Joyner Kersee

ATLANTA -- The emotional hangover was apparent last night at Olympic Stadium. The electricity from Thursday night's magical events were gone. Michael Johnson and Dan O'Brien were nowhere to be found.And, so it seemed, was Jackie Joyner-Kersee.Joyner-Kersee, the Olympic record holder in the long jump and the 1988 Olympic champion, had barely made the cut for the finals. And, once she got there, Joyner-Kersee seemed to be going backward.She fouled on her first attempt.She jumped only 21 feet, 3 1/4 inches on her next one.She had one jump left.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Jackie Joyner-Kersee has been compared with Jesse Owens before. Yesterday, she made like Lutz Long, Owens' companion in one of the seminal moments in the Olympic saga. Voted the greatest female athlete in the history of the Olympics, Joyner-Kersee added to her legacy in a most poignant way at the U.S. Olympic track and field trials. She didn't make her fifth team, but instead assisted heir apparent Marion Jones through a hairy moment in the finals of the long jump.

ATLANTA -- Jackie Joyner-Kersee's hamstring problems began earlier this year and flared up again here at last month's U.S. Olympic trials, when they contributed to her losing her first completed heptathlon since the 1984 Olympics and her first on American soil since 1983.It was only a foreshadowing of what happened yesterday.Going for her third straight Olympic gold medal, Joyner-Kersee reinjured the leg while running in the 110-meter hurdles, the opening event of the heptathlon, at Olympic Stadium.

SACRAMENTO, Calif.-Will there be one more Olympic Games for the grand dame of American track and field? Jackie Joyner-Kersee turned back the clock last night, competed for the first time in two years and advanced to the final of the women's long jump at the U.S. Olympic track and field trials. Should she finish among the top three in tomorrow's final, she will go to the Olympics for a fifth time. Was Joyner-Kersee rusty? "The door is always squeaking," she said. "I've had to get the WD-40 out a lot."

BARCELONA, Spain -- The world's greatest women's athlete is 30 years old and suddenly vulnerable.A strained right hamstring is healed, but the memory of the pain still lingers. She no longer crushes the spirit of her rivals with unreachable numbers, and soaring leaps.Jackie Joyner-Kersee's greatest foe isn't an opponent, it's herself.She is trying to duplicate what amounts to track and field perfection. Four years ago, she came to the Summer Games of Seoul, South Korea and took away gold medals in the long jump and women's heptathlon.

NEW ORLEANS -- Even legends struggle.It was hot. The sun beat down on the metal bleachers. Spectators wrapped their heads in towels drenched with water.This was no time to sprint. So Jackie Joyner-Kersee jogged. And then, she walked the final two steps across the finish line.Joyner-Kersee won another women's heptathlon title at the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials yesterday. On paper, it was easy. But out on the track, through two days, starting with the 100-meter hurdles Saturday and finishing six events later in the 800 yesterday, it was an ordeal.

NEW ORLEANS -- Even legends struggle.It was hot. The sun beat down on the metal bleachers. Spectators wrapped their heads in towels drenched with water.This was no time to sprint. So Jackie Joyner-Kersee jogged. And then, she walked the final two steps across the finish line.Joyner-Kersee won another women's heptathlon title at the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials yesterday. On paper, it was easy. But out on the track, through two days, starting with the 100-meter hurdles Saturday and finishing six events later in the 800 yesterday, it was an ordeal.

NEW YORK -- This is supposed to be track and field's glittering off-Broadway reopening. The assembled cast is headlined by Carl Lewis and Jackie Joyner-Kersee, with supporting players named Mary Slaney, Michael Johnson and Leroy Burrell.The track and field stage will be cluttered by a drug-related subplot, however, when the USA/Mobil Championships begin their four-day run today at refurbished Downing Stadium on Randalls Island.Butch Reynolds, owner of the 400-meter world record and a silver medalist at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea, received a brief reprieve Monday from a two-year steroids suspension and is expected to compete.

ATLANTA -- Jackie Joyner-Kersee's hamstring problems began earlier this year and flared up again here at last month's U.S. Olympic trials, when they contributed to her losing her first completed heptathlon since the 1984 Olympics and her first on American soil since 1983.It was only a foreshadowing of what happened yesterday.Going for her third straight Olympic gold medal, Joyner-Kersee reinjured the leg while running in the 110-meter hurdles, the opening event of the heptathlon, at Olympic Stadium.

ATLANTA -- The 10-day U.S. Olympic track and field trials took an interesting twist within an hour after they began yesterday at Olympic Stadium.Three-time Olympian and two-time Olympic women's heptathlon gold medalist Jackie Joyner-Kersee twisted her left ankle on her first attempt at the high jump."

ATLANTA -- The emotional hangover was apparent last night at Olympic Stadium. The electricity from Thursday night's magical events were gone. Michael Johnson and Dan O'Brien were nowhere to be found.And, so it seemed, was Jackie Joyner-Kersee.Joyner-Kersee, the Olympic record holder in the long jump and the 1988 Olympic champion, had barely made the cut for the finals. And, once she got there, Joyner-Kersee seemed to be going backward.She fouled on her first attempt.She jumped only 21 feet, 3 1/4 inches on her next one.She had one jump left.

ATLANTA -- Jackie Joyner-Kersee's hamstring problems began earlier this year and flared up again here at last month's U.S. Olympic trials, when they contributed to her losing her first completed heptathlon since the 1984 Olympics and her first on American soil since 1983.It was only a foreshadowing of what happened yesterday.Going for her third straight Olympic gold medal, Joyner-Kersee reinjured the leg while running in the 110-meter hurdles, the opening event of the heptathlon, at Olympic Stadium.

ATLANTA -- Jackie Joyner-Kersee's hamstring problems began earlier this year and flared up again here at last month's U.S. Olympic trials, when they contributed to her losing her first completed heptathlon since the 1984 Olympics and her first on American soil since 1983.It was only a foreshadowing of what happened yesterday.Going for her third straight Olympic gold medal, Joyner-Kersee reinjured the leg while running in the 110-meter hurdles, the opening event of the heptathlon, at Olympic Stadium.

ATLANTA -- Jackie Joyner-Kersee made her fourth U.S. Olympic team last night, but something strange happened in the last three events of the heptathlon. Joyner-Kersee lost her lead and, for the first time since 1984, lost a heptathlon competition that she completed."In all honesty, I don't like losing," said Joyner-Kersee, who came into the final event leading by 116 points. She wound up losing to Kelly Blair by a mere three points after finishing next-to-last in the 800 meters.It was her first loss in a completed heptathlon since finishing behind Glynis Nunn of Australia in the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles.

ATLANTA -- The 10-day U.S. Olympic track and field trials took an interesting twist within an hour after they began yesterday at Olympic Stadium.Three-time Olympian and two-time Olympic women's heptathlon gold medalist Jackie Joyner-Kersee twisted her left ankle on her first attempt at the high jump."

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Jackie Joyner-Kersee is either limping, wheezing or getting massaged.She keeps an asthma inhaler tucked away in her tights, and a massage table near her training sites -- showing the signs of fatigue, injuries and age."It is challenging coping with the problems," said Joyner-Kersee, 33. "That's what I find interesting and exciting. To excel, that's why I keep doing it."Even on one leg in rainy weather and gusting winds that topped 20 mph, Joyner-Kersee is still one of the world's greatest athletes.

SACRAMENTO, Calif.-Will there be one more Olympic Games for the grand dame of American track and field? Jackie Joyner-Kersee turned back the clock last night, competed for the first time in two years and advanced to the final of the women's long jump at the U.S. Olympic track and field trials. Should she finish among the top three in tomorrow's final, she will go to the Olympics for a fifth time. Was Joyner-Kersee rusty? "The door is always squeaking," she said. "I've had to get the WD-40 out a lot."

ATLANTA -- Jackie Joyner-Kersee made her fourth U.S. Olympic team last night, but something strange happened in the last three events of the heptathlon. Joyner-Kersee lost her lead and, for the first time since 1984, lost a heptathlon competition that she completed."In all honesty, I don't like losing," said Joyner-Kersee, who came into the final event leading by 116 points. She wound up losing to Kelly Blair by a mere three points after finishing next-to-last in the 800 meters.It was her first loss in a completed heptathlon since finishing behind Glynis Nunn of Australia in the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles.

BARCELONA, Spain -- These were snapshots from a night of glory.One moment, there was Jackie Joyner-Kersee of the United States, ending a long jump reign with a bronze medal, leaping from a pit of sand to embrace her fiercest rival and the new gold medalist, Germany's Heike Drechsler."