, also at Atlanta, which
was the world's longest jump in 1996.
At the Olympic Games in July, her
heptathlon career came to a rather sad end when she withdrew with a
hamstring injury after limping over the line in the first event, the
100m Hurdles. Despite this injury, she returned six days later to
contest the long jump final. Although jumping in great pain from the
injured hamstring, Joyner-Kersee's great competitive spirit helped her
to improve from 6th place after five rounds to grab the bronze medal on
her 6th attempt. In 1997 she concentrated solely on the long jump,
finishing second in a wind-assisted 6.91m to rising star Marion Jones in
the US national championships at Indianapolis on 15 June. At her sixth
World Championships in Athens on August 9, she finished fifth in the
long jump with a leap of 6.79m (see photo above), one place
behind her old rival Heike Drechsler, who was also competing in her
sixth World Championships.
This brought Joyner Kersee's long and
illustrious career to a close, ending 15 years of international
competition, including 5 world records, 6 Olympic medals (3 gold) and 4
World Championships gold medals. (Ron Casey)
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